Thread: Global shipping program?

It is an obscure location to say the least. There is highs and lows in the cost of living here. If you love to hunt fish and food gather it is amazing. If you like malls and modern convenience it may not be for you. I just spent three days going to the dentist. I am having fresh halibut for super. There is a trade. Most people have to google it.

as a ebay seller i wasn't aware of the extra cost associated with the international buyers program. all i knew was that it makes it easier for me as a seller to ship internationally. just send it to kentucky and the rest is up to them. have only ever shipped to Canada without using it and i guess it wasn't that big of a deal. maybe i'll look into not using it.

It has it's place. I sometimes sell watches and there is no way to send a watch and have it insured. I'm excluding Canada because it's really a different case. But anyplace else whether it's Indonesia or Germany available insurance is minimal and most methods exclude Watches (among other things) so in that case the Global Shipping is the only way and really for any expensive item it's the only way.

Even the Global program is limited as to locations and items.

Originally Posted by 10Pups

I think it was touted as the safest way to get something to a person outside your country. No worries about the item disappearing before it got there. Yad yada yada yad yad. Give me your money if you want to feel safe ?

Yeh they will open your mail and keep it for you, for twice the price plus some, guaranteed

Originally Posted by tintin

as a ebay seller i wasn't aware of the extra cost associated with the international buyers program. all i knew was that it makes it easier for me as a seller to ship internationally. just send it to kentucky and the rest is up to them. have only ever shipped to Canada without using it and i guess it wasn't that big of a deal. maybe i'll look into not using it.

Kentucky is where the problem starts

I think I saw in an earlier thread that now sellers have to explicitly opt out of it and ebay is planning to remove that opt-out option.
From the seller's point of view it is a great program - you keep dealing only with the fairly well known and predictable domestic shipping, any problem beyond that is between ebay and the buyer.

It looks like the buyers are quite unhappy with the deal ebay is offering them, but unfortunately the only option is to simply not buy. Ebay does virtually everything they do in pursuit of more money, so if this program is so bad for one of the parties that it decreases their profit they will either change it or kill it.

I personally think the sellers and the buyers should have multiple options to choose from and select the one that works best. For example if I sell things with a huge profit margin I may want to maximize my volume and assume the risk of lost/stolen/damage/fraud into the cost of doing business. But if I am not making money and don't want to take an occasional loss I'd rather only deal with customers who are willing to assume the risk themselves, either by paying the higher premiums of expensive shipping, or by waving any option for a charge back.

The thing is that ebay gets to set the rules for using their platform and they do it based on how much money those rules make them.

If I was living abroad and was buying a lot on ebay I'd research the postal rates of insured shipping from US to my location and if they are much better than ebay's global shipping I'd tell the seller that I am willing to pay for that fully insured shipping so that they don't have to cover any losses and would prefer if they offer a direct shipment to me instead of to ebay's program. If I'm a seller I'd be more than happy to accommodate a buyer if it doesn't cost me anything (e.g. if they ask me to send uninsured they are essentially taking money from me because they are getting all of the savings from transferring the risk of loss/damage on me).

Originally Posted by Substance

Kentucky is where the problem starts

If it goes to Kentucky I'd bet you are dealing with UPS then. Louisville KY is their main global air hub. Won't get anything shipped into Canada by UPS and haven't for about 25 or more years. Got stung with their brokers fees back then and seems like nothing has changed.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

If it goes to Kentucky I'd bet you are dealing with UPS then. Louisville KY is their main global air hub. Won't get anything shipped into Canada by UPS and haven't for about 25 or more years. Got stung with their brokers fees back then and seems like nothing has changed.

Bob

They have a deal with Fedex.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

They have a deal with Fedex.

Could be. I was going by the fact that Fedex has no hub in KY. Still would not deal with Fedex for the same reason as I will not deal with UPS, brokers fees.

Bob

thats what they do it is UPS & a UPS tracking number until Kentucky then it transferrs to a FEKEB (FEDEX) tracking number
I think the theory is that the item should only get new sticker and sent on its way.

You pay the Seller the $6USD that is his UPS cost to Kentucky, as part of the the main sale price transaction, the buyer then also pays the additional $20USD in this case for FEDEX separately to Global shipping not the seller who gets nothing for it.