Stampless Cover Sent Fed Ex From USA What For?

There was a stampless cover I won from a USA seller for about $16. Postage not mentioned in add but was charged $22 postage in the end. A bit steep. Received an normal small size enveloped with fed ex labels all over it. Stuck down with tape to on both sides. Stamp was ruined from the fed ex label. Envelope hard to open. What is the point of having to use an international fed ex courier for a cheap stampless cover? What happened to good old fashioned airmail from the States when you buy on ebay? Its off putting bidding on items that you have to pay for a high rate courier just to get it. But worse when seller does not state the postage costs worldwide. Anyone else not liking the postage methods used like fed ex when there is no need for it? Now seriously if the seller is using ebay warehouse to send their goods they should say so in their terms. Or at least have the postage rate shown and mention courier will be used. I fail to see the logic in sending small cheap postal history collectibles with a courier. Makes no sense.

You could have challenged the shipping when you were invoiced. The proper S/H for a cover sent internationally should be +/- C$4

Duncanvr: Was the item shipped from someplace in Kentucky? It should say so from the FedEx label. If so, then it was shipped as pat of the Global Shipping Program. An estimated shipping amount should have been posted on the original ebay listing.

Yes from Kentucky, I buy in heaps and payments are done in bulk so did not notice the high charge till I received it. No estamate postage was in the add at the time.

Yep, you've been bamboozled by ebay's Global Shipping Program. In this case, the seller doesn't even know how much more ebay will charge in additional shipping from the mailing facility in Kentucky to Australia. The seller may or may nor have charged you shipping from their location to Kentucky (hence the stamp on the shipment cover), but afterwards it's up to ebay and/or Pitney Powes to estimate other charges to you - express shipping with tracing, customs, service charges, etc.

Unfortunately, ebay has sold the sellers a sack of lies about the GSP program as well as tricked others into it without letting them know they are even part of it. Some sellers were roped into the program simply by accepting an user agreement update without reading the terms. If the
seller didn't select an international shipping service like USPS or anything else, then the item is automatically enrolled into the GSP program.

As a buyer, you have to determine if a seller is part of the GSP program or not. There should be something in the original listing that indicates the item as part of the GSP program, but again the seller would not know these additional charges, but it was something ebay added.

Looks like I will just have to avoid ebay.com listings with no postal rate mentioned. Theres many adds without any postage rates international that do not state if they are part of GSP or not. Sellers using the GSP will no doubt be loosing customers. The letters they are sending from Kentucky the sellers they probably don't even know there a further fed ex labels stuck all over the envelope in Kentucky. I tell you it looks terrible when you receive an envelope like that. Am surprised, these sellers should be aware what postal charges are going to be added from USA to Oz using GSP. Not very professional if they don't know. They should probably leave the GSP and handle their own postage. I bet GSP uses the most expensive postage because seller pays end 10% of auction end price inc postage costs. I will only buy from .com sellers with postage to Oz under $6.

The seller is only charged 10% on the domestic shipping fee even if the item is shipping international.

There should be something about shipping near the middle of the top of each listing.

example below -

Shipping:

$1.50 Standard Shipping | See details
Item location: New York, New York, United States
Ships to: Worldwide See exclusions

It's not listing in the description of the item.

But like I wrote earlier, if the seller does not choose an international shipping option then ebay will choose one for them and it will be GSP. A lot of sellers who chose not to ship internationally are included into this group.

Unfortunately, as I am in the U.S., I cannot look at an item and tell if it's part of the GSP or not. I won't see the same information about shipping as you would. When in doubt, ask the seller before bidding. If they don't know then ask them to check their settings.

Apparently seller sees it as a local USA address and does not know further. They mail it normal to Kentucky. I am sure the additional postage fee from Kentucky GSP is calculated and added to the end sale price and charged in the 10%. It has to be. I bet they don't know its in their bill at the end. This is the address they see
Reference id
OREUSU2199801613AU
1850 Airport Exchange Blvd #200
Erlanger KY 41025
US

The seller is still only charged 10% of the shipping fee from their location within the U.S. to Erlager, KY. The seller is not charged any percentage of the shipping price from Kentucky to any other country.

I have seen comments by sellers saying they were charged more using the GSP service on their ebay bills. I have spoken to this seller who said he was not even aware of the process as he thought my address was in Kentucky. He has no idea that fed ex was even being used. I think sellers in USA need to know the facts on the gsp. Becauae as a customer getting charged for fed ex for no reason is unfiar. It puts me off buying on ebay.com.

Unless ebay is blatantly lying about the final value fees, there shouldn't be any additional charges to the seller. This is from ebay's GSP FAQ:

Final value fees for GSP Items are calculated based on the total amount of the sale, including your domestic shipping charges (if any), but excluding the Program Fees paid by your Buyer to Pitney Bowes for its Services.

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinforma...ml#830498686

It's still a bad move on ebay's part. It's the first time ebay has decided to fleece the buyers. Luckily, not all the sellers on ebay.com are part of the GSP and we have chosen to turn it off when we first learned of it. I would leave ebay if they tried to make it mandatory. For now, the cover you paid $22 for shipping, I could have sent for $2.34 (2oz rate with non-machinable surcharge for using stiffener cards). Those who send mail the traditional direct way will have an advantage over those who use the GSP. If anything GSP will help kill some of the competition, but unfortunately gives all of ebay a black-eye.

The traditional mail way is best. Most stamp collectors love getting letters with stamps on the envelope and a nicely presented envelope. The fed ex labels are rubbish all round. I usually only buy from sellers with cheaper postal rates, but in this case the cover was good, a few minutes left on the auction so I bid and won. Had noticed no postage, but went to sleep next morning it was all paid for with several others in bulk paypal payment so I did not see the high postage charge. Neither did the seller. Don't use that GSP if you don't have to. I read on a forrum somewhere sellers complaining that they were being billed higher once they used the GSP. They were claiming the 10% still included the Pitney Bowes selected courier charge (I don't know if thats accurate or not but I read it). And some sellers claimed they had no control over the item once it sold. they had to mail it to the GSP no matter what. Even one seller had an issue with a customer over a lost item, seller got a negitive, item lost in Kentucky, seller has no control. I would rather ship directly to my customers at $2.60. Bad idea you use GSP for collectibles unless maybe its a really pricey item.