Ebay suspend all UK Global Shipping Program purchases by US and Canada bidders

[petewatson66]

The winning bidder on one of my items that finished yesterday (May 15 2025) was based in the U.S.

He messaged to say he was unable to complete his payment through the Global Shipping Program.

He received a message from ebay stating the seller does not currently ship to his  location.

Just spoke to ebay Uk representative, Liam, today 16 May, 2025.

He stated that ebay global shipping program has suspended all shipping to US and Canada in the last '2 or 3 days'  due to ongoing concerns regarding US imposed tariffs.

As a result, any buyers from US or Canada, who win a UK seller's auction that ships through the GSP, will be unable to pay for the item and will receive a message telling them the seller does not ship to their location.

Unfortunately, any bids on UK items by US or Canadian buyers placed prior to this decision by ebay, will result in the winning bidder being unable to complete their purchase.

Liam stated this was a business decision taken by ebay to protect itself, as the GSP is supposed to take full responsibility once the item is received at Lichfield, Staffs.

Ebay do not want to be responsible for having to fund the additional import tariffs. 

He stated ebay purposely haven't communicated this to UK sellers as it is an 'ongoing situation'

So, the first UK sellers using the GSP will know of this is when their buyer is unable to pay for their item and will have to cancel their order.

Interesting.......

[welshjester]

Yes, disappointing because it limits the audience for more potential sales.

Hopefully they can allow US buyers to buy from UK sellers again soon, whenever that may be.

[wyntersemporium]

We have known it for days. Shame like I do a lot of business with the USA. 
yet eBay have not announced it to anyone as yet. 
eBay all over 

[*vyolla*]

There have been a couple of threads about this, initially we assumed that it was just another eBay glitch, but a member of eBay has commented on this thread (post #19) :

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/Global-Shipping-Program-USA-to-UK-Not-working-US-seem...

[classic-brochures]

I might be stating the obvious but it's only *GSP* sales to US/Canada that have stopped....NOT sales in general, so having a Royal Mail airmail option as a backup can allow US/Canada sales to continue (albeit with the hassle of online customs forms etc)

[department28]

'He received a message from ebay stating the seller does not currently ship to his  location.'

Is that all the message says? Would've thought it would be more helpful if eBay explained about the tariff situation, otherwise it could put off potential buyers, who will assume the seller has made an error, or does not ship to the US - neither of which would be true.

[action_man]

What a disgusting situation, but hardly surprising about the lack of communication. Every single day is a new tale of woe. The one thing you never get with eBay is transparency and honesty. Then eBay have the cheek to talk about:

Keeping eBay safe and building trust.

[wyntersemporium]

What a laugh that is.

[dantwocats]

nice to be notified ? royal mail is still shipping ? 

[petewatson66]

Ebay don't want to communicate it officially, because the U.S is a huge market for them and they're quite happy for sellers in the UK to send stuff outside of the Global Shipping Program.

The reason for that, of course, is because it wont be ebay who'll have to deal with the fall out when the US buyers start complaining their items are either incurring huge additional tariffs or sitting, undelivered, in US customs for weeks.

Ebay will just shrug its shoulders and tell the seller to sort it out, whilst protecting itself and its profits.

[petewatson66]

Not just the hassle of customer forms, also the hassle of having US buyers complaining about the additional charges and huge delays.

If ebay wont take the risk of having to cover these charges under the GSP promise, I cant see why any individual seller would want to bring that hassle on themselves.

Ebay will force UK sellers to cover the charges themselves or issue a refund and have the hassle of trying to get their item returned back to the UK.

Good luck if you think Royal Mail will be of any help regarding that.

[valueaddedresource]

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@petewatson66 wrote:

Ebay don't want to communicate it officially, because the U.S is a huge market for them and they're quite happy for sellers in the UK to send stuff outside of the Global Shipping Program.

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@petewatson66  eBay won't say anything official about it because their stock price is currently doing very well largely on the back of the idea that, unlike other publicly traded ecommerce marketplace companies, they won't really be affected by the current US tariff situation.

Yes, sellers can still choose to offer direct international shipping to the US, but based on the comments I've seen here in these forums it would appear that many who used GSP will not do that because they don't want the hassle/risk of dealing with customs - and I can't blame them - and eBay definitely doesn't want investors and analysts looking too deeply into how much cross border trade they may be losing out on as a result.

CNBC and other business/financial media are not trolling through 100s of posts here to find a reply from an eBay staff member buried amongst the rest of the comments and that reply isn't going to surface in Google News or other places that a press release or more official announcement would either.

Doing it this way allows eBay to keep the impact of the tariffs on their business quiet and that's just how they want it. 🤫

[gjalp]

Ive got used to sending to the US by Royal Mail as Ive done it for years. No issues as I ensure the forms are filled out correctly. The only time Ive had an issue was one time I sent via UPS. I ended up with an email asking if I could clarify what my old stamps were made of! I was away in Stockholm at the time and it was just sheer chance I checked my emails and spotted it. They gave me 48hrs to respond. I was a bit narked and told them they were just old postage stamps, the kind you lick and stick on a letter but told them not to lick them coz no-one wants to lick over 100 year old little bits of paper. And that is the material, paper, from the United Kingdom 😳😂 they were then cleared and sent on their way.

[petewatson66]

Absolutely, Royal Mail has been a perfectly viable option for sending ebay parcels to the US for years...but the tariff situation is a very recent issue. Ebay have only picked up on it in the last 2 weeks.

Be interesting to see how Royal Mail deal with it, maybe they will just absorb the costs themselves....

[laserrepairs]

Yep same issue, it's been going on for the past month tho, ebay must be loosing a lot of sales, Trump is crushing any small business in the USA as the little sellers and buyers can not buy outside the USA without paying a premium.

[stained_glass_in_sussex]

Happened to me I managed to add International Tracked through Royal Mail and they paid for it that way instead. I wasted so much time chatting to ebay who kept saying there was no problem, but obviously there was. A simple message to inform all us UK sellers would have helped!

[ultimatejezebel]

Is this suspension still in effect as of today, June 26?

[stained_glass_in_sussex]

This last week I had a US order through Global Shipping

Sent from Outlook for Android<>

[madeiraexotics33]

GSP.....also excludes all sales to  EU Regional areas, i.e. Canaries, Azores, Madeira, Cape verde in fact all EU Macaronesia. I havent been able to buy anything from sellers using GSP for ages, much to my frustration!

[maggies.pots]

I can't even see the part where we tick to send via GSP anymore. It's a mess!