Global Shipping Program USA to UK - Not working US seems to have been taken away this morning

[thetoyscavenger]

Hey all, 
This morning I've had several customers contact me from the US saying that even though they are watching my items, and could purchase them yesterday through the GSP they can no longer do this and all my other items that they are not watching are now no longer showing in the US. 

To check this I've had somebody I know in the US  check mine, and other UK sellers to see if its just me, but it seems its everybody! they can no longer purchase and the postage option is no longer showing.
Was the US Just turned off? or taken off the list?
Was there any news, or information on this? 
This is a big hit to sales as eBay is used for global sales for us.
I know the UK was taken off the international program in the US for toys a few months ago, but i wonder if this is simliar?

[marnotom!]

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@jjambadger27 wrote:

No need to be churlish and sarcastic. 

It's an odd person who thinks that over 4 weeks of this debacle can be deemed acceptable with no end in sight. 

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And I have yet to meet one of those people.  Have you?

While eBay Canada doesn't have anything like the GSP, many sellers use package consolidation services to ship internationally as it's less expensive and sometimes more efficient than shipping through the postal system.  The changes to America's handling of imported goods and shipments has had a huge effect on how these consolidators' operate, and the fact that the US administration seems to change the goalposts weekly if not more frequently and doesn't seem to have the infrastructure in place to handle the changes it makes doesn't help the cause of these consolidators.  The fact that eBay and Pitney Bowes are struggling with this shouldn't be a surprise if companies that actually specialise in shipping are having issues, too.

As for the lack of communication, I suspect that a lot of what's going on behind the scenes is considered confidential as keeping sellers more in the loop would also mean letting the competition in on what's going on or not going on.  Also consider that this site is operating on code that was created over twenty-five years ago and is breaking down under the strain.  Whenever a tweak is made to the code, something else gets affected.  I just posted to a thread where it appears that the GSP isn't working at all for one seller as a result of these changes to US shipping. 

[marnotom!]

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@whitehall.1212 wrote:

I used to but that was a long while ago eBay has changed somewhat and the global shipping option was far easier but suddenly they can’t support global shipping for reasons they won’t share with sellers. I prefer my funds available 48 hours after delivery to the UK shipping facility not waiting up to 10 days for the item to arrive in the US then a further two days before I get my funds, quite simple really. 

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As I noted in my latest post to @jjambadger27, there are likely confidentiality or security reasons surrounding why there's been so little communication with sellers on this issue.  It looks as though the terms and conditions for sellers using the GSP were updated just over a month ago.  I don't know if this clause (under "Other Terms") was there prior to that:

We may at any time, in our sole discretion, with or without notice to you amend, replace, suspend temporarily, and/or discontinue permanently, the Programme, its name, any of the Services, features, and/or functionality offered under the Programme, and/or the service providers used to provide the Services

https://pages.ebay.co.uk/shipping/globalshipping/seller-tnc.html

[jjambadger27]

Well that was a long-winded reply to me... 

We know that eBay doesn't want to affect its share price by an admission of GSP/tariff related issues, and also that it's broken code wise. 

The problem is that it's just one thing after another with eBay presently, and it's increasingly becoming not fit by purpose from a seller's perspective. 

[marnotom!]

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@jjambadger27 wrote:

We know that eBay doesn't want to affect its share price by an admission of GSP/tariff related issues, and also that it's broken code wise. 

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Might be an effort to protect its share price, but I think a big part of the problem is that Pitney Bowes is expected to advance the tariffs to US Customs and Border Protection out of a different pot than the one from which they eventually receive buyers' monies.

[sonnie15cars]

I'm having exactly the same problem, I have had quite a few enquiries from USA regarding this and I really don't know what is going on. It's making quite a dent in my sales.

Please does anyone out there have an answer??? 

[sonnie15cars]

How are you going to let us know, you couldn't even be bothered to tell us that Global Shipping Program were stopping this. 

[myretrostore-uk]

Over  a month and still no updates on when this is going to be resolved. 

[jjambadger27]

I asked about it in the weekly chat - no update.

[clearthewarehouse]

Has this been restarted now as saw some people on youtube saying they think it could be working again? 

[jjambadger27]

In terms of applying across the board, no. 

[whitehall.1212]

Great thanks

[jjambadger27]

Looks like it's back on now, having just removed RM International postage from listings. Seems to be a bit more than before, at least for vinyl...

[sirhobby]

It's not back at all.

[chairry]

why does it not say this anywhere on the ebay site

why does the ebay site continue to say i can use GSP to ship to the USA?

[jjambadger27]

It is working again for me and most people. Go to a listing where GSP is active, click on Postage and whatever country it's on (probably UK), click on Update - you may find that this reactivates GSP for the US. Remember that you also have to get rid of any other means of postage to the US (i.e. Royal Mail International Tracked) for GSP US to show. 

[sonnie15cars]

Unfortunately Global Shipping Program is showing as Shipping to the USA, but my potential US buyers say that it is still not working for them and they are unable to place bids/offers as the seller does not ship to the USA. 

Really is time ebay got this sorted.

[jjambadger27]

So the GSP cost of shipping on eBay.com isn't shown to them?

[sirhobby]

No, it's not working for most people. Why spread misinformation?

[jjambadger27]

How am I spreading misinformation? The amount of people complaining about this are far less so it's safe to say that it's working for most people. Have a go at eBay instead of me. 

[sirhobby]

You’re making statements based on assumptions rather than facts. Last week, eBay confirmed to me that the issue is both known and widespread:

"As soon as I escalated this to the team, they checked the details on a high priority and shared that we have heard about similar issues recently from other sellers and we are sending as many samples as possible at the earliest for our technical team’s review to get to the root cause of the issue.

Our team reviewed this matter with high priority and confirmed that this is a known technical issue. We’ve received similar reports from other sellers, and we are currently collecting examples to assist our technical team in identifying and resolving the root cause.

"We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. Our technical team is actively working on this issue and has prioritized its resolution. They are extending their efforts to ensure a fix is implemented as soon as possible."