eBay Global Shipping Program

[Half-Saint]

WTF? Has anyone else encountered this? If so, how did it work?

I'm very very suspicious of this crap... you pay the import tax & fees upon package receival. Never upfront!

[kint]

hahaha... fail:
1. you buy
2. You pay the shipping cost and import duty upfront
3. Seller ships to local destination of a global shipping partner
4. the Shipping partner reships with international track n trace to you
5. You get the article and don't have to pay tax duty @ handover

-->They disguise that you pay exactly the same by clever wording. As in: tax duty is only one part of the Import duty.

possible plusses: Get stuff restrictive Americans (and other people) won't sell overseas. Bypass horrendous import handling fees of i.e. Fedex. Possible negatives: Soon ebay will force you to use this service when doing worldwide sales.

[kps]

-->They disguise that you pay exactly the same by clever wording.

Oh, you pay more. The rates are horrendous. On top of that, for us Canadians, is that our customs often don't bother assessing regular mail (only tracked services where they get the details electronically).

[Half-Saint]

By the way, how can "Pitney Bowes Inc." be allowed to open packages? WTF? I thought no courier was allowed to do that. Wouldn't that be a breach of privacy? They are not Customs, they're a bloody courier!

[bhtooefr]

If it's in the agreement, there's nothing stopping them from opening the package.

And in the US, every major package delivery service - USPS, UPS, and FedEx - has provisions for opening a package that they feel they need to.

I'm thinking Pitney Bowes isn't even the carrier, they're just a middleman that's handling the documentation and postage fees. Here in the US, they're mainly known for postage printing machines for use with business mail.

[kint]

I guess it works the same like with DHLs hub at Frankfurt Airport. Every Parcel from outside the EU entering Germany via Airmail is grounding there. Then there are DHL employees who have the right to process custom clearance. And then there are some customs officers who ensure Mr postman ain't sniffing the pantys in the parcel or whatnot. So it's basically DHL processing customs in the recipents favour, monitored by officials. If they find information on the label and/or the receipt on/in the parcel satisfies their need, they will fully process it, including billing the duty ifd applies and all that. The parcel will then be delivered by one's local DHL man who will collect the feees at the doorstep. However if they aren't satisified they will reseal the parcel and send it to the recipents nearest customs station where he than has to drop sufficient papers about the content and money flow.

[Muirium]

Over here, I always have to go to the Royal Mail / Parcelforce depot (so our equivalent of DHL's office) to pick things up from outside Europe, if they have incurred any duty. Royal Mail bills me for what they had to pay customs, and then a processing charge on top. The latter was £8 for an SSK and £13 for a big 17kg box of 5 Kishsavers recently. Apparently the government officials and the mail men aren't quite as friendly with each other over here, and the end result is I don't get the service of an actual delivery to my door. Ho hum.

[kint]

Well I had the luxury afair twice in my life. And once by Fedex, who then told me this service will cost me their fee of 35€ on top of duty. In the other ~100 cases with DHL I had to pick it at the customs station. Even commercial parcels, fully sufficiently billed inside, etc.. Theory vs time pressing in Frankfurt I guess.