I was not sure where to post this, so if it's in the wrong place, tell me. Anyway, I was thinking about buying a SOX fixture (probably 35, or 55 watt) off the UK ebay. It seems like I have heard complaints about the shipping program but I can't remember clearly. Do any of you have experience with ordering off the UK ebay to ship to the US?

I purchased a Thorn Beta 5 and have purchased many SOX lamps from the UK on eBay global shipping. Only had a few lamps arrive broken.

I mainly had good experiences with EBay's own global shipping service.  But you have to be aware, the price you pay seems to bear no relation to the actual shipping cost - it is based on estimated package size and weight filled in by the seller.  The service is fine for small packages, but if the seller over-estimates size/weight, the shipping quote seems to skyrocket to ridiculous values.  At the same time, if the seller enters artificially low dimensions, EBay still seems to accept this.

Conclusion, if you see the item cost looks unfairly high, it often pays to ask the seller to double check it and if they enter the smallest size they think they can pack it into, it might save you half the shipping cost.  On the other hand, I recently bought some 5ft fluorescent tubes from USA which would normally cost an absolute fortune to post to Europe.  The seller had only entered 2ft in the package dimensions, which made the whole thing about 5x cheaper.  I was sure Ebay would reject the package when it arrived at their depot and return to sender, but it sailed through their services with no remarks to either me or the seller!  I suppose EBay figures that they win on some packages and lose on others, and it would cost more effort to enforce than to check every single item.

I personally didn't like it, at first because I felt the cost and shipping wasn't competitive compared to direct shipments or using a forwarder service but in more recent years because of how they randomly reject some lamps and confiscate them.

Depending on where the seller is relative to Ontario, it can sometimes add a few days to processing time compared to a direct shipment.

from the USA to Canada I have had 2 items taken and one destroyed
ordered a SOX-e wall pack and a padlock both "non admissible" and confiscated - ordered the SAME padlock from Amazon no issues
ordered a graphics card and it was destroyed the shipping box was crushed and all took pictures and ebay took care of it
the 2 inadmissible items I got refunded and the seller get to keep there money
I find it SLOW and expensive if the seller is NOT 100% accurate with shipping
have heard better from Europe to Canada/USA
I bought a streetlight from the UK and zero issues and it was quick for trans Atlantic
ordered some trinkets from Germany and again zero issues and quick