eBay

ricarmic · ‎06-24-2016

Even before I got "the email" today, I had made up my mind to stay open.

I had only planned to close my eBay store because of the possible repurcussions with late deliveries. I had planned to manage through the situation via communication for my non-eBay online sites and my "snail mail" customer base.

I thought Raphael's comments were supportive, as has been the official word from eBay.

I think my customers (remember I sell to stamp collectors who are already used to mail order shopping long before there was an internet) will be more accommodating than perhaps some other customer bases, and I think proper communication will generally be effective.

I bought my "free" supplies stuff yesterday, knowing that the delivery can be impacted by whatever does happen at the post office. I know more patience will be required than usual.

I will add my experiences to this thread as things move along, as much to communicate to others as to have it on file for myself when the next strike comes, because we all know someday it will happen again!

Of course anyone else who wants to add any good/bad things that happen to them for reference are welcome to do so too!

Stay tuned!!

cumos55 · ‎06-30-2016

The fun was in the reality of letting it go.

Call it Letting it go... go... go

Now to make it happen..... more and more....

orphanitems · ‎07-01-2016

I agree about supporting our local Post Office workers. They are about to be LOCKED OUT. Shame on Canada Post.

I will be taking coffee to my local Posties in support of them!

We need to PROTEST that CANADA POST IS NOT BARGAINING IN GOOD FAITH!

We need our Post Offices to stay open!

cumos55 · ‎07-01-2016

Bargaining involves two groups.

Both have a view to what should happen......

and in this case neither side is giving up...

This has been the situation when each strike has occurred.

Going on strike is an accepted option when it comes to bargaining....Appears to be a part of the bargaining process for the postal service in Canada.

momcqueen · ‎07-01-2016

Where I live, postal workers voted unanimously to strike. This is the choice they made. Not union, or management.

http://www.cjob.com/2016/06/28/postal-workers-overwhelming-support-strike/

Postal Workers Overwhelmingly Support Strike

WINNIPEG – There is massive support for a strike from postal workers in Manitoba as the deadline to reach a new deal looms.

According to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, 98 per cent of their workers in Winnipeg have voted in favour a strike.

100 per cent of rural workers in Manitoba have also voted in favour.

The contract dispute between the Union and Canada Post stretches back to 2015 and the deadline to reach a new deal is Saturday.

Canada Post has begun warning its biggest volume customers to prepare for service disruptions.

ypdc_dennis · ‎07-01-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:
Where I live, postal workers voted unanimously to strike. This is the choice they made. Not union, or management.

http://www.cjob.com/2016/06/28/postal-workers-overwhelming-support-strike/

Postal Workers Overwhelmingly Support Strike
WINNIPEG – There is massive support for a strike from postal workers in Manitoba as the deadline to reach a new deal looms. According to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, 98 per cent of their workers in Winnipeg have voted in favour a strike. 100 per cent of rural workers in Manitoba have also voted in favour.

Another of those fake articles. Postal workers (who bothered to vote) gave the union the right to call a strike earlier this year. If the union wanted an honest strike support level they'd have the members vote on the current contract offer.

mr.elmwood · ‎07-01-2016

There is a noticeable lack of rhetoric from both sides. 11th hour negotiations and all the "news" reports are re-hashed old comments.

Neither side is negotiating through the media.

Interesting.

.
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cooltoycars · ‎07-03-2016

I'm staying open and am happy about living in Niagara Falls. I'll be mailing from the US side once a week. Sales have been slow lately so I need to stay open.

ricarmic · ‎07-04-2016

Been a few days since I've updated, had too many things on the go on the weekend.

All boxes mailed to the US with tracking before June 30th have been delivered (whew!)

The only tracked box mailed on June 30th took its time moving, only shows as hitting Mississauga yesterday on the 3rd.

Over the weekend:

-17 items mailed today (note ZERO purchases by Canadian customers over the weekend)

-of the 17, 3 were boxes to the US with tracking

-inquiring buyers advised of the possibility of a delay (possibly significant) as a result of the strike virtually all went ahead and purchased and said no problems (one fellow said as long as he had it by November he'd be fine)

Sales slowed after July 1st as all my sales and promotions expired on June 30th. I am not going to restart them until things are settled or my real summer vacation arrives, will be interesting to see which one gets here first!

More updates as there is news.

pjcdn2005 · ‎07-04-2016

I regret closing my store...I wasn't going to but had out of town visitors coming so figured it would be a good time to take a break. I had thought though that by now there would be definitive news about the strike. On the good side...the store closing AND upcoming visit gave me incentive to do some major decluttering!

femmefan1946 · ‎07-04-2016

My Items to be listed List (with descriptions and HTML coding) just gets longer and longer.

Discovered a batch of Arctic memorabilia and Centennial /Expo 67 items and now researching values on lapel pins.

What does a yellow "ribbon" pin mean? Urinary Tract Disease?

How popular do you think Canada Post lapel pins would be?

dutchman48 · ‎07-04-2016

do the CP pins have really long needles?

ricarmic · ‎07-05-2016

I just moments ago closed my store.

This is a result of the belief that the way things are unfolding, the risk of "misadventure" befalling items in transit leading up to Friday and of course during the lockout or whatever might occur is greater than the benefit of remaining open. From what I see, a lockout seems very likely, so according to my earlier plan I would have closed Friday after the lockout anyway.

I have two items to go out today, simple lettermail items.

I have two unpaid groups. (one was a fellow planning to combine a number of purchases and had only purchased the first one).

I offered them the options:

-to pay and have shipped before friday

-delay paying (I turned unpaid assistant off) and see what happens and pay when it is resolved

-cancel the transaction.

Of the 4 trackable boxes in transit:

-June 30th box is being forwarded to USA

-July 4th of the 3 trackable boxes, 2 are in Mississauga, one isn't there yet or wasn't scanned

ricarmic · ‎07-05-2016

Update, one unpaid buyer paid while I was writing this. They actually said I could wait till after things are resolved to ship!

I'm still going to ship today, it is also lettermail.

lady.stark · ‎07-05-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:
The consolation, with one business day now left for Canada Post to deliver things, is that the last outgoing and incoming packages I sent and received via Canada Post were delivered with lightning speed.

I took the chance of buying some stuff last week, because they were in auction format and had already bidders (autographed photos that I rarely see on eBay). Well, the seller - from USA - shipped June 30 and it arrived today, July 5. Talk about fast!!* 🙂

*It usually took one week or two to arrive when I purchased from this seller in the past.

psychoticcomics · ‎07-05-2016

Since I am one of those who wants to vote on this offer Amen

indiansummernights · ‎07-05-2016

If Canada Post is telling the truth that the CUPW's offer will cost around 1 billion in new costs, I don't blame them for doing a lock out (and don't have any sympathy for the postal workers who have a say in the dispute because for them to get what they want, the cost would be passed on to the customer...CP's prices are already ridiculously expensive). Because each day the dispute goes on, they are losing money that they can't afford to lose.

ypdc_dennis · ‎07-06-2016

@indiansummernights wrote:
If Canada Post is telling the truth that the CUPW's offer will cost around 1 billion in new costs, ...

The problem with that statement is 1 billion compared to what?

Compared to the old contract or the Canada Post June 25 proposed contract?

And what is the cost per year? This a multiple year contract.

It's just a meaningless number without context.

It probably works out to less than 4% of revenue, compared to profit in 2015 of less than 1.5% -- So not a good deal for Canada Post, but not as bad as they make it out to be.

---

I've read part of the CUPW counter response to the June 25 offer and am not really impressed with their amateur wage demand of 3% + 2% per year thereafter. It looks straight forward until you read the fine print

* the increase is plus Cost-of-Living -- not with a Cost-of-Living adjustment if inflation becomes higher than the wage increase.

* asking for a flat rate increase for everybody that has those %ages based on the highest rate for a category, rather than the actual wage earned. They could have calculated based on the bottom rates, but 4% + 2.6% per year thereafter doesn't look as reasonable.

* also, CUPW wants the bottom wage to be 85% of maximum wage, instead of the current 75% (which gives an additional wage increase of 13.3% for new employees). My last unionized job had the bottom full time wage at 60% of maximum, but at the time reaching the top only took about 4-5 years, so this was not even a hint of an issue for the full-timers.

---

A pox on both "management teams" of Canada Post and CUPW

ricarmic · ‎07-07-2016

All trackable packages have left the country, as per normal speed, so that is good news.

Presumably the normal lettermail has also travelled at the normal speed.

Hopefully things will be resolved to the point it is safe to reopen again soon, time will tell.

ricarmic · ‎07-11-2016

My store is back open.

Upon reflection, I should have followed my plan and waited till something concrete happened.

I am back on plan again. In the event of a lockout/full strike:

-I will close the store, hiding items

-I will advise any buyers that have paid and I haven't shipped yet that they can either wait, and I will ship as soon as things reopen, or I will refund and they can buy again when the store reopens.

-I will probably advise people who's stuff I expect is still en-route that the strike has happened and I'll again reiterate that I appreciate their patience during the delay it causes.

I'm adjusting the wordings of my communications to advise that there remains the possibility of a strike or lockout (just removing the date for now).

The sad part is that sales were very good at the time I closed. My June 2016 ebay sales were just over 100% higher than June 2015 (ie double the amount!).

ricarmic · ‎07-13-2016

After the initial burst of sales (5) from reopening the store (the fellow that was asking to be let known when I reopened the store never did order the item!!). Things are very quiet.

Unfortunately closing lost the momentum I had going up to that point.

So today I've woken up all my markdowns and some of the advertising (I couldn't just turn the ads back on, must be a beta problem. I've also never been able to reuse my markdowns when I reselect the new items it screws up, so I have to do them from the start each time).

It will be interesting to see how much of a difference the stuff being on sale makes.