Canada Post Is Failing

[jhay4737]

I don't usually post on here but I am steaming!! I ordered two uniform items for my daughter. The brand is hard to come by in Canada and in order to be in compliance my daughter needs to wear the same items as everyone else and the brand is only available in the US unfortunately. I paid 24 dollars with the Global Shipping program/USPS. My original expected arrival was April 10th which isn't horrible but not great either for paying 24 dollars to ship. I just looked at my tracking number and it was in Quebec and now Halifax. I live in BC!!! My new expected arrival date is April 23rd!!! It was shipped on April 2nd. My poor daughter has holes in the knees of her pants and I need those items ASAP. Canada Post and USPS have never been terribly quick but it's never been this bad. They have raised their prices by 30% and now their service in on a downward spiral. It's not only me either. On their Facebook page there is a mass amount of complaints about horribly slow delivery. I am hoping Ebay sellers will switch their shipping services because with the job cutbacks coming it will only get worse. Recently I bought some vitamins from an online company. My options were USPS, UPS and DHL. USPS and UPS wanted to charge me 24 dollars for 2 small bottles of vitamins. DHL was charging 8 dollars!! Never having used it I was wary but decided to give DHL a try. My package came from Kentucky to BC in1 1/2 days!!! At 1/4 of the price and there was no COD. I am wondering if any sellers would switch to DHL because they just blew their competition out of the water in my opinion. I am a little sick of Canada Post and their snail mail and I'm horribly unhappy with my experience and UPS is no better they are just as slow and have insane fees when they arrive with your package.

[pjcdn2005]

The global shipping program does not use USPS, they use different carriers. The shipping info on the listing says that it is Priority but it does not mention USPS. It is confusing because there is a USPS Priority service. With the gsp, the item gets shipped by the seller to the gsp center in Kentucky by whichever service the seller uses. But from there it is usually shipped by a different service until it reaches Canada. It does seem odd that it went all the way to Halifax...I would be irked as well. I have found though that when ordering anything from the U.S., it is best to 'assume' that it will take at least 3 weeks. If it is faster, then it is sort of a bonus.

As far as shipping by DHL, normally they will charge tax and possible duty for anything over $20 plus a brokerage fee so I would prefer to use USPS and Canada Post as there is then a chance that there will be no tax or duty charged.

[jhay4737]

I called Canada Post and they looked up my tracking number. He said that apparently a Halifax NS postal code was put on my package in my address and even though the rest of my address was my real address in Mission BC they shipped it to Halifax!!! That is a huge fail. He said mail is not sorted by human hands it's scanned by a machine so they scanned a Halifax address. He said the good news is it's not lost and it will come next week. Wow thanks. That's awesome. I paid 24 dollars for that. I find it really confusing that I can track my package on Canada Post if it's not shipped through Canada Post/USPS. I thought Global shipping program was an add on to their ser4vice to account for fees.

[jhay4737]

And I would also like to add that my address on Paypal and Ebay is the right address with the right postal code so I'm not sure how that even happened and he had no clue how it happened either

[femmefan1946]

My new expected arrival date is April 23rd!!! It was shipped on April 2nd.

Twenty days is not unusual for delivery from the USA. Often it is shorter but not normally. I include courier as well as postal shipments in this, unless an overnight service was purchased.

From North America - 20 days

From Europe- 15 to 20 days

From Asia- 30 days

Are normal in my experience.

USPS and UPS wanted to charge me 24 dollars for 2 small bottles of vitamins.

Technically, it would be the seller charging you these amounts.  Did the shipping for any of these services include duty and sales tax? Was the priceof the pills under $18 US (approximately $20 CDN)?

My package came from Kentucky to BC in1 1/2 days!!!

Kentucky? Was this an eBay order through the Global Shipping Program? And again , what was the price of the product, since this has a huge impact on the duty and tax being charged.

He said that apparently a Halifax NS postal code was put on my package in my address and even though the rest of my address was my real address in Mission BC they shipped it to Halifax!!! That is a huge fail.

And then a human being looked at it and corrected it.  A fail would be if the package was sent back to your seller from Halifax as undeliverable.

Hard to understand how a machine printed label would be misread as B instead of V. Even handwritten .

[pjcdn2005]

I find it really confusing that I can track my package on Canada Post if it's not shipped through Canada Post/USPS.

Apparently they don't use USPS but they use either Canada Post or Can Par once the package is in Canada.  Until you receive the package you won't know whether there really was a wrong postal code on the package but if that's the case, it wasn't a Canada Post goof up but an ebay and/or Pitney Bowes mistake.

[jhay4737]

I took another look and I paid 18.74 for International Priority Shipping to Canada and the extra 5.36 was to Pitney Bowes. I think 20 days is not good at all honestly especially since they have jacked up their prices. I have gotten things with other shipping companies for much less shipping costs in much faster time. They need to compete somehow.

The vitamins were bought from an online company called Iherb. I was using that as a reference point as to what other shipping companies are charging only because it's rare that Ebay sellers use DHL. That's the only reason why I used that. The vitamins totaled $13.24 and UPS and USPS wanted to charge 24 dollars to ship. There is no reason for fees as it was under the 20 dollars. These are the actual prices they do charge. I recently shipped a light envelope with some samples and a catalog to my neighboring city 45 minutes away and paid 8 dollars so their prices have gone way up.

I have no idea why my package ended up in NS but I did not receive an apology and he actually laughed at me on the phone and said oh well at least it's not lost. I will email the seller and ask what happened exactly. Maybe she remembers. It makes me really nervous that something so simple as an error in a postal code can send your package somewhere completely different. I had no clue that the only thing they scan is the postal code I actually thought for some reason that someone looks at my address not the postal code. Wishful thinking I guess. And what if the postal code is forgotten. What then?

[chimera148]

Living in the Vancouver area , I've found my packages from the US have taken 7-11 calendar days when using USPS FCMI. They usually enter Canada Customs through Vancouver, the longer times have been when the package enters Canada Customs through Ontario.

A couple packages delivered through the GSP took 15 days.

[worrly]

It is always sorted by Postal Code, thus PC is very important. If PC is forgotten then it would be rejected at the point of drop off.

[jhay4737]

I finally got my package today and I have to say I am really not impressed with Canada Post right now!! The postal code on my package is the correct one as well as my home address so whoever spoke to me on the phone in customer service out and out lied to me. That is not the reason my package was sent to Halifax at all it was just a major screw up on their part. Why they are protecting each other I don't know maybe they were worried I would ask for a refund or maybe they didn't want to admit they made a mistake.

[sugarbaby2011]

Here's an update to the Canada Post fiasco for Sellers to be aware of!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/canada-post-richmond-plant-causing-major-mail-delays-...

[sugarbaby2011]

Here is most disturbing update of our wonderful revised postal services in Canada I thought I would share...........

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/canada-post-richmond-plant-causing-major-mail-delays-...

[slyh92]

I am also having issues with slow mail I have been waiting 2 months  for a Tai Chi Suit I ordered . Its been at Canada Customs for the past fing , 3 weeks , I have a few other items that Customs and Canada post is neglecting to process . Seem  Canada Customs and Canada post need a good kick start to get them moving .  Last thing I ordered was 2 months late due to Customs Canada and Canada post not doing their job .  Bet Canada customs and Canada post workers are sitting on their butts and eat donuts , and texting their friends , instead of working . They should not allow Cellphones at work . I wont let anyone who works for me have their phone they gotta shut it off and leave it in the basket .

[thestuffofchris]

This is an old topic from 2014. The information in older topics is often outdated and irrelevant. It is generally best to start a new topic so users can assist with current information.

CBSA is not "sitting on their butts and eat donuts , and texting their friends , instead of working". Packages arriving from Asia (specifically China) are being much more heavily scrutinized due to the fentanyl crisis that plagues much of Canada, with a lot of that fentanyl having arrived in Canada from China. It takes time to vet all the packages coming in, and the increased effort has slowed down how fast things are moving through.

There is also the issue of the Universal Postal Union taking exception to China's classification as a third-world country, allowing them to have exceptionally low shipping costs that are subsidized by countries like ours. Because of this, there is a low priority put on untracked shipments from China.

Is CBSA the reason for the slow speed? Yes.
Is it because they are incompetent and lazy? No.

[reallynicestamps]

ZOMBIE POST FROM 2014

Go to the Resolution Centre at the bottom of this page and open an Item Not Received Dispute.

The first suggestion is to Contact the Seller.

Do NOT accept an offer of a replacement. This will just end the dispute and the suit is not likely to arrive either.

Where was the supplier shipping from?

What does the supplier's feedback look like?

Anything less than 98% from a North American seller or 99% from an Asian seller is Very Poor.

What do the negative and neutral feedback actually say?

If the seller cannot prove delivery (not shipping, delivery) you will be refunded.

The two month delay worries me. EBay only allows 30 days for Dispute after the last estimated delivery date.

Has that date passed?

We occasionally hear of purchases which when received turn out to be pictures of the purchase or quite different bits of gimcrackery.

Because they are sent with tracking, a Not Received dispute will fail, but a Not As Described will be successful.

The reason I bring this up is that while CBSA is searching Chinese shipments for fentanyl, mostly they concentrate on small and untracked packets. A bulky tracked item like a suit should not be being held like that.

And while Canada Post (and most western postal systems) are involved in a UPU dispute with China, again tracked packages are not usually part of this.

Go to your local Post Office (not postal outlet in back of the drug store) with the tracking number and ask them to help shake your parcel loose. It usually works.

Politely.--- Captain Mal Reynolds.

[tyler@ebay]

Hey everyone,

Due to the length of time that has passed since this thread began I have locked it from future replies. If this is still an issue that warrants discussion, don't hesitate to begin a new thread!