Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada

Hello Canadian sellers,

 

Today I'm relaying a message from eBay Canada's managing director, Andrea Stairs. Her message will be posted in italics in my next few posts.

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Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada

I think you're misinterpreting the intent of the original post.

 

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Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada


@i.am.vivian wrote:

@mr.elmwood wrote:

My two choices are Femme and Pierre.

 

 


And Maureen@ mjwl2006 !  She understands what it is to be both Canadian seller AND buyer, and when speaking for (and to) a Canadian postal system has demonstrated an exceptional ability to construct a cogent argument which considers the needs of ALL Canadians including the less advantaged members of society who may be most likely to rely on a postal service.  A Canadian service has more concerns than the American market and a thoroughly Canadian perspective needs to be recognized if we are to believe that what is sought is

 

the goal of ensuring that Canadians receive quality postal services at a reasonable price.

 

people who can represent their fellow Canadian eBay sellers in an effective and balanced way.

 

 


Aw, shucks. Thank you for the vote of confidence. I'd be happy to speak to the parliamentary committee if I'm fortunate enough to be picked to do so. 

Message 42 of 56
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Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada

To be fair to the previous post I think most people misinterpreted the intent of the original post. It wasn't a call for your wishlist of things you would like to see improved at CPC. It wasn't a request for new services, improvements, or who you'd think is a good choice. When you check the link provided in the original post it called for feedback on what CPC services you use and what you like about CPC operations.

 

In my case I appreciate CPC being competitive and worry about the impact of becoming less competitive. Whether you like their prices or not they're still the goto small parcel service. This is probably due to having a delivery network in place, although underutilised, for lettermail delivery, coast-to-coast in Canada.

 

I also worry about the long term impact of reduced CPC competitiveness on ebay.ca operations. A less relevant CPC means higher ebay/paypal fees. This would transpire as a result of having to develop/maintain/debug tighter integration with multiple equally competitive services. A sellers dystopia... ok kidding... probably not that big a deal. The super-essential, non-ebay, mail will still be delivered.

 

I've personally not had any problems with their operations, services, or software. They're probably the best, most reliable, part of ebay.ca from my experience (not credited to ebay but rather to paypal). I'm only now aware of the problems some sellers experience when shipping to the US due to the routing of parcels through customs.

 

Spoiler
Four days at customs? I've never seen it take more than 2 days tops (and CPC-USPS shipping has always been fast for me). It's also not CPC's fault if a parcel gets held at customs for an extended period, and I don't know why anyone would think it should be. Once a parcel leaves Canada you're at the mercy of whoever is acting as your brokerage.
Message 43 of 56
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Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada


@satyaloka.shop wrote:

To be fair to the previous post I think most people misinterpreted the intent of the original post. It wasn't a call for your wishlist of things you would like to see improved at CPC. It wasn't a request for new services, improvements, or who you'd think is a good choice. When you check the link provided in the original post it called for feedback on what CPC services you use and what you like about CPC operations.



From original post part 5: ... want to share your thoughts on Canada Post, please also use this thread. eBay will review comments in advance of an appearance at the committee.

 

I do not see that as excluding comments on how things that could be improved at Canada Post.

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Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada


@ypdc_dennis wrote:

From original post part 5: ... want to share your thoughts on Canada Post, please also use this thread. eBay will review comments in advance of an appearance at the committee.

 

I do not see that as excluding comments on how things that could be improved at Canada Post.


 

Exactly.  An opener like eBay Canada is looking for sellers to share their thoughts on Canada Post will naturally lead to lots of thoughts on Canada Post being shared here first before  potentially sharing your point of view with a parliamentary committee

 

If the CPC has the goal of ensuring that Canadians receive quality postal services at a reasonable price and plan to consult Canadians  and make recommendations , obviously people are going to put in their 2 cents here for each other to look over and anyone else who might be reading.  It almost begs for everyone's thoughts and opinions.  

 

Saying that eBay Canada would also like to submit names of sellers who could be called to testify  will naturally encourage others here to offer suggestions. eBay sellers are always stuffed to bursting with suggestions.  Telling the board that they want people who can represent their fellow Canadian eBay sellers in an effective and balanced way is practically an invitation for input. 

 

If you prefer not to testify, but simply want to share your thoughts on Canada Post, please also use this thread  sounds like an invitation to me. 

 

Message 45 of 56
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Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada

Then maybe it's ebay's fault for creating a false expectation. It's not Canadians, or Ebay sellers, for that matter that make the recommendations. Likewise it's not Canadians or Ebay sellers who's recommendations get heard. It's an appointed task force, one which has long since been decided, that makes the recommendations.

 

The purpose behind the "what CPC services do you use, and what do you like about your CPC service" is to intersect the gathered feedback with the conclusions of the task force conducting the review. The task force conducts it's review according to the mandate of CPC to serve Canadians.

 

They don't consider Ebay input on business management advice, new services, improvements, wishlists. They will also applaud anyone who takes an extended amount of their time trying to provide advice, and then move onto the next Canadian. They aim to ensure the status-quo matches Canadian's perception of said CPC service provided.

 

Any other expectation is unrealistic from ebay's management. Ebay sellers, and buyers use CPC services so this feedback matters as much as people who only use CPC for pension cheques.

Message 46 of 56
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Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada


@satyaloka.shop wrote:

Then maybe it's ebay's fault for creating a false expectation. It's not Canadians, or Ebay sellers, for that matter that make the recommendations. Likewise it's not Canadians or Ebay sellers who's recommendations get heard. It's an appointed task force, one which has long since been decided, that makes the recommendations.

 

The purpose behind the "what CPC services do you use, and what do you like about your CPC service" is to intersect the gathered feedback with the conclusions of the task force conducting the review. The task force conducts it's review according to the mandate of CPC to serve Canadians.

 

They aim to ensure the status-quo matches Canadian's perception of said CPC service provided. 

 


With respect, this is an incorrect picture of how parliamentary reviews are conducted.  The task force isn't a decision-making body, nor does it draw conclusions or have direct influence over the final outcome.  If you are a political cynic, I think the most you can say is that the views of the members of the task force may be skewed toward those of the current government by dint of their being appointed.  

 

However, the task force's job is to analyze the current functioning of CPC and present workable options for Parliament to ultimately consider.  It prepares a discussion paper, outlining those options as it sees them, but the paper is by no means written in stone; it is subject to revision, re-interpretation and even wholesale rewriting.  

 

During this process, and during the following phase, input (of any type) is being solicited from Canadians.  There are no stated restrictions on what that input must be.  The invitation of: "What CPC services do you use, and what do you like about your CPC service"  is a guide, not an obligatory limitation.  

 

In the next phase, the parliamentary committee has committed itself to direct, public consultations with Canadians, including disclosure of the task force's discussion paper and the committee's recommendations.  During this phase, the committee has the full capacity to alter any of the recommendations based on public input.  The more Canadians participate in the process, the more chance that input will either negate the task force's recommendations (leading to revisions by the committee), or align with them (leading to stronger recommendations by the committee).  

 

During the final phase, i.e. the drafting of legislation arising out of this process, although guided in principle by the results of the review, Parliament has the opportunity -- actually the responsibility -- to review the findings and alter any recommendations it thinks appropriate.  Individual constituencies' or sectors' input (all of which will have been made public by that point) can play an important part during this phase in driving amendments to proposed legislation as well. 

 

Those who feel that the Task Force and parliamentary committee are simply window dressing for a fait accompli, do not have to participate in the process, just await the outcome.  

 

However, it is incorrect to say that the whole purpose of this lengthy and open process is to "intersect the gathered feedback with the conclusions of the Task Force conducting the review".   If the government had wanted that sort of outcome, it would have been far simpler, faster and less expensive to hire consultants and pass legislation without any public consultation whatsoever.  Governments have happily done so in the past. 

 

The Task Force is just the first step in the process.  It makes practical sense and is far more efficient to have people who are experts prepare initial options for comment and public feedback, rather than attempting to run the process in reverse by collating the disparate and sometimes uninformed views of thousands of Canadians into some semblance of a coherent proposal.   

 

The changes that finally emerge from the entire process will have been influenced to a greater or lesser extent by the quality and quantity of input Canadians provide.  Personally I find this process laudable, and I think it was the right one for the government to apply where a national public service is involved. 

Message 47 of 56
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Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada

" Personally I find this process laudable, and I think it was the right one for the government to apply where a national public service is involved. "

 

I totally agree.

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Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada

I will add my voice to the choir as well. I agree completely.
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Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada

Incidentally, I should add that for those who want their opinions to be focused and specific, you can wait for the task force's discussion paper to be made public so that you can comment on the particular proposals. 

 

In any event, as far as I can tell there is no limit on the number of times one can provide input.  

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Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada

Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmPX9cJHXyI

 

Solidarity forever!  I'm a Wobbly and the caretaker at the Utah Phillips Centre in Windsor.

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Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada

Hi Raphael,

 

This is littlebeeworkshop from Malaysia.

 

Could you please get Ebay Canada's MD called Andrea Stairs to investigate all the late and non-shipments caused deliberately by Canada's Vancouver Processing Center for all inbound packages from overseas to Canada?

 

I have had tonnes of Canadian buyers opening cases against me in the last 2 months for items not received and although I have used Malaysia Post's registered airmail service with tracking, none of the tracking numbers seemed to be working once they entered Canada.

 

A Canadian buyer of mine also told me 2 days ago that he did not received 4 other packages bought from 4 other non-Canadian Ebay sellers in the last 2 months.

 

As of 18th October 2017, I have stopped selling to Canada. 

 

Many online buyers and sellers are complaining about this at a website called :

http://www.whatswrongwithcanadapost.ca/comments/

 

Please help us if you can as this is a systematic issue caused by Canada Post to perhaps ensure all Canadians can only buy from bricks and mortars stores from now onwards and not from online shopping platforms?

 

This is a very disturbing development and please get Andrea to investigate.

 

You can also check and verify the number of Canadian buyers who have opened cases against me from your HQ's computer system easily and you will know that I am not lying here.

 

Thanks for your time and attention to this urgent matter.

 

Cheers,

littlebeeworkshop

19th October 2017

Message 53 of 56
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Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada

Not really the right topic to be inquiring about this, but I'll give you a breakdown since it is a two fold problem and ebay can do absolutely nothing about this.

 

Registered airmail or regular airmail will be subject to long delays in Canada for very specific reasons. This is currently the most common method that drugs and other prohibited items are being smuggled into the country. With substances like Fentanyl being imported at increasing frequency, customs is screening far greater quantities of this type of mail. These packages are assigned zero priority, meaning they will only be inspected when all express/expedited packages or packages with a guaranteed service level have been processed. The other complicating factor is Canada Post has also assigned these packages a zero priority status. The reason for both of these classifications is airmail and small packet services like registered mail were only ever intended for letters/documents. As such they have no international delivery standard and the amount that foreign postal services pay Canada Post to delivery these packages is extremely minimal (they pay lettermail rates for parcel delivery), meaning they have no incentive to rush through the backlog that customs is creating. Canada Post delivers all express/expedited/packages with a delivery standard ahead of all the registered/non-registered mail.

 

Next year should see the introduction of a new, higher priced, small packet airmail service that intended specifically for ecommerce goods. This should help on the customs side as well as the foreign postal offices side. International sellers are going to unfortunately have to adjust to this new reality and can expect similar issues in other countries if they stick to using registered/non-registered airmail as the new mailing class launches. This change is going to have a bigger impact with countries who have relied on using registered mail to ship physically goods until now.

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Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada

A ZOMBIE THREAD

 

NEEDS TO BE LOCKED

 

@tyler@ebay.com

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Message from Andrea Stairs, managing director of eBay Canada

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!

Tyler,
eBay
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