Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

None are remotely viable for me.

I will get some sales from those that I hope are patient but lots of sales are gone.  Basically nothing done now will salvage more than a small portion of the Christmas season sales.

It is not nice but life will go on and I will not stress out about it.

Message 2 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

Okay fine - but my 1 pound parcel I need to ship from Vancouver to Regina costs $15 with Canada Post Expedited and $42 with Fed Ex ground.

There's gotta be an alternative that isn't nearly 3 x as much!!! Is there?
Message 3 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

Another option would be Canpar. Rate calculator attached. Remember there can be additional fees for residential deliveries. Rates are definitely a little bit more reasonable. Approximately 20.00 with delivery in 2 days.

 

https://www.canpar.ca/en/ship/RateCalculatorAction.do

 

-CM

Message 4 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

Tried a little test. Updated some listings that ended to Pick Up only. What I discovered, when you do that, and then try to return to your original settings,  it deletes your previously set handling time, handling fee and parcel measurements. This would be very timely process to fix after this strike has ended.  Still not clear why it isn't possible to add Pick Up as an ADDITIONAL  option?? Believe that was available in the past. Where'd it go?? Now it is either Shipping OR Pick Up. That should not be complicated programming!! As per eBays suggestions regarding the mail strike, they suggest adding Pick Up or using alternate carriers. Only carrier available is Canada post? <Insert baffled emoticon here>

 

-CM

Message 5 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

Oh yes. I could have warned you about that. Any change from Calculated to Flat Rate or Pickup Only will completely obliterate anything you had before unless maybe you do it with profiles or policies or something I haven’t figured out how to do yet.

I add Cash on Pickup as a payment option. Then it doesn’t wipe away my Calculated Shipping data but it also doesn’t stop anyone from buying it anywhere I ship which what you’ve done does.

There’s two places to mark something as ‘Pickup’. Don’t do it in the shipping section or you’ll be very sorry; do it under payments. You may have to customize your page settings to even see that option. I’m not at my desk but I can screenshot it for you later if you need.
Message 6 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

Fortunately, it was only a very small test. It appears what used to be called a "Feature" is now called "A Glitch"!! I've marked as picked up in tracking in the past and never had an issue. Technically though if an item does get picked up, shouldn't you be able to clearly express that within eBay options? Something like, ummmm... Picked Up? Just spit-balling here!!

 

-CM

Message 7 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

More coverage on carrier choices from a consumer’s point-of-view.

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/canada/article-how-the-canada-post-strikes-c...
Message 8 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

tyler@ebay
Community Member

Hi everyone! Floating this to the top of the board as this is useful information for folks searching for alternative shippers and needing to know deadlines. 

 

The article is great, but if you're looking just for cut-off times here are some screenshots:

Statements from other courier servicesStatements from other courier servicesFedEx and UPS ratesFedEx and UPS rates          I know that @lotzofuniquegoodies had a great link for another shipper too!

Tyler,
eBay
Message 9 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

If you are located in Calgary and would use Chit Chats to the USA - Announcement below:

 

We are excited to confirm the opening date of our first location in Alberta! Our Calgary branch will open on Tuesday, November 20, 2018.

**Special Promotion: Chit Chats delivery fees will be waived from November 19, 2018 - December 31, 2018 for all Calgary clients.

 

https://chitchats.com/locations/calgary

 

Call to confirm when packages need to be ready for pick up and possible limit of packages for pickups. I was advised 8 per day. An account would be required prior to arranging pickups.

 

Unfortunately, if you want to ship to another Canadian Address they use Canadapost. Go figure? (From their website)

 

-CM

Message 10 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

For anyone considering using Chit Chats, their helpline phone number actually has a real person that picks up the phone. Very friendly. Picked up on 2nd ring.

-CM
Message 11 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

No alternatives for Winnipeg

We need chit chats

Message 12 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

We do.

RunninRed.
Message 13 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

The link. https://runninred.com

It’s the same idea. They’ll even bring your online shopping back with them.
Message 14 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

Since I, and no doubt many other sellers, have had very few or no sales in the last week or so, I can only assume that not only are Canadians aware that their parcels will be delayed but even U.S. buyers, of which I have quite a few, are non-existent, so they too must be wary.

 

I don't even know how you can get the message out to buyers that you are open for business and are using alternate delivery methods in order to ensure delivery before Christmas.  I guess if you have a store, it's fairly simple to add a note at the top, along with your store description.  But, without a store, you would need to do a bulk edit and add a sentence at the top of your listings.  My experience with that has been nightmarish .... if you can even get a statement to appear in some compatible and noticeable fashion, removing it is almost impossible without going through your listings one by one.  That's been my experience anyway.

 

But, the larger issue is, even if you have this statement on your listings, are buyers even going to see them.  They're likely not even going to consider purchasing from eBay because they don't feel confident they'll get their items in time.

 

I can only hopethat people have Christmas money to spend in January when, hopefully, the backlog is taken care of.

 

Message 15 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

As an aside, I'm shocked that Hudson's Bay is still shipping with Canada Post.  I have at least 10 orders from two weeks ago that I'm still waiting for.  I ordered something a couple of days ago to see if they had changed shipping methods, but no .... still CP.  I would have expected more from them.  I should have had them shipped to the store, even if it meant several trips, and parking fees, to pick them up.

Message 16 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

Bed, Bath, and Beyond Canada is now shipping with Fed Ex. One more nail in Canada Post’s coffin.

Message 17 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

The list of huge businesses with online components who now avoid Canada Post is endless. They all use couriers instead of Canada Post and have for many months prior to this. The only exception is approximately three per cent of orders delivered to me by one company and another who sells only shoes that has not wavered from their commitment to the postal service so good for them. I don't need my shoe order in time for Christmas.

 

Any ad I see for sellers with goods to deliver to Christmas shoppers now prominently features a line of text that clearly states, 'We ship via (pick your courier)! Get your order in time for Christmas'. Canada Post is the go-to for only small online businesses and sellers because those small online businesses cannot broker the volume pricing their multi-conglomerate rivals can gain.

 

Courier service may guarantee Christmas delivery but very few ebay sellers can afford the prices, or pass those costs on to their customers for whom $40 shipping on a $10 to 25 order is not feasible. 

 

Still, desperate times call for desperate measures and I've little doubt that many ebay sellers will be taking losses in the latter part of the month in order to make those Christmas-delivery guarantees happen for their customers.

 

 

Message 18 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery

Keep growing the list just makes parcels go faster .. It's a gods gift that amazon is not using cp for the rest of us . I live near Toronto and buy stuff expedited from lots of suppliers . I am getting it all next day through CP ... My recent orders from amazon have been coming from Dicom and like they promise I get it in 2 days .

Message 19 of 21
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Round-up of the main shipping options and their deadlines for Christmas delivery


@purpleziggy434 wrote:

No alternatives for Winnipeg

We need chit chats


I'm in Kingston, Ontario and the closest Chit Chats is a couple hours away. It's still cost effective and not much extra transit time to UPS a batch of US shipments to them compared to sending direct with Canada Post even pre-strike (I do have a pretty good UPS deal though that definitely helps too). I wish I'd discovered them a long time ago. Been using them for about a month for everything US and international and they've been great to deal with so far.

 

Dave

Message 20 of 21
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