eBay

rjense68 · ‎01-18-2019

I've had 7 US buyers contact me in the last few days stating their items have not yet arrived. Most of the items were sent Canada Post small packet air service (non-tracked) between Christmas and New Year's.

All I can think is that this US Government shutdown is somehow affecting the speed at which US Customs Service is clearing mail. Anyone else having similar issues or any thoughts on this? I've had items arrive a few days past standard delivery time in the past and maybe one item go missing in 3 years but 7 packages taking over 20 days for shipping from Canada to the US means something else is happening. Please share if you have any other ideas or are experiencing similar issues. I'm closing a number of my listing until I can figure out what's going on. As it stands I may have to issue refunds on over $300 worth of merchandise if I can't provide a good explanation for what's happening.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎01-18-2019

You bring up a very valid concern. Curious to know if eBay dot ca/dot com is taking this into consideration as that issue drags on for who knows how long.

tyler@ebay

-Lotz

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎01-18-2019

Followup. Full article link attached. Unsure if customs inspections/clearance would fall under a Federal Agency or not.

According to the VA, 95.5 percent of its employees are exempted from a shutdown and would come to work. So the VA says it will suffer no effects from a shutdown. Mail delivery: The post office will be open, and your mail will be delivered because the U.S. Postal Service has its own revenue stream.Jan 19, 2018

https://www.npr.org/2018/01/19/578985305/open-or-closed-heres-what-happens-in-a-partial-government-s...

How the Government Shutdown is Affecting International Shipping

By Jared Vineyard

Posted January 3, 2019

Many shippers are concerned, and rightfully so, about how the partial government shutdown will affect their international shipping.

https://www.universalcargo.com/how-the-government-shutdown-is-affecting-international-shipping/

-Lotz

momcqueen · ‎01-18-2019

Ouch.

My stuff (or at least 95 per cent of it) sent to the USA goes with tracking and I haven't seen any delays. It's arriving on time or ahead of time.

You may instead have a Canada Post pickup problem on your hands. Like a delay on the way to processing. Do you leave your mail at a letterbox or do you take it to a postal counter (or authorized dealer) and hand it to a live person?

esclyons · ‎01-18-2019

items mailed between christmas and new years, certainly shouldn't be affected by the us shut down, perhaps slowed down with canada post clearing the backlog , if your items were locked in a trailer in the yard.. i have mailed items 10 days ago that should have been delivered with tracking and they are still 3-4 days from being delivered, so yes i would say there is a recent delay..

rjense68 · ‎01-18-2019

Thank you. I take all my items directly to the post office. I just wanted to know if others are experiencing similar issues or if I have a problem with my local post office perhaps. I have to think as the government shutdown drags on it will affect US customs services to a degree, working a month unpaid will take its toll.

rjense68 · ‎01-18-2019

Thank you!

momcqueen · ‎01-18-2019

I would suggest that you start with a conversation at that post office. Followed by another with the 1-800-number. The last time we had reports here of all of a seller’s items gone missing before receipt, it led to further plot development. I’m wondering if a shipping container from your processing center went awol or something. No, you’re not tracked or insured for these items but as a customer of Canada Post, you deserve some satisfactory answers.

momcqueen · ‎01-19-2019

Who else is here from Calgary?

@lotzofuniquegoodies are you seeing delays in Small Packets being sent o the USA or perhaps a pile of INRs form items sent recently?

Who else can we tag from your area? I know only who else comes from where I am and maybe the location of another six folks here off the top of my head.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎01-19-2019

My orders to the USA have been straggling in as of late. I have one that left just the other day for MA. I will monitor. I rarely receive INR's and if I do most customers are usually very understanding. The vast majority are usually either show USSFOA/San Francisco in 3 to 4 days and are outbound from there a day or 2 later. What is your history with US packages? Do the vast majority go east and then down. Or west? It's too bad for the central USA that it's not possible for shipments to be processed in Sweetgrass for AB and Pembina for MB/SK. Would definitely speed up delivery on those shipments. When selling low-value items my experiences have been most customers will choose the small packet air rate to the USA 8 times out of 10 and understand delivery time might be a bit slower.

-Lotz

momcqueen · ‎01-19-2019

Virtually all my USA-bound shipments go through the hub in Mississauga before hitting Chicago Customs and then being dispersed to their destinations within the USA. Only my Australia- or Asia-bound shipments hit Richmond and anything headed to Europe goes to Montreal-area as its last point in Canada before departure.

Unlike, the OP, most of those are tracked so I am without worry.

He has seen seven Stateside package mailed since New Years not arrive. Which is too many to be a coincidence. This is the reason I am wondering if there is a Canada Post problem in your shared area, or if something happened to a container after it left the local processing plant.

momcqueen · ‎01-19-2019

Can you think of any fellow Calgarians who sell on ebay that we could pull into the thread for discussion?

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎01-19-2019

Only one I am aware of would be pjcdn2005. Red Moose(Oopsie Deer). Same delivery stream. If I notice any others will add to this post.

-Lotz

momcqueen · ‎01-19-2019

I thought of pj too but I had remembered the locale as Edmonton, my bad.

rjense68 · ‎01-19-2019

I'm going to check at my local post office today and see if they are aware of an issue with a missing container. As of today, I'm now at 10 customers claiming INR, all of them mailed between Christmas and New Years (that's almost every customer I shipped to in that time period) and received positive feedback (item arrived on time) from something mailed a few days after New Years (January 3rd). Something is amiss, I will get to the bottom of it and let you all know.

@momcqueen wrote:
Virtually all my USA-bound shipments go through the hub in Mississauga before hitting Chicago Customs and then being dispersed to their destinations within the USA. Only my Australia- or Asia-bound shipments hit Richmond and anything headed to Europe goes to Montreal-area as its last point in Canada before departure.

Unlike, the OP, most of those are tracked so I am without worry.

He has seen seven Stateside package mailed since New Years not arrive. Which is too many to be a coincidence. This is the reason I am wondering if there is a Canada Post problem in your shared area, or if something happened to a container after it left the local processing plant.

pjcdn2005 · ‎01-19-2019

The only recent problem that I had with was a package mailed in the first week of December but it was going to Winnipeg. I doubt that it will ever be seen again.

momcqueen · ‎01-19-2019

“I'm going to check at my local post office today and see if they are aware of an issue with a missing container. As of today, I'm now at 10 customers claiming INR, all of them mailed between Christmas and New Years (that's almost every customer I shipped to in that time period) and received positive feedback (item arrived on time) from something mailed a few days after New Years (January 3rd). Something is amiss, I will get to the bottom of it and let you all know.”

If you’re missing ten orders then something is definitely up. Did you get acceptance scan receipts at the counter to prove they were mailed? This is the territory where one begins to consider involving law enforcement if it seems like Canada Post isn’t taking it seriously.

rjense68 · ‎01-19-2019

Just got off the phone with Canada Post and the CSR said there actually is an issue with a huge backlog of incoming mail (from Canada) held up at US Customs. She'd fielded numerous calls the past few days and knew exactly what I was going to ask as soon as I said items sent to the US. They have it posted internally at Canada Post s a hot topic so CSR's know how to respond but has not been broadly communicated on Canada Post or USPS websites. She said USPS should actually be notifying US citizens of the issue but haven't done so yet.

lucitabby · ‎01-19-2019

I'm in Calgary, Mo.

I haven't been having any problems, touch wood and fingers crossed.

Small package seem to be arriving on time and my tracked packages have been going straight to San Francisco from Calgary. This started during the strike and still seems to be happening. Before the strike they were going through Richmond.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎01-21-2019

FYI to anyone checking tracking info for packages, especially on dot ca. Information may vary from Ebay to Canadapost to Actual Status. I was expecting a parcel from Toronto. (See post time of this message)

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