Signature Required for Items Delivered Here in Canada

[sylviebee]

Does anyone know if the PO has made any changes to the way they are dealing with the signature required option for items delivered here in Canada?

Are they still dropping the items at the door or requiring a trip to the depot?

[tyler@ebay]

Hi @sylviebee - My understanding is that the service overall has been suspended except for specific services. Canada Post page here, screenshot below. 

[reallynicestamps]

I am concerned that there was a typo in the message.

I hope they mean that Signature Required items will NOT be left at the address unattended, but that they NOW will require PO pickup.

Time to write to my MP.

[sylviebee]

I hope it wasn't an error.

I buy items from the UK and they require a signature for almost every item regardless of selling price and even $10 items require a signature.

They have a service which doesn't add to the shipping cost when signatures are requested,

It's a huge nuisance.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

This puts all sellers in major limbo for INR's when signatures are only being retrieved when it requires pickup at the post office for limited reasons, like duties and taxes owing, item is oversized or a conscientious postal worker that feels it's just not safe to safe drop and especially when the service included a signature in the past. Most sellers cannot routinely ship or ask a buyer to pay for Xpresspost/Priority Post to/from Canada. Does eBay have sellers back on this?

-Lotz

[femmefan1946]

Then there is the Sharpie Solution.

Ask the seller to write DO NOT SAFE DROP on the package.

If all goes as it should, the carrier will leave a notice and bring the package back to the local PO.

Fingers crossed.

[esclyons]

they are still not requiring signatures, i just received an item sent registered mail, and they put a black marker through the bar code and it came with my regular mail at 11.15 a.m.,, then around 5 p.m. it showed a delivered notice on the tracking page.. 

Also if you pay for over 200$ insurance , they charge you a mandatory signature charge, yet they will not collect the signature.. But they will charge you for it..

I am also mailing items registered mail, that require a mandatory signature, and not one of them show a signature for them, even though they haven't reduced the price for the service..

[femmefan1946]

Keeping in mind that Registered Mail is only trackable in Canada, is it cheaper than an Expedited or ExpressPost envelope for your coins?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@femmefan1946 

All Part of what eBay is not doing to Protecting sellers during Covid 19

My concern is the fact  in some cases (who truly knows how many) where buyers are either receiving their item, either a little or maybe extended late with no signature/scan and then the seller still having to refund because of what a buyer is claiming. The rules(gospel) according to eBay. Once a refund is issued, it's not like ebay does anything to try to get that money back to the seller. And it's not the easiest thing for a seller to try to first send a replacement invoice and then getting the buyer to hold up on their end in paying. As for delivery scans they have been few and far between. The sharpie solution is only a suggestion to the carrier. Most often those notes are rarely followed. The system is just getting increasingly more broken.

-Lotz

I have scans for a package showing as delivered to my community mailbox for 5:45 PM today followed by rescheduled for delivery for tomorrow with the same scan time. I saw those messages at 4:45 PM. The scans could have been there earlier. I checked my community mailbox for a lark. Nuthin'!!!!

[femmefan1946]

People so often believe that if it is on line it must be true.

For her own convenience a carrier might scan a dozen packages in her truck, then spend the next hour attempting to deliver them only to return to her truck with two of them.

Which show themselves to be delivered, until she rescans them as "out for delivery" or "in transit". Whatever seems most applicable, because she has another 70 parcels to deliver before her shift is over .

If it is handled by humans, mistakes will occur.

If it is totally mechanized, even more mistakes will occur but harder and faster.

Garbage in, garbage out.

Which is why my tendency is to tell worried buyers posting here that they are covered by the eBay Money Back Guarantee and the only date that is of any importance is that last estimated date for delivery.

I think this past week alone we have two upset buyers, whose estimated delivery dates were a couple of days to a couple of weeks in the future, wondering where their purchase was.

And they are not happy to be told that no one knows, but it is on its way , the tracking only tells you where it has been, and if it doesn't arrive Wednesday or July 4th or whatever, they can get a refund.

I am old and cranky.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@femmefan1946 

Unfortunately for most sellers, forced to refund on probably delivered items doesn't pay the bills.....Unless you have access to that super large cookie jar that is often spoken about. Maybe some support directly from eBay stating something to the effect....Because of Covid 19 your parcel may be late. Please have patience.  

-Lotz

<Old too...I don't appreciate having to refund when an item may be  5 minutes late according to eBay' whimsical delivery timelines >

[femmefan1946]

This is why I like ricarmic's justly famous boilerplate letters, developed over the years to comfort and soothe upset customers.

As Canadian sellers faced with Canada Post's high price* on tracking, we are in the rough position of shipping without tracking and paying the occasional false claim of non-delivery or using tracking on relatively low value goods and accepting that we may have priced ourselves out of the market.

And of course, there are those, probably honest, customers who make claims on shipments that are late perhaps by a day or so, perhaps by weeks.

And those tyler@ebay  are the real problem.  We may recognize our customer is probably right, but the costs are painful to small sellers. And even to larger sellers.

I have been suggesting that we change our Handling time to five, seven, or even 30 days on untracked, and probably on tracked, shipments.  Because BUYER'S DON'T READ I suspect this would have little or no effect on decisions to purchase. (I am old and cynical.) The longer handling time should also extend the delivery period.

The delivery window is 10 days. The delivery is in 11 days. Unhappy customer.

The delivery window is 20 days. The delivery is in 11 days. Happy customer.

Very cynical.

*something they should be looking at as soon as the current Plague allows them to get back to work or while the  executive branch "works from home" . With parcel delivery back to the turn of the 20th century percentage of the postal system's work and some indication that online buying will be the new normal,

[hlmacdon]

Still getting things dropped at the door signed by the carrier. Individual carriers seem to be making their own judgement calls as I've yet to have a packaged held for pickup.

[lady.stark]

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

Maybe some support directly from eBay stating something to the effect....Because of Covid 19 your parcel may be late. Please have patience.  

---

There is a similar message when you click on the tracking number. It says this: "Due to the coronavirus emergency, deliveries may be delayed."

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@lady.stark 

I guess this is what happens when customers expect everything to be delivered moments after completing payment.

For me, when in doubt I always go to the Canadapost website first, 2nd , third and USPS if it going to the states. Those tracking updates at the Postal websites do not seem to be syncing with eBay tracking reliably. Possibly the majority of buyers check eBay first and complain second, not knowing that the displayed info can vary in being current or accurate. I've had many items showing out for delivery or delivered in Canadapost/USPS  but still showing in transit and/or for delivery in the eventual future in eBay....Sometimes several days later.

-Lotz

[pmlinne]

Writing Do Not Safe Drop doesn't seem to be honored by Canada Post.   I had  3 parcels (not Ebay items) all marked Do Not Safe Drop and they were just left on the porch.  Thankfully someone was home.    Some postal workers at least ring the doorbell, but not all do.   We all know that the volume of parcels has increased, but has Canada Post increased the number of workers?

[ypdc_dennis]

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@pmlinne wrote:

... but has Canada Post increased the number of workers?

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Yes. But most of them are just temps (same as happens during the Xmas season)

[femmefan1946]

Some of those temps have been "on call" workers for years. 

The PO is a good place to work, in spite of the high level of accidents and physical demand, and I know at least one guy who combined a career as a real estate agent with temp and on call work with the PO finally giving up the real estate, which can be lucrative but is erratic, when he was offered full time work as a letter carrier.

Mind you, he was in his early 30s at the time and had three kids he was paying support for.

So temp doesn't necessarily mean inexperienced.

[brettjet38]

UPS here in Canada is also not getting signatures, they ring the door and leave the parcel and go. I have had a few packages left like that, I also have security cams...