eBay

pierrelebel · ‎08-25-2016

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-post-union-cupw-strike-mandate-1.3735203

The biggest union at Canada Post says it has filed a 72-hour notice of job action, but is willing to withdraw it if the Crown corporation agrees to an extension on negotiations.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has a strike mandate that is set to expire at midnight eastern time on Thursday.

The union says that in the notice it sent to management it listed its anticipated job actions but has stopped short of members walking off the job.

momcqueen · ‎08-26-2016

(And I received the message from eBay in my email only moments ago.)

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-26-2016

I closed my store in June and it ended up being for no reason so this time I am going to try and hold off for a bit until we know exactly what is going to happen. Perhaps I will regret it, perhaps not.

In 2011 I stayed open until CP locked out the workers and everything worked out.

pierrelebel · ‎08-26-2016

You are a young person. You can take the extra stress. I am way too old for that "stuff".

A few days off will not kill me, far from it. We will visit the grandchildren this weekend. Who needs eBay!

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-26-2016

They make it sound like all sellers are covered against all instances of defects when, in reality, the last time that protection was very much limited to a fraction of sellers' orders within a small window of time.

Which last time are you referring to? if you are referring to June/July, there was no 'special' strike protection because there was no strike so customer service would have treated things as per usual.

triber · ‎08-26-2016

I am with you Pierre. In my mid 70's, i want to avoid stress. The income is important to us being on a low state pension, but we will manage until things are sorted out with Canada Post. I will spend the time transfering more of my .ca listings onto .com.

momcqueen · ‎08-26-2016

But there was. Ebay extended delivery estimates as a precaution starting July 2 and then lifted that measure on July 18. Only items shipped with tracking during that time were eligible for late shipment defect- or negative- feedback removal. This was the trouble I ran up against because the measure didn't cover lettermail or untraced items sent before of after that time period.

In my opinion, if ebay Canada really wanted to protect sellers from unwarranted Late Shipment defects, that coverage would include any order sent AT ALL with a delivery timeframe plus and minus about two weeks from the moment that 72-hour strike notice was issued. We have all heard the stories about maverick postal employees or misinformed postal agents who take what they hear in the news and create their own job actions, not the ones sanctioned by the Union or the Corporation, that can then wreak havoc with the mail.

Late Shipment defects are guarded as if they are the very foundation of ebay's success. It's not even metric a buyer can judge. I simply cannot see the harm in giving Canadian sellers a few breaks around this. So they might forgive a seller who doesn't actually deserve to be forgiven on a late shipment defect: what does it matter the two times that might happen versus the dozens of times it's truly warranted? It is more important that ebay stay healthy and viable, is it not? Perhaps try to keep its sellers happy when buyers don't generally give a hoot about answering The Question if they leave feedback at all.

We've all had a rough summer for ebay sales, those who closed as well as those who stayed open. I'd expect ebay Canada to be handed out lollipops to us right about now. And I mean that with no disrespect. No one cares about those Late Shipment defects except the sellers, buyers do not!

momcqueen · ‎08-26-2016

@triber wrote:
I am with you Pierre. In my mid 70's, i want to avoid stress. The income is important to us being on a low state pension, but we will manage until things are sorted out with Canada Post. I will spend the time transfering more of my .ca listings onto .com.

I'll spend the downtime getting the kids ready to go back to school, and preparing new listings. But I really cannot afford to close. Whatever sales might be made could be enough at least to pay my ebay store subscription and Final Value fees for the month. Last time there was threatened disruption, I stayed open and sold enough at least to pay those bills.

i.am.vivian · ‎08-26-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:

Late Shipment defects are guarded as if they are the very foundation of ebay's success. It's not even metric a buyer can judge. I simply cannot see the harm in giving Canadian sellers a few breaks around this.

Amen! I simply cannot see the point to eBay's Late Shipment defects at all, but it doesn't matter what I think and we all have to live with whatever eBay comes up with next.

rose-dee · ‎08-26-2016

i.am.vivian wrote:

mjwl2006 wrote:

Late Shipment defects are guarded as if they are the very foundation of ebay's success. It's not even metric a buyer can judge. I simply cannot see the harm in giving Canadian sellers a few breaks around this.

Amen! I simply cannot see the point to eBay's Late Shipment defects at all, but it doesn't matter what I think and we all have to live with whatever eBay comes up with next.

EBay is firmly U.S.-centred, we're unfortunately just along for the ride, trying to cling as best we can to their coat-tails. The on-time delivery metric makes perfect sense for U.S. sellers who have relatively cheap tracking and/or the GSP available to them.

For Canadian sellers, it's a handicap added to an already less advantageous position when compared to our U.S. counterparts.

EBay came up with this metric to control U.S. sellers in a more simplified way, while at the same time satisfying buyers. The particular needs or situation of Canadians was irrelevant. Not that I'm defending the metric, but I think the only reason we have even the vague concessions we've had during the postal disruption is due to the efforts of the eBay Canada staffers. Still, I'm not placing any great confidence in those assurances that defects will be fixed. I'll be closing my store tonight because there is still a possibility of a full-scale strike as of Monday.

I think it's called being left to twist in the wind.

dutchman48 · ‎08-26-2016

Not one word from Ebay again in regards to INR claims by buyers in Canada or sold to buyers from Canada.

Also nothing in case of returns.

Also nothing if you go over your time frames for INAD, return shipping

Absolutely nothing on the monetary end at all, just the defects that you may get.

Whoopee, I certainly will not sell under Ebay's so called protection.

jt-libra · ‎08-26-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:

I'll spend the downtime getting the kids ready to go back to school, and preparing new listings. But I really cannot afford to close. Whatever sales might be made could be enough at least to pay my ebay store subscription and Final Value fees for the month. Last time there was threatened disruption, I stayed open and sold enough at least to pay those bills.

I also stayed open during the weeks of potential disruption. It sounded to me like the union was not yet at the point of walking out permanently, so I thought .... what the heck, I'll take a chance and deal with the situation as it unfolds. I'm glad I did. It turned out that July was one of my biggest selling months this year. I guess while people were on vacation, they still wanted to watch movies and listen to CD's. I sold some big ticket items too. And all the packages arrived within the anticipated time frame -- not a peep of dissatisfaction from anyone.

I'm going to stay open now as well. I shipped a few things to the U.S. today and I'm hoping that they will cross the border before the union decides to take any permanent action. Rotating strikes I can deal with and their plans not to work any overtime is no big deal. If a strike is called, and I have packages in transit, I won't worry for a day or two until it's determined whether they will be legislated back to work. If the strike is prolonged, I will contact the buyers, explain the situation and offer refunds. I don't sell 10 or 20 items a day, like many sellers, so I'm in a position to do this. If a purchase is made, with a possible strike looming in the day or two ahead, I will let the buyer know that there could be a disruption and they can either agree to have me hold on to the item for a couple of days until more information is known, or I will refund and cancel the transaction.

I've just found it less stressful to conduct business as usual than worrying on a day-to-day basis.

cumos55 · ‎08-26-2016

The store has been on vacation since June 19.

A vacation was definitely needed, allowing time to ...

Prepare new listings.... many super good books.... at very good prices.

Remove items that will never get listed.... lots of full boxes donated to a charity sale....

and then.... suddenly the place looks so clean and organized.

There are things to sell on Kijiji.....

such as 200 plus pounds of Lego blocks at $5.00 a pound... plus a few unique Lego items...$1200

and then there is one book that can earn me a windfall to make up for no sales over July and August... if it sells and then nothing happens for 180 days...

--------------------------------------------------------------

The past two months have been crazy... and the upcoming time period might be one big surprise .... perhaps... but just as crazy

The union might be due for one big surprise.... my guess

Who negotiates for 9 months and ends up with nothing good out of it..... We shall see.

The worse part of the last few months was reading the Union's Hoopla, over and over again

-------------------------------------------------------------------

I will continue listing..... the next two months are usually great for finding new inventory...... July and August have been unexpectedly good ...

and maybe the strike will be over... soon... maybe... perhaps... possibly....allowing me to take the store off vacation.....

momcqueen · ‎08-26-2016

You had bulk lego to sell in Winnipeg?! Why didn't I know sooner, my house has lego from floor to ceiling. Literally. I'm always looking for more.

cumos55 · ‎08-26-2016

My bulk Lego was collected many years ago...

I used to sell a defined set..... and if there were missing pieces, I dug through my collection of Lego.

This collection was from my Garage sale days..... Things changed when I went 100 % books.... and Garage sales died for me...

Been doing a lot of cleaning up over the years.... and this is one more thing to do...

cumos55 · ‎08-26-2016

On second thought...

eBay is a very good market for bulk Lego.....

specifically the basic blocks which are rarely sold as a simple Lego building blocks....set

and considering the postal problem, eBay is looking better to make good money before Christmas

momcqueen · ‎08-26-2016

I've bought ALL my bulk LEGO on eBay. There was a seller who ran about a dozen auctions at a time of LEGO for almost a year, and people like me always went back for more. And more.

cumos55 · ‎08-26-2016

And that windfall book... a first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous.....They sell well and quickly on eBay

List on eBay.com.... US dollars..... free shipping to Canada and US... UPS shipping, fully insured

momcqueen · ‎08-26-2016

And more! But we had better get back to strike talk or we'll be in trouble for sidetracking the conversation.

So... Cough cough. Strike. Or lockout. Any wagers? I'm leaning toward rotating strikes if no agreement can be met. I don't think the Corporation will aggravate the situation by issuing a lockout notice. And government seems keenly interested in mitigating the damage.

cumos55 · ‎08-26-2016

It will be like the last time

First the Union with a rotating strike among cities... and then CPC got so fed up ... lot less mail in the system ..... they issued a lockout.... Eventually the government steps in with legislation and binding arbitration

For the current situation I am going to wait until Monday ... to see what exactly happens .

I look on the time from July 1 to today in a very suspicious manner ...

Why continue to negotiate, and negotiate without any settlement and then delay everything until the end of August???

momcqueen · ‎08-26-2016

It's odd that I don't remember seeing these pages in Juky. Only now as part of a link from an ecommercebytes blog post. Was this always available? I'd done everything recommended on the list well before the recommendations including the notice in my item description which is a lot easier to add than it is to subtract. http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/canada-post-disruption.html