BS

[dipmicro]

the bigger the business, the more BS - from customers, suppliers, banks, eBay, payment gateways, RE agents, lawyers, employees, couriers, customs brokers, etc.

Why can't things just work like they are supposed to ?

Rhetoric question. No need to answer.

I need a crocodile skin.

[dipmicro]

And in case you are wondering, BS does not stand for BEST SALES

[coxengines]

Roman on the rampage again :^O

B.T.W. congrats on your newly-achieved 5-digit feedback score.

Bernie

[zarzuella]

Hey Roman,

Congrats on the shooting Star!
BTW, you forgot to add 'The bigger the reward'. 😉

Ann

[dipmicro]

Thanks guys! Shooting star sure looks encouraging.

There must be some way to lower amount of BS in one's life. I think we need to team-up with people and companies who know what they are doing.

eBay does not seem to be in that category. Constant issues with the platform, I still have problem with vanishing sales records, eBay "forgetting" apply sales tax despite the tax rules setup, now they are changing shipping method in some of my listings ... by itself.

And now I need to print about 100 labels and Endicia does not work. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ....

[zarzuella]

I think we need to team-up with people and companies who know what they are doing.

Can you sell in your category on the River?

[marcopoloca]

Yes, Congrats indeed!

I often wonder about the same thing; you worked hard, plan ahead, the whole operation is tight and you get bombard with BS, big and small for something you really seem to have no control.

Thanks guys! Shooting star sure looks encouraging.

There must be some way to lower amount of BS in one's life. I think we need to team-up with people and companies who know what they are doing.

eBay does not seem to be in that category. Constant issues with the platform, I still have problem with vanishing sales records, eBay "forgetting" apply sales tax despite the tax rules setup, now they are changing shipping method in some of my listings ... by itself.

And now I need to print about 100 labels and Endicia does not work. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ....

[dipmicro]

Ann, some products may work on the river, but I see the seller with 20,000 listed electronics parts has 6 sales (feedbacks) per month. Perhaps not the best venue for me.

Marcopola, you hit it on the head. It was not a good day today, that;s why my rant. Customers, eBay, lawyers, RE agents - they give you BS all the time, so no surprise there.

DHL was supposed to deliver a $1000 shipment, but they demanded COD. There is nothing wrong with that, but the UPS store (my commercial address) does not have my cash on hand and I specifically setup account for that purpose. Last 9 shipments were all invoiced and the driver was claiming to me, he was delivering to this UPS store for last 2 years and he always gets COD. Dude, I know how I received the last X shipments. When I called DHL about this, they confirm the account exists and address was on file and it should trigger invoice but it did not.

Supplier - guaranteed same day shipping if ordered by 6pm. I always order from this supplier before 4pm and 1/4 of time they do not ship same day. And so it happened to be yesterday.

Banks - I am looking for financing, so I shopped with 2 banks this week. Scotia got interested, CIBC gave me the BS that small business division had a 2 week conference and I should come back in 2 weeks. I mean, the chick at the branch was super-sweat, and she seemed like she was going to approve me right away, but she is day-to-day operations and the approvals are happening elsewhere. She called and she seemed genuinely surprised about the 2wks BS she communicated then back to me. I was there when she called. Not talking about another BS when CIBC froze my business acct that I do not use very much and there was no move in 6 months, but there was plenty funds to support the fees for long time to come and the best part is they continued charging it. After I escalated it to ombudsman and demanded they pay for my wasted time trying to access the acct, they actually did that just told me that's how their system works and they cannot prevent it and I need to do any type of move every 6 months on business acct or it will get dormant.

There was too much today, so I ranted. I probably spent 1/2 of my day today dealing with things that should not need to be dealt with. But fortunately, not every day is that miserable.

[westernstargifts]

I really detest these accounts that charge you money for leaving money in your account. So what if you don't add more or take any out? They still have the use of your money. It sure doesn't encourage people to save money or just maintain a balance for a "rainy day". That day comes when you try to make a withdrawal and discover there is nothing left because they withdrew it all for "dormant fees".

Your money is probably safer under your mattress.

[marcopoloca]

Yeap, all these BS about small business friendly, my axx.

They squeezed you left and right, make up new name for new charges; for instance fedex brokerage is suppose to be free with xpress shipment, but if you owe anything on the shipment they'll charge you Cod fee and admin fee on top of the duties/taxes and expensive courier charge. And over night is never overnight with international shipment, usually get hold up in the custom/clearance for at least another week. And if they made it mistake you have to apply for a refund with Revenue Canada/custom and waited 4-6 months. Their excuse? Not even a word of sorry. Take it or leave it.

Getting small business from bank? I wouldn't even think about it 😞
Last time i went through that BS 10 years ago they want financial statements for the last 2 years, business plan and the whole 9 yard for a small petty sum; with a personal/asset guarantee!

[dipmicro]

western, it was a business acct. I need it to cash cheques that come to my company name. Since I am sole proprietor I instruct people to send checks to my own name, but for example CanadaPost send refunds made to "dipmicro electronics". I used to have more movement on that acct when I was offering contract work, but I stopped that. There was several hundred left and fee is about $12/m. CIBC says I need to deposti at least $1 every 6 months for the account not go automatically dormant and apparently there is nothing they can do. It costed me two trips at least 15min each plus one letter, I requested CIBC the refund for all the fees that were charged while acct was dormant and $50 for my trouble going to the machine and to the branch where I was told they cannot do anything and I must go to my own branch (100km away). They unblocked the acct, deposited the fees and also $50 as I asked. Only they instructed me to make a tiny deposit once in a while to keep it active.

Since they were so nice and complaint with my request, I give them chance to bid a participation in my biz. Scotia has been also quite good to me during two mortgages so far, never tried to pull anything funny and always offered the best rates they could, so they get the chance for a bid as well.

marcopoloca, sorry couriers are giving you problems. I don't deal with Fedex very much only when my supplier use them, I have no issues worth remembering. I have few suppliers in USA who offer overnight shipping to Canada and they take care of brokerage. I have 1 shipment from china usually by UPS or DHL and UPS never charges anything for brokerage and DHL charges about $7. The Canadian DHL Brokerage dept. is quite an incompetent dept. and I always spell out to my shipper in China what to write in shipping documentation so they do not declare circuit boards as gingerbread cookies again. Also took them 3 months to fix it that time.

I have this perception that customs brokers in Canada tend to scam one-off customers a lot but once you negotiate a contract with them, they may be a good help. If I am making an entry myself, I need to drive 150km one way to Toronto to pick-up sea shipment. Only broker can do this electronically. I tried to get the B3 submitted and pay the fees at Queenston, but they said it has to be done in Toronto. It gets inconvenient when CBSA says they need to look at it and come back in 2-3 days (because the stuff is in bonded warehouse, not in CBSA hands). Most common excuse is "this is how the system works". I am sure half of these "this is how the system works" BS lines would fall like domino house when challenged in civil court.

Btw. if your trouble is worth it, kick it up. There is always some number, even if the company is concealing themselves, google for their registration. Best of all, send fax. Everyone ignores emailes these days, but I never had a fax ignored. There is several email to fax services or other services that install fax as your printer, so sending it is almost as easy as email.

[dipmicro]

Correction above - 1 shipment from China weekly.

[marcopoloca]

re: custom clearance

Now isn't that funny! I am in Toronto and when i try to clear my own package they always told me to drive to Windsor (4hours).

If you ship ups/fedex ground you can only clear it yourself (and avoid the $50 plus fee) is by driving to the port of entrance according to them is in Windosr!

Canada custom obviously is working closely with them to "enforce" these ridiculous rules, and attitude at the custom counter is always extreme ARROGANT. I got a sense that they are doing me big favor by just talking to me, how dare of me to trouble them!

[zarzuella]

Your money is probably safer under your mattress.

Earns as much interest there.

Ann

[westernstargifts]

western, it was a business acct. I need it to cash cheques that come to my company name. Since I am sole proprietor I instruct people to send checks to my own name, but for example CanadaPost send refunds made to "dipmicro electronics". I used to have more movement on that acct when I was offering contract work, but I stopped that. There was several hundred left and fee is about $12/m. CIBC says I need to deposti at least $1 every 6 months for the account not go automatically dormant and apparently there is nothing they can do. It costed me two trips at least 15min each plus one letter, I requested CIBC the refund for all the fees that were charged while acct was dormant and $50 for my trouble going to the machine and to the branch where I was told they cannot do anything and I must go to my own branch (100km away). They unblocked the acct, deposited the fees and also $50 as I asked. Only they instructed me to make a tiny deposit once in a while to keep it active.

Since they were so nice and complaint with my request, I give them chance to bid a participation in my biz. Scotia has been also quite good to me during two mortgages so far, never tried to pull anything funny and always offered the best rates they could, so they get the chance for a bid as well.

Charging dormant fees is just another cash grab from banks. They did not have such a thing back in the olden days when I worked for BNS. That is the bank, by the way, that took mortgage payments out of our account daily and didn't bother to notify us that they had done so.

I now deal mostly with a credit union. I have a personal account that I use for business and they allow me to cash cheques made out to my business name. They do not charge dormant fees on any of our accounts.

For a few years the business that I worked for deposited my pay cheque to TD and I had to open an account with them. I didn't use the account much after I quit work but I did have a few dollars in it. They took all of it in dormant fees without once notifying me with the exception of an initial notice which I had filed and forgotten about. The account had not been set up with those fees. They just arbitrarily changed it. Maybe I should have made a bigger fuss about it at the time. Instead, I closed my account with them and took my business elsewhere.

[dipmicro]

marcopoloca, importing to Canada is relatively easy. CBSA is making it difficult for us because of brokerage lobby. I find it weird that your Toronto broker can electronically clear your goods in Windsor based on your Power of Attorney, but you need to drive there. It's questionable, when "attorney" has higher rights in the matters of client he represents then the client himself.

western, it was not about the fees, but the fact the acct went dormant without reason and notice. The fees on dormant account are just insult into injury. Anyway, I can live with this flaw as long as I know about it

[marcopoloca]

A case in point would be the Politician, we elected them but they have "higher rigts" to make our life miserable.

Why should Canada Custom who's funded by taxpaper, get influenced by brokerage lobby?

It's all about greed and you said it quite eloquently in your title - "BS"