eBay

momcqueen · ‎08-12-2015

Got the notice from Canada Post via email. Can someone help me interpret what this might actually mean?

https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/blogs/business/details.page?article=2015/08/12/website_and_web_serv...

Are we as ebay sellers through Paypal Shipping considered 'a commercial customer who uses third-party or customer-developed shipping systems'? If so, what impact will this have? Anyone want to hazard a guess? Might it mean that we can still print shipping labels but not have them scanned at the counter when we drop them off?

Commercial customer who uses third-party or customer-developed shipping systems

You will still be able to conduct business. Your orders will be queued up until the systems are up and running on Sunday, August 23 at 7 p.m. ET. During the outage, we will continue to operate in our plants as usual.
Unfortunately, your customers will not be able to track parcels and packages during this outage.
Canada Post will work with you to advise your customers about this outage.

Anonymous · ‎08-13-2015

It is normal as they need to upgrade it.

We still can purchase labels through PayPal Shipping during Canada Post's upgrading.

We can see the tracking information after it is done like on Monday.

rose-dee · ‎08-13-2015

@mjwl2006 wrote:

Are we as ebay sellers through Paypal Shipping considered 'a commercial customer who uses third-party or customer-developed shipping systems'? If so, what impact will this have? Anyone want to hazard a guess? Might it mean that we can still print shipping labels but not have them scanned at the counter when we drop them off?
___________________________________________________________________________________

I'd say we are in the category of commercial customers using 3rd party services if we're using Paypal labels.

If the last CP (website) overhaul a short while ago was any indication, I'd expect anything from minor disruption to semi-chaos where Paypal labelling is concerned.

I'm just prepared that I may have to actually go to the Post Office if I have to ship over the weekend (or I'll wait until Monday and hope everything is back to normal). Remember last time though? It took until Tuesday for CP to be completely up and running, and this time it looks like an even larger overhaul.

I have a parcel to ship by Expedited today which I'm hoping I can get into the stream before things grind to a halt.

momcqueen · ‎08-13-2015

The information on their website makes it sound as if the postal counters will be out-of-service too. "This shutdown will impact all of Canada Post's online and retail IT systems. The website and related services will not be available for any transactions during this time." Don't you think?

I'm scared to call and ask. The last THREE times I had a problem with paypal shipping, I called paypal who told me Canada Post was to blame for (whatever) and to call Canada Post who said the same about paypal. I could save myself the trouble and just repeatedly whack my head on my desk instead.

momcqueen · ‎08-13-2015

Right, I didn't read to the bottom of the page. Look at this:

Customer using Solutions for Small Business

Canada Post's online services will not be available during this outage.
This outage will impact all online transactions, such as tracking a parcel, finding a postal code, finding a post office and the Canada Post online store.
This outage will also impact our ability to serve customers at post offices.
We encourage you to consider preparing, transmitting and inducting your items no later than Friday, August 21 at noon ET.

What a trainwreck. I think I will close the store for the outage. Last time they did this, I included a message on the storefront too. Again, I find myself asking, 'What the heck, Canada Post?' Every business has major IT upgrades. Do other essential services shut down for a weekend to do it? Does UPS do this? Fed Ex? It's time to find out.

rose-dee · ‎08-13-2015

Oh, joy. I didn't read all the way down the page either.

Well, a short "vacation" may be in order for my store. Just when things were beginning to look up a little. I don't want to make a sale on Friday (Aug. 21st) and discover I can't do anything with it until Tuesday or Wednesday, which is, quite frankly, what I expect is going to happen. This sounds like a very major upgrade.

Maybe we should start a support group so we can all go bash our heads against walls? Remember the movie 'Cabaret', where Lisa Minelli used the noise of the overhead subway cars to allow her to scream at the top of her lungs? Some days I think that might do some good.

Chin up. Canada Post will live to frustrate us another day.

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-13-2015

If the paypal labels aren't working on the weekend then they can be printed on Sunday night or Monday morning. No point in assuming that things won't be back to normal by then? Their online site has been shut down many times on the weekend but how often has there been a problem on Monday...Once?

momcqueen · ‎08-14-2015

We have another week to glean more information about it. Depending on how my week plays out, I might just give in and call to get the 'official' answer. I also might not. I am having issues with the Bulk Editor copying information from the Product Catalogue into my listings again which might be fine if (a) the seller was notified of the changes before hitting 'submit' and (b) the product catalogue wasn't always COMPLETELY wrong. I mean utterly, completely wrong. Wrong item specifics, wrong categories, wrong pictures. It's a nightmare. I've spent literally thousands of hours getting my details perfect and with one click they are undone. It's incredible.

momcqueen · ‎08-20-2015

I quizzed two ladies at my local retail counter about it this week. The first said it won't affect anything important. The second said it was a total shutdown that will affect everything but selling books of stamps. My next move will to be call Canada Post. I anticipate about the same amount of clarity.

momcqueen · ‎08-20-2015

Holy cow.

I just got off the phone with a lovely lady at Canada Post and learned that any listing we have on ebay that uses Canada Post to CALCULATE postage will be unavailable this weekend. So. Paypal shipping might still print your labels (if it doesn't have to glean any information from Canada Post whatsoever) but if your listing has to access postal rates via calculated postage (like 85 per cent of mine) then it....? Won't calculate shipping I guess. Will a buyer still be able to purchase it? Only Gobo knows.

I certainly wish I had thought of this sooner. We should have asked at the Board Hour about it. If this information is correct, it will shut down half of ebay Canada for the whole weekend.

73rhc · ‎08-20-2015

@mjwl2006 wrote:
Right, I didn't read to the bottom of the page. Look at this:

Customer using Solutions for Small Business
Canada Post's online services will not be available during this outage.
This outage will impact all online transactions, such as tracking a parcel, finding a postal code, finding a post office and the Canada Post online store.
This outage will also impact our ability to serve customers at post offices.
We encourage you to consider preparing, transmitting and inducting your items no later than Friday, August 21 at noon ET.
What a trainwreck. I think I will close the store for the outage. Last time they did this, I included a message on the storefront too. Again, I find myself asking, 'What the heck, Canada Post?' Every business has major IT upgrades. Do other essential services shut down for a weekend to do it? Does UPS do this? Fed Ex? It's time to find out.

Close your store for this?

The outage will be from Friday 9PM until Sunday 7Pm.

Your ads say you ship the same BUSINESS day, as long as payment is received before 1PM. So, where is the problem? Any sale on Friday before 1PM can be shipped on Friday until 9PM! Any sale after that can go out on the next business day. Monday!

Do you really want to lose out on sales for "what ifs"?

momcqueen · ‎08-20-2015

Calculated postage will be unavailable. Buyers won't see postage costs. They won't be able to buy anything anyway.

73rhc · ‎08-20-2015

So, you don't think that they will ask about shipping costs? I know I would!

momcqueen · ‎08-20-2015

@73rhc wrote:
So, you don't think that they will ask about shipping costs? I know I would!

And I will be available as always to answer them but they won't be able to checkout unless I manually manipulate their postage costs via the Sales Records and/or Send Invoice function. My listings are created on ebay.ca and utilize calculated shipping rates from Canada Post both domestically and internationally for a majority of the listings. There is no guarantee that Paypal Shipping will work either. If it has to pull any information via Canada Post from a plug-in, that data won't present. The action will fail. The retail postal counters will be shut down too.

If you look at my Item Descriptions, you will see that on weekends, my business policy shifts from SAME Day to WITHIN 24 HOURS. I can't honour that this weekend.