CONTEST:Canada Post Hall Of SHAME Post your stories,Pictures, etc.

[tea_past_times]

Hello there,

Have you ever very carefully mailed an item through Canada Post, just to have it returned to you, crushed, bent, broken or otherwise destroyed?
Have you ever been treated poorly by Canada Post Staff? Overcharged? Hassled? Ignored? Made to wait? Given incorrect Information.
Here's your chance to laugh it off with fellow ebayers and enter your user ID in a contest to win $$. I will pay $25.00 US through Paypal to the best Canada Post Horror Story.
I want to see pictures of careless damage that cost you $$. I want to hear about CPC employees(please include names and locations)
In addition to awarding a $ 25 cash prize to the winner I will also print off this thread and mail it to the president of CPC. Let's run this contest until Oct 31st Halloween, when the best horror story will be revealed.
Hope to hear from you soon!

Phil and Kathy
Tea_past_times

[tea_past_times]

Thanks Treatster, you are entered into our $50.00 Cash Prize Contest for worst Canada Post Horror Story. That makes 5 entries. Could you use $50.00 to make up for somethng Canada Post did to you? Enter now!

Also, I agree that Canada Post does a wretched job of tracking anything. Having A Canada Post tracking number is like having a radio knob, attached to a brick wall. Feels good in your hand, and looks nice, until you try to tune it to something!!

[wsboyd]

I mailed some expensive parts to a US address.
( Package three foot x one foot x three inches. )

Sent from Post Office,
Expedited*
(see below)

Last seen "entering Tracking system."

Item does NOT arrive in one month.

CP blames US warehousing company.

Item does NOT arrive in two months.

I refund Buyer his $$.

Item does NOT arrive in three months.

Fourth month:
Buyer contacts me, "The Item arrived on his doorstep!"

Note attached to Item for Buyer from CP.
(Paraphrase): "Item was found in Mississauga sorting office, (left for three+ months), sorry for any inconveniance."

I was not ever notified by CP.

WSBoyd

(Next fees to be added by CP should be for 'Storage')
:-/

* Ex-ped-ited: From the Greek, ('Ex' =>'Out', 'Ped' => 'foot', 'ited' => 'done to it') Meaning "Out for a walk".
:^O


WSBoyd

[vesivus]

We have had very few delivery snafus within Canada, but here's the one that stands out:

We use Electronic Shipping Tools. We mailed a package to a person in BC from Alberta and the buyer contacts us within 2 hours. He received his 'automated email' stating that we were delivering his package. He told us the address entered was incorrect (there was a transposition error). I personally called Canada Post to ask them to hold the package -- they said they cannot. Once it is 'in the system' there is nothing they can do - federal regulations require that no tampering with the mail once it is past the CP Door. Fine. I emailed the person and told him to contact his Canada Post on his end and see if they can redirect the package. He got the same story.

We patiently wait for the parcel to return to us, as the address that we entered DOES NOT EXIST -- I was told this by the CP rep on the phone when they checked their system.

A few days later, I check the tracking. SUCCESSFULLY DELIVERED!

I phone in and ask what happened and that I want my insurance money -- this parcel could not have possibly been delivered -- the address does not exist! Their response? We cannot grant your claim - THE DRIVER SAID THEY DELIVERED IT!

Really? Wow. The driver says they delivered it. Insurance denied based on the driver's word. I'm still wondering where he delivered it to...

John

[buckaru]

Well, I sent a microscope to a customer in the US, and of course it got damaged. An insurance claim was made and I was sent a check for the payment. Of course I immediatly deposited the check then sent the buyer a paypal payment as reimbursement. Then at approximatly the same time I got another insurance payment for another damaged item. All fine for a month or so. Then Canada post sends me a letter claiming that they double paid me for the same item, and demand the return of one payment. They have put my account into a negative balance and it has been that way for about a year now, so all shipping must be paid for upfront now. NO sign of it ever getting straightened out.

[tea_past_times]

Thanks buckaru. A whole year with no activity on it? Paypal and Canada Post should have a race to see who can respond the slowest!!

[golfing_in_style]

I mainly sell golf shirts and ship CP expedited.I live in Winnipeg.
Sold a shirt to a customer in Ontario.The postal clerk put the letter V instead of L on the first letter of the postal code.This was prior to me shipping electronically.The shirt was shipped back and forth between Mississauga and Burnaby post office 8 times before it could be found and finally returned to me.
Thankfully the customer was very patient as we both laughed at the tracking information.Burnaby to Mississauga, Mississauga to Burnaby etc.Back in Ont now Oh back in BC now
Shirt flew over Winnipeg 8 times before it was finally stopped and of course delivered back to me.2 months later
When I asked a CP official about this he intuitively stated "This shouldnt be happenning"!!
DA!
CP gave me $15.00 for this fiasco.
Otherwise apart from them mailing me my own items once in a while they have been pretty good.
I golf with a postal supervisor and love to tell him these stories as he is a Company man thro and thro
rik
golfing in style

[tea_past_times]

I am busting a gut laughing at that one!! The Post office sometimes mails me my own items too. One time I took a parcel back to the Post Office and showed them the customer's address. In black marker I had written: SHIP TO: It made no difference, they sent it to the return address anyway. I asked the clerk what Ship to means to her. Should I have written return to sender if I wanted it sent to my customer? They did not appreciate my sense of humour. Thank you for that great story Winnipeg!

-P&K

[ricarmic]

I've already put a story in of troubles, but this one is really a Ripleys believe it or not story...!

I'm a postage stamp guy and I have a lot of people exchanging packages with me. This is about a package to me.

Have a fellow in Scotland that regularly exchanges stamps with me. Around Xmas time we got a bubble envelope from him and it was more than half covered in dried blood!

I figured that someone tried to ship an Xmas ham or something and it leaked all over the package. I was surpised that the PO would deliver something that obviously had dried blood on it.

Anyway a while later he sends another envelope (I'm slow sometimes responding to people exchanging stamps so we hadn't written him back yet) and he tells us that he was going to mail us a package around Xmas time, but he got hit by a BUS while he was walking to mail it and it was lost.

Turns out someone must have found it on the street (with his blood all over it!!) at the time of the accident and put it in a mailbox!

This fellow is in his 80s so he is very lucky he's still with us!!

Anyway, there you go, that's an odd but amazing shipping example that doesn't happen every day!

PS I'm enjoying reading the other stories too!!!

[icbinc]

It's a shame the "contest" is only for Canada Post, but a couple good courier stories:

Shipped a parcel via Purolator to Miami, Florida. Purolator uses DHL for their US portion, so it first went to their sort center in Ohio. (Normal) Next tracking info showed it arriving at an Air Force base in California. It then was sent back to Ohio, and made ANOTHER trip to a completely seperate sorting facility in California. After yet another trip to Ohio, it was finally routed to the proper side of the continent.

Shipped some server rails to Thunder bay via UPS. These are essentially 1/8" thick steel plates designed to hold a 100+lb server. They were packaged with high density foam, AND an additional 4" on all sides with bubble wrap before being packaged in a double walled 200lb certified cardboard box. I don't recall requesting air shipping, but that's the only way I can figure they got as damaged as they were - by dropping them from 35,000'. The steel was bent and twisted like it was putty.

[jakeeangel]

I've seen the title of this thread but never read it. HEHEHEHEHE :^O

Ok boys and girls. I think I have a winner here. 😉 Maybe not but it is rather shocking. It's about an eBay item and my personal mail delivery. I think the personal mail delivery is the winner myself though. LOL 😄

I moved into a newly built house in 1995. It's not a new area of Mississauga. It's half new. One side of the subdivision has been there for many years, my side is new. For 2 MONTHS I get NO mail. ?:|

No credit card bills, no gas bills, no hydro bills, no tax bills, no bank cheques, none of my 10 magazine subscriptions etc etc. Only junk mail. WTF???? I had a Tupperware dealer send me a catalogue and she told me it got returned as no such address too. Say what???

I mailed an item from my then workplace to my home. I live there. I know it exists. My drivers licencse has the address on it to prove it. LOL The flipping letter gets returned to me: NO SUCH ADDRESS!!! 😮 WTF is going on here.

I get on the horn with CP and start shouting at them and unfortunately I have a potty mouth and used obscenities. LOL 😛 We have no control over that ma'am. Perhaps the sender addressed the items wrong. ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?????? I live there! I sent the letter to myself! I know my own flipping address you moron! I WANT A SUPERVISOR NOW!!!!!!!!! Repeat tale over and over and over all the way up the chain as far as I could go.

Good God almighty!! You'd think one of these brainless wonders would ponder why a non-existant address is getting all this mail. You'd think it would occur to them to check since they're getting so much stuff and maybe they're wrong and it does exist. Or maybe even that the city of Mississauga wouldn't tax a non-existant house. Noooooooooooo of course not!! sheesh Ok now I'm getting my mail.

But wait! There's more. I'm at 123 Joe Blow Street. There happens to be a 123 Bob Smith street not too far from me. I get their mail and they get mine. Plus many other addresses too for crying out loud. I'd deliver theirs to them, they'd deliver mine to me. Sometimes I'd just put it back in the mailbox for delivery. 6 FREAKING YEARS THIS WENT ON!!! Not every single piece went astray mind you but come on already!! Again, on the horn periodically to B and complain to them. Apparently it's the city of Mississauga's fault for putting 2 houses with the same number close to each other. Uh huh. 😐 And it had nothing to do with the fact that your idiot sub-contracter carrier CAN'T READ the street name??? Don't you people think literacy is an important quality when delivering the mail?

The ONLY reason it eventually got resolved is because I would hold the mail and call the supervisor to come pick it up personally so he would see it and acknowledge the error. If they don't see it themselves they don't believe it happened don't you know. They're supposed to put in an error report and fine the carrier for the error. Of course THAT never happened. Oh sorry ma'am we have no record of a strike applied against that particular carrier. GRRRRR

I had to take to calling the intended recipient and writing in big red letters on the envelope: Your item was delivered to this address instead of yours on this date. I told them to call this person at this number and complain too. They did. Still nothing happened. Same garbage different day. I'd then go back to holding the mail and calling the supervisor to hand him the misdelivered letter with the big red writing. He did not like that. LOL It finally got straightened out but holy moly!! I think it was cause they got really tired of hearing from me and making them look bad plus calling everybody up the ladder.

Oh that was so much fun!! Ok here's the eBay story.

Two weeks before Christmas last year I ship an item Expedited to Oshawa. Holy crow! It got there the next day.

The following week I sold an iPod to someone in Brampton. I did not have time during the holiday season to go bring it there and I don't allow people to pick up stuff. I had to mail it. I thought for sure it'd make it to Brampton the next day judging by the Oshawa experience.

ROFLMHO!!! Wishful thinking on my part.

6 days go by. No item delivered. Hmmmmmm Oh good! Look it got delivered on day 7. Took bloody long enough but great. Dummy that I am though, I did not get a signature. 😞 Customer emails. Where's my item please? Huh??? 😮

On the horn pronto with CP. Gotta wait 30 days for a trace. She told me to ask the customer in the meantime...............wait for it..............TO CHECK UNDER HER BBQ LID!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No I kid you not and the proof is in an earlier post where an item was actually placed for someone. That's where these guys put stuff. That is considered a secure safe drop spot to them. Can you believe that?????? Customer claims they've checked everywhere and no, no iPod.

Some postie got a lovely iPod Nano for Christmas and I had to go through numerous phone calls and emails and wait 5+ months to get a refund, minus the shipping of course because it was delivered according to them. 😐

Unbelievable. Absolutely un-bloody-believable. :(

---

[tea_past_times]

Thank you for those 2 contributions. Very Good reading Indeed. Still lots of time to enter your horror story and win the $50.00 grand prize. Contest is open until Midnight October 31st 2006. Please come and unburden yourself here. It does feel good doesn't it Jakee?
Why is it that large corporations seem to skim society's idiots for their work forces? Is it just that large corporations are so big, idiots can hide out and not be fired? More likely it's the unionization and the governments morbid fear of being sued(a la Mulroney)??
People who work for the government seem to have an incredible amount of attitude don't they. And why? CAuse they can I guess. On an unrelated topic, but still bitchin about government services, one time back in the 1980's when I waited 10 weeks for an EI check,(maternity leave) I drove to the office of the EI claims processers, and set up camp in their office. Brought a baby, a stroller, breast pump, diapers, Coleman cooler of food. Set up right in front of desk of employee who had my file for ten weeks, and refused to leave until paid. Called local television crew and newspaper to accompany me. Got my picture in the paper and a check for $1200 in an hour!! Have a good day all!