Canada Post ~~Do you ship w/ them Let me teach you some tricks to make things go faster

[your-chic-shopper]

If you are a powerseller from Canada you may use CP.

Some tips
Canada Post has discount rates , call Canada Post .
The New tracking to America started on all ground parcels over 1kg July 7th . Be very careful , if you use the , desk top program Canada Post provides . You are not getting the lowest shipping . CP has hidden brokerage fees in the desk-top program . It's cheeaper to write the manifest out manually.

When writing manifest manually to USA . All that is needed on the manifest is the Name of the person and the state . Do not bother with all the other info

more info tomorrow

[e-scrooge]

I find it necessary to fill the entire manifest out for expedited parcel shipments. For ExpressPost you only need to list the contents and value. For expedited, you need to put your address on the manifest even if your address is on the box label. Customs has a tendency to hold parcels which don't have the address information or are missing information.

On expedited parcel forms, you need to make absolutely sure that the entirety of the blue field at the top right (for CPC use) is filled out including weight, insured value, etc. Customs holds parcels with empty fields there, too.

Expresspost is a lot easier to deal with but it costs so much more to the US for heavier items, that it turns customers off.

[plumbrokeacres]

My tip.

If you Ship Expedited, Xpress Post Ect. and do not have a Venture One card GET ONE!!
Talk to your postmaster and sign up and get a discount on a lot of Canada post services.

[north-of-55]

Sorry, never heard of a venture one card. What will it do for us?

[mevans_cda]

I used to use the Venture One card, it gave me 5% off parcel deliveries. But now I ship everything online with the OBC (Online Business Center) at www.canadapost.ca and almost all is small packet or lettermail - I order stamps online also and charge it to my account. The Venture One is a good idea if you don't ship that much and go to the counter. The OBC is the way to go if you ship higher volumes and mostly small packet or Xpress Post. You print off your own labels and just drop everything off at the nearest post office or sorting station. They bill you later for everything. You also get free shipping supplies. But as previously mentioned, be careful not to use the commercial US expedited online - they charge the customs duty to you.

[your-chic-shopper]

e-scrooge

Please note that ~

Canada Post Reps state that "All that is needed on the shipping Manifest Other wise Known as " (Single Item Manifest ) to the United States is the (Name) (State) and the weight for the auction winner . Please do not confuse this with the address on the Package. All info is needed for this . Please remember the Single Item Manifest is never seen by American Customs. Canada Post needs two things to bill you, when you use the single item Manifest
They need the weight and the State
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Tip Two
When shipping threw Canada Post

When you open an account with Canada Post they will give you a customer #. They will then email you their Canada Post logo . Around the logo will be your customer # Canada Post will ask you too place this # on all Packages you ship. If you have ever gotten a catalog in the mail , look at the back . You will see the Canada Post logo with numbers around it . That would be the catalog companies Canada Post #

Next Step

If you use Paypal , most Canadian Powersellers do . Paypal allows you to place your Company logo on the top left hand side of your FREE packing slip they provide. I am going to teach you , how to place your Canada Post # their.


Take the logo you got from Canada Post with your customer # around it . Upload Canada Post logo with your customer # too your web site . Once you have your customer logo on the internet . You now can place that logo , onto your free paypal packing slip .

Why would you do this ???

It will save you huge time in rewriting customers addresses . The free Paypal packing slip can be folded and placed on the top of the box. At that point it's ready to be shipped . Fill out the Customs sticker and your done

In fact if you get fancy , you can place it over the To and From on the Canada Post tracking sticker . This is a huge time saver , email me if you are confused

Another tip soon

[relic]

Here is my tip--if you purchase insurance we know that it covers loss not damage right? which is the biggest scam ever since they can take up to 30 years to deliver a letter! Anyhow, did you know that if something gets damaged and you get the customer (in the US) to file a claim through their local post office Canada Post will pay it. This happened to me a couple of times. Not really high on Canada Post myself I think they are rip offs, especially with no small packet rate in Canada and this awful volume and weight formula. They should do weight equals this like the USPS. Anyhow, we are located in a rural area and our little post office treats us really well with personalized service so its not all bad, i just hate been ripped off and lied to.

[novashores]

My two cents worth:

Venture One - a great program. I hate having to charge Canadian bidders more shipping than to the US, but with venture one, I can get a cheaper expedited mail rate AND include $100 worth of insurance for free. The package gets there very fast and your Canadian customer thinks you're going that extra mile for them. Also - Expedited prices to the US can sometimes surprise you, depending on the state you're shipping to. 5% off helps quite a bit!

Seller Manager Program - USE IT! I started printing off shipping labels with the program - and my packages have been delivered way faster than when I was hand writing them out. Not only saves me time, but the automatic sorters read these packages better and get sorted and delivered faster. My shipping and packaging time has also been cut into a 1/3 since I started using this program. No more spread sheets, data entry to keep track of auction, etc. Highly recommend the program - I had quite an adjustment time with it - but I just love it now.

And the last one I'll post today - do all your shipping from a Canada Post outlet. Search around if you have to, but it's well worth it. With Canada Post - every dang small package was being measured, they are slow and my shipping costs were through the roof. I realize they have to do things by the book, but it was too costly for me. I switched to a local Shoppers Drug Mart, and I haven't looked back since. The girls there are great - they give me breaks on the shipping, more packages go through as lettermail, they are very fast and they don't measure every dang small package for minimum density. They now know me, they know my shipping preferences, they give me tons of extra shipping stickers and forms so I can have them all ready when I get there and we squeeze some things through for cheaper rates. Works for me. Canada Post will give you the forms and stickers as well in advance if you ask.

[your-chic-shopper]

Tip 3

Opening An Account with Canada Post or Venture One Card with Canada Post

First we will talk about Venture One Card. From this point on in this letter called (v0) . You can register for this on the CP site. It will give you 5% off all most all packages across Canada and America . When you bring the package into the postal outlet . You show them your card and get 5% off your shipping

Now let's talk about opening an account with Canada Post. Just like the v0 Card . You can call Canada Post , and open and account with them . www.canadapost.ca
What do you get when you open an account with CP. If you ship over 100 parcels a week they will pick up every day at your home or office for FREE. You tell Canada Post what time you want them too come . If you are not sending 100 Parcels a weeks , CP will charge you $5.00 dollars a week.
Lets say you ship 50-100 packages a week, this means your entitled to level one discount . With this discount you get about a 10% discount off the listed (regular customer) rate

One thing that is really neat , if you like to save 5.00 on the weekly pick-ups. You can still take your packages to the local postal outlet yourself (711 , Drug Store, ) . The only difference is, all your packages are done . All you have to do is hand the postal clerk you Single item Manifests for America , and your Canadian Manifests. They sign the bottom of the manifest, they take the parcels . You then get billed threw Canada Post 2 weeks later.

More tips to come about using the CP Desk Top Program called (VCD)

[your-chic-shopper]

Really good tips from others above as well . ;o)

[catseye*]

Venture One does not give you a discount on small pkt US, only Cdn and Expedited...unfortunately

[catseye*]

Lets say you ship 50-100 packages a week, this means your entitled to level one discount . With this discount you get about a 10% discount off the listed (regular customer) rate

Is this discount applied to ALL services? I ship mainly small pkt US (under 1kg), and occasionally Expedited (and already use my V1 for 5%).

Right now I'm shipping 20-25 parcels a week, but this is my slow time so I'm expecting that to double.

[your-chic-shopper]

You have to call Canada Post

200.g rate is 2.80 ground USA small packet
500.g rate is 4.20 ground USA small packet
900.g rate is 7.40 ground USA small packet

That's with the level one discount

[your-chic-shopper]

catseye* check out www.sparedollar.com . I see you use auctionworks. You might find their prices cheaper . I made the switch from Auctionworks to them . Basically for 5.00 nothing more you get , everything auctionworks has .

[catseye*]

200.g rate is 2.80 ground USA small packet
500.g rate is 4.20 ground USA small packet
900.g rate is 7.40 ground USA small packet

that's counter rate, nothing special there!

[catseye*]

SpareDollar isn't as comprehensive as AuctionWorks is now. I wasn't impressed with them.

[your-chic-shopper]

yeah under 1kg , I believe thier is no discount for both . Canada post accounts , and the Venture one for under 1kg. I am reviewing that right now

[cmagor-ctvi]

Novashores comment about using Postal Outlets rather than a "real" Post Office to get lower prices is something I have experienced too, BUT... just about every time this happened, the item took weeks to be delivered when it should have taken days. Now this may be coincidence, I certainly don't ship enough with Canada Post to be able to be certain about it, but now if they tell me an item only needs one stamp and I know it should be two, I ask them to put two anyway, and I have not had any long delivery times since doing this! For the little bit of shipping with them I do, it's not worth saving a few cents and then end up having to answer repeated emails asking why my customer still didn't receive their item!

Chris.

[e-scrooge]

The reason some deliveries shipped from outlets take so long is, like I said way above, because they don't fill all the CPC fields in. They either don't know it's needed, or are too lazy. I know this as I've found out the hard way over time. Going to the CPC office to ship, everything made it in good time but my cost was about 10% higher on average. Going to Shoppers, some items took a long time to arrive, when I checked my CPC expedited waybills I found the ones taking a long time to arrive were ones which didn't have the blue fields filled out. The worst was Staples - one time the girl there didn't fill any of those fields out on 30 items, I spent weeks answering email and phone calls from irate customers wondering why it was taking 30 days for items to arrive when it should have taken only 7.

[your-chic-shopper]

Tip 4

If you use Canada Post download-able program called VCD. When I used it I found out this little trick that will help

The vcd program when it opens ,you pick the weight and the package you are sending . On the top their is a field you can fill in called "Importer order id". You can place your auction # in this box

What does this do ??

Well if an customer emails you and asks for the tracking . You can do a search in this field for the auction # and the date the box left

Also this Importer ID # is printed on the shipping label as well