Canada Post-eBay Flat Rate Box With Special Introductory Rates

[whatnerds]

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/ca/200805.shtml#2008-05-08140317


Look that the big difference, hold on I will be back need to goto the washroom. Thanks.

Sukh
(Dream About Comics)

[lina-mallows]

Is this the FLAT RATE XPRESSPOST box, formerly called a "BIRTHDAY BOX"- and it had balloons all over it?

If so- it held something about as big as a sweater, or about ONE+ ONE HALF Toronto WHITE PAGE Phone books.

Shipping NATIONALLY they were great from TORONTO to the interior of BC, or almost anywhere in NWT region.

With a service guarantee they were virtually always LATE- and therefor the cost was refunded.

So, it didn't matter how much they cost at the time of purchase- it was THE BIG picture of Canada Post's lack of meeting their own GUARANTEED delivery times that really mattered.

ONLY AT SHOPPERS DRUG MART- Recently- Canada Post AND HALLMARK Cards teamed up to offer a C$3.99 FLAT RATE XPRESSPOST MAILER. NATIONAL XPRESSPOST- for UNDER C$5.oo- WITH a GUARANTEED Delivery time- who could resist!

We bought HUNDREDS of these! A an absolute bargain at this price.

Historically- BLACK'S Camera stores offered a similar PREPAID XPRESSPOST MAILER for about $3.oo. Few people ever knew they existed. They were designed to ship about 20-30 5" x 8" prints. HOWEVER- they were without a weight limit- and worked nationally. So, they had some pretty decent advantages.

[tea_past_times]

Seems the majority has spoken, it's crap!!

[g-manthebossman]

is there a link for me to find out more about the flat rate boxes i happen to be one of the 1 or 2 out of a thousand sellers that can find a use for it so i am very interested.

[recped]

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/ca/200805150958052.html

[bits-n-pieces]

Well - a great big THANKS FOR NOTHING to Canada Post - although I shouldn't have expected anything else. I'm happy for anyone who can actually use these useless size boxes but I'm not one of them. Too big for small light things that will ship under 1K to the US much cheaper and not big enough for anything else.

I ran a bunch of numbers for items 1 to 2 K to various US destination in the ebay box. No way is this a deal at all. At 1.5 K the ebay size box would only cost $15.05 to New York - their flat rate of $17.99 plus 0.65 for the box is no bargain. To Florida - $18.40 and that same package to CA would be $19.21 - a very modest saving. Not worth the effort.

There are savings if the package is in the 3.5 to 5K range, but I can't think of anything heavy that I usually sell that would fit in a box the size of a large city phone book.

I (as well as many others) mail thousands of cartons a year as Canada Post well knows. Why did they not do a poll and ask us what size cartons we most often use them come up with something that might be helpful ! I'm still po'd about having to pay for the plastic envelopes now.

More smoke and mirrors......and remember this is only an introductory rate for the softest selling period of the year.

Getting a refund when the package within Canada doesn't arrive within the guaranteed time is a joke. It has to be scanned in at the destination to prove that. Amazing how often those late parcels miss getting scanned........

[jerseypros]

Anyone seen the picture of the box in the newspaper?

They should have just printed STEAL ME on the side!

[jeffglobal]

Wow, just plain ridiculous yet again. Should we be suprised with this latest let down? Sad, sad year 2008 is turning out to be for eBay sellers.

[recped]

Nobody is forcing you to use these boxes!

While I agree that these things are next to useless for many/most sellers for those that can make it work it's better than a poke in the eye.

I don't see how you are "let down" when you didn't even know these things would exist two weeks ago.

[coxengines]

Well said, recped.

Don't some (most) people love to focus on the negative?

I have no use for these boxes with my 100gr shipments but the offer is of no detriment to me, whereas some seller might profit!

Xena

[recped]

Don't some (most) people love to focus on the negative?

They do! It's a convenient excuse for their shortcomings.

I want it to be clear that in my 35 years as an independent entrepreneur I've had many more failures than successes and while these failures may have been helped along by the actions of others the root cause of all of them was that I didn't know what I was doing and/or didn't put out enough effort. The one things I did do was to learn from my mistakes rather than simply lay the blame elsewhere, admittedly I often had to repeat the same mistakes before catching on.

I'm still making mistakes but I've used my experience to ensure that the ones I make now are less than fatal.

[dipmicro]

Laying the blame is one thing, many successful people do it, in fact that's how they became successful. Most high-positioned well-paid people love laying blame.

Some people come to the bar every night (every Friday) siting with their buddies and the beer and talking about how unfair everything is. Usually they are not highly positioned well-paid managers, but a guys stuck in a dead-end job, which they hate but did not do anything to change it.

[recped]

Hey I can play the blame game as well as anyone but I also know the reality....there is no free lunch!

[coxengines]

You are the creator of your own destiny!

Everything that happens to you is a result of choices you have made, actions you have taken and what your thoughts were during the course of your actions.

Also, there is no such thing as "failure", only constructive memories of how not to approach a task. Besides, as an adjective, the word only has the value you assign it in your mind.

Life is an incredible opportunity to enjoy all this planet has to offer and it is your choice to enjoy or feel sorry for yourself.

A rainy day might be a cause to grumble for a beach-goer, but a reason to celebrate for a farmer. As I always say, "It's all in your head".

The gist of my post being, if you don't like the flat-rate box, don't buy it. It didn't exist before, so just pretend it was never offered to you.

Xena

[ddc*stuff]

I didnt get a free offer under this ID but I have another seller ID that I was selling under but stopped. They send me a code for 1 packet of 3, no handling fee. It would have been nice to give us all one of those.

I find it disappointing that under an ID where I've sold nothing in the last 6 months I get 3 free. Yet under an ID where I average 90 packages a month they dont give me anything.

[hope81026]

I don't get it (literally!) either.
I have 3 Ids none of them got this offer and what is really severely peeing me off is that I did not receive a notice on any 3 of these Ids regarding the recent 50 cent price reduction from the 7th to the 14.
I absolutely cannot regular ebay listing fees all the time. They are simply too expensive.
I count on offers like these to keep me afloat.
I guess it's just another glitch :-(.

[craftycatsattic]

Useless box size: Canada Post just got back to me and the 8.5 x 11 dimesnions are exterior dimensions so this box will not accomodate most magazines or leaflets. From the number crunching I did, it would also have to be filled up to the top thus using up the maxiumum space to result in only a modest amount of savings (even with the introductory rate) and the contents would be extremely vulnerable to damage which as you know, we sellers are responsible for properly packaging our items.

I really do not see how this box can be of benefit to anyone other than those that don't want to fuss with figuring out the postage of all the other services to offer their customers the best rate. EBay promoted this box as a "gift" to us sellers, but it's really a Trojan Horse. I think most of us know our postage and won't be using these boxes as a shipping staple so it wouldn't surprise me to see this phased out sometime in the future.

[tea_past_times]

Our whole democratic system of government is based on ctiticism & response. That's why the opposition parties have a labour critic, a finance critic, etc. etc.

Without someone pointing out the shortcomings nothing changes.

Take the Maxime Bernier thing for example. Harper did not change the foreign affairs minister until the criticism became so loud and embarassing he had to. Otherwise we would still have the Hell's Angels reading our private documents.

Some people need to learn that criticism is necessary and stop ragging on those who are trying to reverse changes made to Ebay since January.

[tea_past_times]

The people in charge often don't know what they are doing. That is why we tell them how we feel.

[vesivus]

Hey recped & xenalook.

It is true that laying blame does not gain you anything, other than venting.

I will say, however, that eBay does do quite a bit of 'propagandizing' (is that a word? ha)

They say they're doing things for the sellers in the press/news/forums to make things look good for the general public, possibly their shareholders, and to attract new sellers, but we actual sellers behind the scene know that most of their offers are all but useless to the vast majority of people.

Seriously, this is the complaint -- not just 'laying blame'. When eBay stops screwing the vast majority of sellers over and actually does something to help MOST of us, not .5% of us, I'll be amazed.

So far, the VAST MAJORITY are losing money, getting bumped down in best match, paying MORE fees than ever for WORSE service, being fed a bunch of lines that things are 'getting better' for us when in fact overall they are getting quite worse.

A few -- and I do mean a very few -- have benifitted from the 'new policy' and 'new rules' that eBay has put out, and if you two are them, good for you.

For me, personally, it's just another sign that a great channel for sales (eBay) is no longer a 'great channel'. It's a poor channel compared to others out there now thanks to the stifling fees and control mechanisms. It's just sad, that's all.

John

[vintageshirtsbybob]

This new box tool is no help to me, its more expensive than using Expedited with my own packaging. I can send a ball cap to Portugal for $7.90, but its ~$12.00 to Vancouver.
Why?
robert8104