Canada Post leaving parcels on porch and in door, and the fairness of reversals, restrictions, etc.

[kismet-toronto]

I have pretty much quit buying on Ebay, unless the items are extremely inexpensive. Over the holidays, I lost several hundred dollars due to purchases pilfered by passersby, most of them destined for the troupe I manage. There were professional consequences also. My Paypal account was restricted as a result of the multiple reversals. Is this fair? I have of course since researched PO box options, etc.

[pinetreecottage]

If you ask the seller to ship with signature confirmation, the mailperson will not leave your parcel.  If you're not home when they come, they will leave a card, then you go to the postoffice to sign for and get your mail.  That's the only safe way to send and receive mail.

[femmefan1946 · Accepted solution]

I hope that in addition to renting a Post Office box, or using the troupe’s address if there is coverage during normal business hours, you spoke with the PostMaster about your losses.

This would be at the Post Office and not at the Postal Outlet. You need Canada Post not the manager of a drug store. Canada Post should be instructing the postie about the problems of leaving packages unguarded.  The normal system is to leave a card instructing you to pick up at a PO.

And when an item is expensive, your seller needs Delivery Confirmation and possibly Signature Confirmation to win an Item Not Received Paypal claim.

You should also be reporting all those doorstep thefts to the local police. They will give you case numbers, which can be useful with a PP claim. PP does get suspicious when a lot of claims are made in a short time, but police reports are not usually filed by scammers. Also it gives the local patrols something to watch for.

[kismet-toronto]

Unfortunately it took a while before I realized parcels were going missing. They were all bought the same week, and around Christmas, so I expected a delay. Since they were all over a hundred dollars, I guess I assumed they'd be sent more securely. At first I suspected our tenants, whom we were trying to evict at the time. They had in fact sent some packages back, to be jerks. I spoke to the post-mistress (at the drug store, I'm afraid) and she apologized, but because there was no proof (what, like video footage?) could do nothing. She also said that at Christmas they farm out to freelancers, to deal with the overflow. It wasn't my normal delivery person, or even one normal person, apparently. The troupe's address is mine. Since we're  entertainers, we have no venue, per se. I haven't rented a PO Box yet, because we don't go on the road again until June, but will do this if need be. The neighbours I spoke with (in the course of trying to determine the problem) had the same issues with careless delivery.

[kismet-toronto]

Sorry, I didn't reply to the police thing. I called them, and they told me I had to have a name to file a report, or some evidence they were taken, like a witness. It is hard to prove the absence of something, and there were tracking numbers only on two things. Great. I could probably get documentation that I called them, approached the postie, etc., but offered, and was told not to bother, basically.