Cheap USPS Rates

[amberwoodottawa]

I purchased a wireless keyboard for my PDA on eBay on January 29th.

It was air mailed from California, fully insured on January 30th and arrived this morning at my house February 4th, 3 business days later for a cost of $3.75 US.

I shipped something to someone in Chicago via expedited service on January 27th and received an email from her asking for an update as to when she might expect delivery and I suggested it could arrive as EARLY as Friday.

Silly me, this poor American customer just expected that paying twice for shipping as she would pay a US seller, her product should arrive sooner.

How the heck can we compete with our US counterparts when there is such a difference in shipping rates and for that matter, such a difference in service?

Malcolm

[rd1000]

yep. That's reality we are faced with in just about every government institution in this country. Higher costs and poor service. You can thank the unions and the government that refuses to reign them in.

I have made 3 trips to the US to deliver parcels and the savings are astounding. I just shake my head at the price, options and service with USPS compared to CP.

One of the biggest rip-offs with CP is the non-machinable rate. If a domestic parcel or envelope goes over 2cms, CP automatically charges for a 1 kg package. USPS - 12 cents!! It is scandalous. I guess it costs a lot more for a Canada Post employee to toss the letter in a bin than it does a USPS employee.

If I could not travel to US to ship parcels, I would shut down the business. I cannot compete with the postage rates which means my bottom line is reduced. I wouldn't bother.

Rob

[amberwoodottawa]

Rob,
I am still lucky with what I ship (except my guitars) as customers expect to pay a higher shipping costs to have their musical instruments safely delivered to them.

If we were to look at shipping costs in terms of a percentage of the purchase price, I think people are quite prepared to pay about 10% in shipping of what they paid for the item they bought.

So for me selling some drums for $600 and charging $50 for shipping is no big deal or selling a guitar for $250 and charging $30, it is quite acceptable.

Where people I believe have a real porblem is when they are paying $15 for something that is costing them 50% or $7.50 to have delivered or even $30 and paying $12.00 (40%) for shipping.

There is that threashold with people and unfortunately CP doesnt have the brains or pehaps the need through competition to address it and find a way to offer some competitive solutions.

By the way CP is holding a National Conference in Niagara Falls later this month (beginning on the 19th) and there will be hundreds or perhaps thousands of CP employees being papmered for several days, all expenses paid with awards and cash bonuses being freely given out for purported achievements and contributions by staff.

This update just in case you were wondering where your extra fees to CP were going.

Malcolm

[souranial]

Here's my two cents:

I say we all pool together and form a company that takes canadian packages to the nearest border and ship from there. 😉
forget eBay - thats where the moneys at!

but for real, I had the same problem! I ordered some printer parts from California and I paid 5.00 for shipping and they arrived in 3 days! Out of curiousity, I checked with CP what it would cost for the SAME box SAME weight SAME dimensions to California. This is what I got...

o Arriving in 15 days - $9.90 (THATS ALREADY OVER USPS'S $5 AND 12 DAYS LATE!)
o Arriving within 7 days but not guaranteed to arrive in 7 days - 13.70 (?!!?DONT GET ME STARTED ON THIS ONE)
o Arriving in 5 days - $27.21 WHAT IN THE WORLD!??!?!?! I really wish the government would give CanadaPost a good boot in the behind and say shape up or ship out (no pun intended).

We Canadians should not be at the mercy of this money hungry company!

Thanks for hearing me out!
Daniel

(Check out our new website: www.thepashminawarehouse.com and let me know what you think!)

[amberwoodottawa]

Daniel
Nice touch using basic grey background as it doesnt distract and in fact brings out the colours in your fabrics.

Like they say :Keep it Simple" and your web page does that. Easy to navigate without al the java tricks that clutter up what you are trying to sell and the message you are trying to get across.

Good show.

Malcolm

PS Some of us have bantered around the shipping issue however there are some small problems that arise with some of us and that is regularity of volume. I shipped 75 parcels in December however only 20 in January.

So do we pro rata costs by number of pieces?

On the other hand my parcels range in weight from 2KG up to 29 kg or from 1' in length to 5' in length, so do we prorata costs according to cubic weight/size (CPs' method)?

Or if there are 10 sellers shipping and the cost is $150 for the trip does everyone pay $15 regardless of what they have in addition to USPS postage?

That would be my recomendation.

Malcolm

[whoscloset]

Daniel,

I love this website!

I agree with Malcolm, your eye is immediately drawn to the beautiful colours of the fabrics. Draws you in and makes you want to investigate further. Information is readily available but isn't "in your face" or garish.

Very nice work.

Monique