I LOVE the flat rate boxes!

[lovebuguniverse]

Anyone else using the flat rate boxes regularly?

Has it helped your business?

The only major issue is the cost to the U.S. especially when the intro prices go back to normal.

I had a U.S. Customer that told me (lol) to send her items in a Priority flat rate box as it was MUCH cheaper than the price I gave her ($15.99). I had to explain in two emails that I didn't have any other flat rate box but the Canada Post one and that was the price I had.

I've been now offering a $2 discount when it's filled up 3/4 or more and it's working really well especially for competing with the U.S. sellers boxes.

[faerywishes]

I think they are a good tool as well. Not great but good. I offer $15.00 US right now and I am going to try it next month as well for the same.

I have used 2 I think since I got them. One went to the Netherlands, but I had to cover it of course. But it worked really well. And for the cost of the box I thought that was a great deal. 🙂

[lovebuguniverse]

That's so funny! I thought about using it overseas since it's a great lightweight and sturdy box but I wasn't sure.. I will try that if needed.

You should try the $2 knock off, I've used about 15 of them so far and people seem to really like that deal, especially the poor Canadians who have those terrible parcel prices. I might do a half price deal for subscribers too, see how that goes.

[faerywishes]

Hiya lovebuguniverse

I just went and checked out your store. Very nice, very impressive. I really liked that it isn't busy at all and very easy to read. I also really liked some of the items you sell. I will definitely be back for a better look.

One thing, I have noticed on several sellers stores that they state "I am not responsible for your package once it leaves my possession if it is damaged or lost unless you purchase insurance". Or something close to that. In yours you put to "contact paypal or your shipping carrier".

I have asked paypal and ebay and have been told that that kind of statement means nothing and if the buyer chooses to dispute we the seller would lose. Ebay also said we would pretty much insure a negative feed back.

Does anyone here know the real story about this kind of thing or had any experience wtih it?

[lovebuguniverse]

Hey faerywishes!

I know, it was a huge mistake (the "I'm not responsible..." bla bla) and literally after I updated my listings I read about how I shouldn't do that lol.

I am just waiting until my designer makes me a new policy and faq page and then when I go in to update the listibgs I can remove that horrible line.

Thanks so much for mentioning it, at the time I wrote it I thought it made sense but no matter what your policy on that is people still write you saying "Hey where's my package?".

Maybe open the question as a new thread to see what more expeienced Powersellers have to say?

[faerywishes]

Hiya Justine

I realize I shouldn't respond to any threads in here late at night or early morning I should say. I realize now I shouldn't have asked this question in here...lol.

Have a Wonderful Day and a Great Week at Selling

ColleenB-)

[ampurtle]

I like and use the CP flat rate box when appropriate, but it's just a little too small compared to the USPS flat rate box so in many cases it's cheaper to use expidited unless you go over 2kg.

I'm not quite sure what you would need to put in the flat rate box to come up to 5 kilos... 2 bricks ? 4000 glass marbles ?

It does work well for my 500gm coffee cups, but you really need to be shipping 4 to make it palletable to the buyer, but even so, it's really the only soulion for those coffee cups.

I don't worry about the discount. considering the discount was 3 months and I might use 1 box a week at best, I chose to charge the regular price rather than try to explain why I was ripping people off by charging more when the discount ends 😜

[ampurtle]

Reclaiming lost funds from parcels gone missing etc is a very straight forward issue for Canadian sellers using Canada Post, which I use exclusively.

The ONLY person who can submit a claim to CanadaPost is the shipper. End of story.

If you make a claim for a lost parcel to Canada Post and they determine it was the fault of USPS, they will recover funds from USPS for their portion of the trip or possibly the entire amount. But Canada Post will be resolving the issue with the shipper directly.

If a buyer claims not received, it's pretty straight forward. If it is a parcel, Canada Post will send someone into the bilge of the ship to check to see it it's there, they are very tenatious about lost parcels.

If it is lettermail, you have no claim, but you should still make a claim as Canada Post has a lost and found that would be checked.

Parcels that arrive damaged need proof. Do not issue a refund for a damaged or opened item until the buyer has supplied pictures so you can provide CanadaPost with proof.


Make sure that A) you get it before issuing a refund and B) only accept an actual picture or graphic scan.

It's a scam buyers use to provide an OCR scan of the label only which proves nothing. Insist on a graphic image clearly showing the issue and the label, specifically the electronic encoding on the label as well as the tracking number.

Be polite and curteous, but insist that proof must be supplied as outlined in order for you to recover the funds from Canada Post.