NIGHTMARE CANADA POST HOLIDAY SHIPPING

[gentle-memories]

We have been in this business for some time...are expert shipper and use EST. I have two whole shipments (we ship daily from Monday to Friday) comprising over 50 packages missing from our Dec 5th and Dec 16th shipping dates. This is now a nightmare...and Canada Post's attitude absolutely sucks. AND just what are we supposed to do...I have angry customers...I am refunding money...reshipping items. Canada Post won't even consider looking at these until they are 45 days old. It is just ridiculous. It has never been this bad in almost 4 years in this business. Moreover, we have an overnight Purolator package missing since Dec 19th...reported to Canada Post...haven't heard back. We have Xpresspost packages that arrived dreadfully late...reported to Canada Post...heard nothing back. I spend over $1000 a month shipping with Canada Post...who the heck can you call to get some explanation for all this? We are "seriously" considering using USPS for all our US shipping (95% of our business) and couriering our mail over the border to Niagara Falls. It is actually cheaper than Canada Post, we would have tracking on each package and our customers would get their packages within 2 - 3 days. Anybody with me...maybe Canada Post would clean up their act if we all started doing this instead of using this service. I am soooooo angry and frustrated with them!
Patty

[sportsdepotonline]

Patty I here you, how do you go about getting mail to USA to delivered by USPS, I would really like that idea,

Fred

[sportsdepotonline]

sorry about spelling, its early, I hear you

[recped]

Canada Post's attitude absolutely sucks

I'm really not sure what they can do for you as the fault almost certainly lies completely with USPS and/or US Customs.

The December 5th stuff has become well known and several reports of missing US bound items from Dec. 15th have surface in the past week or two.

I personally had 5 of 5 missing from Dec. 5th (all non US destinations ok) but 4 of these showed up last week. It would seem that some quantites of December mail have been "lost" in the US system. Considering that mail to 10 other countries from that day were delivered as usual pretty well confirms this as a USPS problem.

Ben
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

[gentle-memories]

Fred,

We have called Fed Ex and UPS and are still deciding which courier we want to use. We opened up a US mailbox in Niagara Falls...just across from the outlet center. First you open up a USPS account and prepare your individual shipments with USPS postage....you package your individual shipments into a separate shipment and have that couriered to your mailbox...where they would just ship the individual shipments directly in the US. You do have to fill out one customs form listing all the goods. The advantage is that both Fed Ex and UPS are both brokers so we would probably clear customs easily. We are seriously considering this....just have to do a bit more research before we actually take the plunge. In the event that Canada Post is listening....I just got my postage bill from Dec 9th to Jan 9th to the tune of $1275.00 which does not include the $200 - $300 per week we spend on lettermail.
Patty

[gentle-memories]

Ben,
It would help if Canada Post customer service were a little more informative. They obviously know that the problem exists...when I called them they could have told me there was a problem...that would have helped alot. Second, if a problem exists they are still the primary service provider. I cannot go after USPS or US customs. They are providing a service that I depend on. If I mess up with a customer through no fault of my own, i.e. this postal situation....I still have an obligation to my customer to fulfil. If I don't I lose business. Canada Post advertises their services to small business and they need to fulfil their contracted obligations in a more timely manner.

[benvenuto1]

We have been lamenting this for a couple of weeks, take a look at other threads, I'm now batting 100, 6 out of 6 shipped on 15th/16th have failed to arrive,
I have contacted CP on numerous occasions, and despite the obvious magnitude of the problem, they are not able to act. Open to any solution
Ian

[gentle-memories]

Ian,
I think it is up to Canada Post to offer a solution. My position is the same...if I contract with a customer to deliver goods to them within a time period...I am obligated to fulfil that contract. By paying Canada Post for a service they have a contract with our company...if they can't deliver...like us...they should offer some kind of compensation even if it is through no fault of their own. That's the way business works. I am losing a ton of money over this mess. I have over 50 packages missing, I am spending alot of time I don't have dealing with this situation, and I have a ton of upset customers to boot!

[recped]

gentle & benvenuto

I don't disagree at all but I think CP are just as frustrated as we are. I'm not sure if Canada Post are really that aware of the scope of the current problem. It only seems to effect mail from the Toronto area (at least the Dec. 5th items).

If it's any consolation, 4 or my 5 missing have been delivered in the past week, hopefully the 15th/16th ones will start showing up soon (I also have a couple of these).

On the positive side, other than these current mia's I've only had 4 other vanish in 5 years and 10,000+ orders mailed.

Ben
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

[gentle-memories]

Ben,
I have to agree with you. I, too, have only had three MIA packages in the past four years. I am just so frustrated right now...every other e-mail sent to us is about this situation and I am so tired of it.

Patty

[gifts_of_elegance]

I found that lot of my packages that went out December 5th seemed to have "disappeared", only to surface weeks later. One just surfaced Jan.13th.

The mail situation seems to be very bad not just going to USA but also coming from USA. Money orders sent to me have taken as long as 24 days from time of posting.

I don't think its really Canada Post's fault but the added security in the USA that is holding everything up.

Its been a nightmare and like everyone else, I am constantly writing letters trying to calm irrate customers.

[moltencore]

We have 3 packages shipped December 15/16th USA small packet AIRMAIL that are misisng. I have now refunded all three's shipping fees and offered profuse apologies. two of the three customers are very understanding but say this is not the first problem they've had with Canada Post and will not be buying ANYTHING from Canada again. The 3rd buyer is whining and complaing up a storm despite my emailing JPEg of the psotal and customs receipt. I can't totally blame him since it's now been a month but it's getting on my nerves since he's the one who's item cost the least. I'm glad to know I'm not alone - this is a real bummer - I am of course applying for refunds from CP on ALL three of these items at the end of the month. 🙂 Gail

[gentle-memories]

Gail,

This is not just limited to small packet mail...it also affected our US lettermail packages. Strange that no one is reporting expedited or Xpresspost packages...did they somehow get sorted from the rest of the mail?

Patty

[recped]

Strange that no one is reporting expedited or Xpresspost packages...did they somehow get sorted from the rest of the mail?

Almost certainly, the few I had at the same time all were delivered quickly. Everthing I mailed on or after Dec. 24th has been showing up just fine or even what I would call "really quick".

Ben
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

[gloriaguides]

It may also be limited to ON. I shipped out about 50+ various sized parcels on Dec 5 from Nova Scotia and had no problems. Every year at Christmas time 1 parcel gets delayed, but it turns up by mid-Jan. This year's was mailed Dec 19 and delivered last week (expedited, so i had a number at least!). Canada Post, in my opinion, does an excellent job, although it is too expensive! Gloria

[gentle-memories]

I have been trying to reach someone at Canada Post all day concerning this problem. I am trying to get some kind of explanation to what exactly happened. If the scope of this issue is as big as I fear they must have some kind of explanation for us...and I would like some reassurance that it won't happen again. Most of my mail from the 5th has been delivered between Friday and yesterday. NONE of my mail from the 14-16th has been delivered. I got a busy signal until 4:00 p.m. and then finally got through only to wait on-line for over 1/2 hour before I finally hung up.
Patty

[shoplineca]

After a year of not being active on this board, I am sticking my head in for the first time on this thread.

CP's attitude was totally unacceptable in my dealing with them over lost or delayed shipments. I almost decided to not sell into the US this Christmas expecting too many problems. I went ahead and I got more problems than I anticipated, especially in light of the low volume I did this Christmas.

In Canada I switched from CP to Greyhound where I negotiated a comparable rate to CPs and have subsequently received some very favourable comments from some customers.

In some instances I shipped something out in the morning and the customers picked their stuff up in their town or city that evening. In fact in a lot of areas even thousands of miles away, a customer would purchase from me Friday morning, I would ship out their item on the Friday afternoon and the customers could pick up their item on Sunday.

This year when calling CP for some info about late shipments into the US I was simply and coldly told that with Expedited, delivery into the US was now taking up to 6 weeks with no guarantees.

I wish someone at CP would have told me that before I started shipping into the US in late November and December. It would have saved me getting emails from over 85% of my US customers wondering where their items were, especially as they ordered my items for Christmas gifts. Many of the emails were pretty nasty and it took alot of heavy duty customer service work to calm these people down.

To top it off, I have damage claims shipping CP into the US this last December. Based on historical volumes (December 2004) the number wouldnt normally be unusual however with so few shipments into the US this year, the number is totally unreasonable and unacceptable.

The really sad thing is even with Canadian shipments, I only shipped twice with CP this December and one out of two of the items arrived damaged, compared to zero damage or late claims with Greyhound and the item was shipped Express Post from my agent in Nova Scotia to a customer in Nova Scotia.

CP is fully resposnible for their relationship with USPS and the services afforded them by USPS. Similarly, they should be working diligently with Customs to ensure timely clearance of items shipped. At the least, we should be regularly advised of anticipated delays so that we can take appropriate or alternative action.

The problem is CP doesnt want us to take alternative steps which may mean our shipping via a courier company so they should therefore take preventative steps to ensure that they deliver within the terms they advertise and not smuggly tell you in late December that Expedited to the US might take upwards of 6-weeks and no more guarantees are there for the service.

I was also surprised when shipping identical items from different CP locations to the US, the huge difference in calculating cubic weight. There is only a standard if your item is perfectly square however, it becomes totally discretionary to arrive at cubic weight when your packaged item is not in a typical square box and no standards are set as to how to arive at the measurement.

So with close to a year off this board as a PS, I am only here for a few days as I am shutting down the business as an active concern thanks to the greed of all the third parties who continually raise their fees and diminish their level of service.

Its been a fun 3 years (or at least some of it has been).

Malcolm

[zarzuella]

Hi Malcolm,

Nice to hear from you again - please stick around!

Ann

[gentle-memories]

Malcom

CP is fully resposnible for their relationship with USPS and the services afforded them by USPS. Similarly, they should be working diligently with Customs to ensure timely clearance of items shipped. At the least, we should be regularly advised of anticipated delays so that we can take appropriate or alternative action.

The problem is CP doesnt want us to take alternative steps which may mean our shipping via a courier company so they should therefore take preventative steps to ensure that they deliver within the terms they advertise and not smuggly tell you in late December that Expedited to the US might take upwards of 6-weeks and no more guarantees are there for the service.

This is my point exactly...our contract is with Canada Post and as a service provider they have a responsibility to those who utilize and pay for their services. AND if expedited service can take upwards of 6 weeks then their advertised services should reflect that fact both on their website and their printed advertising flyers.
As of this morning I am still trying to reach someone in Canada Post. The numbers for their Postal Ombudsman at 1-800-267-1177 has been busy for all of yesterday and today. Their general info number is 1-866-607-6301...I finally got through to that one yesterday at 4:00 p.m. but had to hang up after waiting for over 1/2 hour. Will try again several times today.
Malcom...thank you for contributing to this thread!! Sorry to see you leaving us!
Patty

[gentle-memories]

I finally got through to Canada Post and spoke to a very helpful guy named Henry at the new business center. He actually listened to me and opened up a case file. We are also getting a visit at our business location from a customer service specialist so that we can have our concerns looked after....AND he has contacted my service representative (I never knew I had one) so they can renegotiate my service contact. One step forward......!!!