Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 11:45 AM
Or how about the Canadian they lives within your own town . You ship Canada Post and they take 12 days to get it too him . Now that was a hard letter to write
Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 11:54 AM
I always groan when I have to ship across the country. Less than 5% of my customers are Canadians, so I just use a fixed rate for US and Canada...and always go a little in the red when shipping within Canada.

Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 12:04 PM
Ann
Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 12:10 PM
Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 12:35 PM
Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 01:29 PM
Unfortunately I still get plenty of complaining and worse, people wanting to do local pickup, which is a gigantic hassle.
I'm amazed that so many people get such a small percentage of Canadian customers. I find approximately 40-50% of my bidders are Canadian. I sell laptops on occasion and 90% of them are sold to Canada, I don't even get any US bidders. I have no clue why.
Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 01:35 PM
Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 01:45 PM
Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 02:22 PM
Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 03:07 PM
Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 04:14 PM
If suddenly one shipment goes over I don't go nuts either. I am covered.
If I see a .ca in an e-mail address I always invite the buyer to come and pick up their item if they live in Toronto and save the shipping. Some do, some don't. They do appreciate me asking though.
One thing I have noticed about eBay (and I am no expert, I have been at this just over a year). The buyers do not seem to think they have the same responsibilties/ obligations/courtesies required for retail. And they should have even MORE because they are dealing with a human, not a conglomerate. They would never pull HALF this crap with Canadian Tire, Holt Renfrew or Chapters! The price stated is the price stated. End of story.
And don't they realize there is feedback on the other side?

Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 04:28 PM
Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 04:30 PM
I find a flat rate won't work for me. If I send a vhs tape to the US, I can send it for around $4.25. To send that same vhs tape, it will cost around $8.40 to go to Vancouver.
My dilemma is I don't want to charge US buyers extra to "cover" the extra fees for the Canadian shipping, nor do I want to "eat" the extra to send to Canadians. I find that putting in my Terms of Sales in the auction that the bidder needs to contact me, if in Canada, hasn't been a problem. Takes me less than 2 minutes to plug the figures into the calculator on the Canada Post website, and another minute to answer the email. No biggie.
Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 06:37 PM
I look forward to a long, long relationship!

Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 08:58 PM
I did a quick check and, of the last thirty Canadian buyers, only one added the tax. Most will make a quick PayPal payment and ignore the taxes even though my auctions are quite clear (as is my end of auction email). It is a constant frustration that I have to refund the PayPal payment and send an invoice for the correct amount. I get regular grief from buyers because of this. I even changed my auctions to US bidders only for awhile but the nasty grams and hate mail I got as a result drove me to accept Canadian bidders again. It appears that even though all of my auctions were listed through the USA site (and shown as "Will ship to the USA only"), eBay.ca was still making the auctions readily visible to all Canadian bidders... even when they specified "available to Canada" in their searches.
S/H is also a major difficulty. I can ship a small item (under 250 g) all over the USA for $2.80 but it costs me $5.22 to Toronto for the same item - and the GTA is only an hour from me!!! How can you explain something that whacked to customers?? I don't understand it either!
Yes, I also get the regular requests for pick-ups but I decline every one. I sell relatively inexpensive items and a pick up consumes far too much of my time. I don't want to be unreasonable but a pick up always leads to a general discussion about eBay in general and I can't afford to take an hour out of my day for a $30 sale.
One of my other frustrations is that most of my very slowest payers have been Canadians for some reason. I haven't figured this aspect out yet.
Whew.... sorry about the venting but it's been building for a few years. I'm glad there is now a Cdn. PS board and I'll try to keep my griping to a minimum in future. :<)
Bill
Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 09:18 PM
I ask for payment first, then on the day they want to pick up I put the pkg outside my door and give them the address.
works like a charm, and no hassle for me.

Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-13-2003 09:54 PM
Treasure-Pot, I hear you. I live around an hour north of Toronto and find the same thing. It is ridiculous seeing that all my parcels probably clear though Toronto anyway, so for me to send a parcel to Hawaii for $2.80 and that same parcel for $5.22 seems beyond ludicrous.
The truth of the matter about shipping costs though, is very simple. Here in Canada our country is HUGE in landmass, with a VERY small population considering the physical size. We still have to service the whole country with mail. It's funded by the volume of mail generated each day, in both countries, but when you consider the difference in volume each day and yet here in Canada it still has to service a county that is larger in size, it's definitely going to cost us a lot more.
It still doesn't answer why the parcel costs so much more to go from an hour away from Toronto, than one going to Hawaii, or Alaska, or CA when it's going to clear through Toronto.
I do find though that I always make it very clear to my Cdn. buyers that it's not me charging that amount, but that it's Canada Post, and I can honestly say I've never had one complain or get angry with me.
Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-14-2003 12:19 AM
Keep in mind that a ten fold larger population only means that USPS can send ten trucks from point A to point B whereas CanadaPost would send one. Many costs of moving the mail are fixed (wages, fuel, vehicles, etc.) whether north or south of the border so I wouldn't rush to use that as a defence for the astronomical postage we are required to pay for service within Canada.
I stand to be corrected, but CanadaPost also employs many private contractors to reduce it's costs in moving the mail. I believe much more so than USPS.
No much of the high cost of moving the mail within Canada must fall at the feet of the postal unions that work so diligently to protect their membership. Although fewer in recent years, Canada has always suffered postal disruptions that wind up raising the costs of a basic stamp. I'm trying to remember when I last heard of a general postal disruption on the south side of the border but it just isn't coming to me.
The introduction of the Expedited Parcel-USA service is a perfect indicator of how our system has gone wrong. Bravo that we can finally secure DC and for just a 20% increase in rates.
The use of the word Expedited to describe the service was obviously determined by a marketing type because the service is far from that. I am currently trying to explain to a customer in California why her package (shipped Aug 29th) still has not reached her. In fact, the DC # does not yet appear in the USPS system. A quick check reveals that CanadaPost scanned the item in Kitchener/Waterloo on the 29th and next in Mississauga on the 6th of Sept. (an hour away). A call to CanadaPost gets the response that if I wanted it in California sooner I should have used ExpressPost.
No, I'm afraid that much of the reason for our extremely high postage costs are as a result of too many inefficiencies in the system and the prevailing attitude within the rank and file of CanadaPost that customers can like it or lump it. The unfortunate part of it is that Canadian business has to compete in a world market when we already have so many millstones around our neck. CanadaPost just happens to be one of the larger ones.
Bill
Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-14-2003 01:31 AM
I find it odd that someone working in the PO makes as much or more than some police officers and other types of occupations. (depending on length of service etc)
Not Canadian Bash ~~But do you find Canadian ebayers harder to deal with
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09-14-2003 12:14 PM
I'm close enough to literally drive across with my packages and mail them from Buffalo, but getting the stuff across the border would be nearly impossible.
