Parcels getting hung up at boarder anyone else getting this excuse

[r*m*trading]

It seems when I track my parcels after weeks of customers not recieving them CP tells me they are hung up at customes is it normal for parcels to take 2 months to get to people???? And the tracking system you can throw that out the window it either doesnt get updated or my parcels are disappearing...... I am tired of putting in insurance claims. Today I got well you need to be patienct we are entering the busy time of year ....Well when I sent out the parcel Oct 11 ist wasnt xmas them ....what UP with that....irate customers nasty emails are stating to get to me I have been ebaying for may years but this year seems to me a total mess with ebay and Canada post. Someone send me a mantra to get thru this .....ooommmmmmm

[jakeeangel]

How about a map to the nearest border? 😉 Skip crappy post and use USPS. Much better, quicker AND you get delivery confirmation too while still keeping your arms and legs! :^O

---

[whoscloset]

You CAN NOT do business on ebay by using Canada Post.

JMHO
Monique

Himalayan Salt Lamps - A Guide to Purchasing

[zarzuella]

This time I agree with both of you! 😄

[laplaya29]

But I am 200 miles from the nearest border crossing.:_|

[zarzuella]

So am I. Work around it; Monique has good prices for shipping heavier items with UPS, I send my books to the border via courier and it is still cheaper that Canada Post.

[snoopwiz]

Approx 10 months ago, as Canada Posts Expedited Service was getting more and more unreliable, we made the jump to Fed-Ex. Excellent service. Excellent discount structure. Pick up at my door, 5 days a week for the princely sum of $6 a week. I couldn't make one trip to the P.O for that little. Excellent on line tracking system. 99.9% of shipment are on time with at least half of those arriving earlier than expected. Courteous drivers. Huge savings over the P.O. That's the up sides

The down sides are....Lots more paperwork, especially for Canada to US/International destinations. There is a $2 surcharge for residential deliveries (most of what we ship is to a residence). There is also a nasty "surcharge for rural deliveries, above and beyond the $2 residential charges. If you ship anything with a plug (electronics) they also require an FCC form to be filled out each time. Fed-Ex cannot compete, price wise, with Canada Post on small light packages. Fortunately, we rarely ship anything under 15 pounds, with most being in the 20-40 lbs range. Having said this, and weighing out the extra time doing the paperwork (on-line of course) we are still so far ahead of the game, its not even close.

You at least owe it to yourself to call the major couriers, have them send a rep over to see you, show them the type of business you are giving the P.O, which will give you leverage in negotiating a discount with them. Then sit down and do the math. It may or may not work for you. It certainly did for us, in a huge way. Feel free to email us if you have any personal questions about the switchover. Be glad to offer my opinion.

[snoopwiz]

Here is a copy and paste of a random shipment i made through Fed-Ex this week.

Dec 21, 2006 8:12 AM

Delivered

Munster, IN

4:54 AM

On FedEx vehicle for delivery

HAMMOND, IN

2:48 AM

At local FedEx facility

HAMMOND, IN

1:58 AM

Departed FedEx location

CHICAGO, IL

Dec 20, 2006 9:17 PM

Arrived at FedEx location

CHICAGO, IL

9:51 AM

Departed FedEx location

GROVE CITY, OH

5:43 AM

Arrived at FedEx location

GROVE CITY, OH

Dec 19, 2006 7:55 PM

Departed FedEx location

BUFFALO, NY

4:51 PM

Arrived at FedEx location

BUFFALO, NY

4:38 PM

Int'l shipment release

BUFFALO, NY

9:18 AM

Departed FedEx location

MISSISSAUGA, ON

12:45 AM

Arrived at FedEx location

MISSISSAUGA, ON

Dec 18, 2006 7:42 PM

Left origin

WHITBY, ON

6:08 PM

Arrived at FedEx location

WHITBY, ON

9:03 AM

Picked up

WHITBY, ON

3:22 AM

Package data transmitted to FedEx

Toronto, ON

Dec 18 ship, Dec 21 arrival....3 days from the moment it was picked up at my place in Toronto until delivery in Indiana, USA. Oh and by the way, I compared what I paid to have it shipped against C.P's website and was still ahead $4 on a $26 ship charge. We shipped 4 items to similar locations in the USA on Monday and ALL arrived today. Did I mention that the courier picked it up from my door? I did? just making sure now, ya know. 🙂

[u-deserv-it]

wow!!! fantastic tracking!! sure beats CP'S online tracking..dec10-2006 accepted...mar 10-2007-delivered 😛
i have to say i think its a little laziness on my part, and a reluctance to change for not switching over to fedex. i did a bit of comparison research between the two, and its true, in alot of cases, fedex is probably the same price with WAAAAAAAAY better speed, tracking and reliability..plus they pick up at the door. although, in some cases, cp's prices were better.

snoopwiz--is there a way to print/pay for shipping online with fedex the same way we can now with paypal/canada post?

[snoopwiz]

"snoopwiz--is there a way to print/pay for shipping online with fedex the same way we can now with paypal/canada post"

Not having ever gone the print/pay route with CP, i'm not really sure what that entails. We do our Fed-Ex paperwork on line however, for payment, they keep a credit card number of ours on file and give us the choice as to how often to bill us. Every week, two weeks monthly, etc.

As much as I would love to support CP, they lost our business a year ago and from everything we hear from other sellers, the situation there has not improved. We will be staying where we are for now.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah.

[futuretech_liquidations]

snoopwiz - what about the brokerage costs and also the surcharges that FEDEX charges for shipments to Residential address and also if the package it out-of-the-commercial zone..I hear these costs can add anywhere from 2-5US per item.

I know the shipping is much faster but have you factored in those extra costs -- with CP you do not have these extra costs.

[bestshowtime]

You can open claim with CP for regular delivery after 30 days,for express same day if item not delivery in time and get your refund. That what you can do, nothing more.

[snoopwiz]

Well aware of the $2 surcharge (and potential 2-4 dollar extra for ultra-rural locations) however, when I still weigh that against daily trips to the P.O. gas, time there and back PLUS the inevitable wait-in-line time, its still to my financial advantage using Fed-Ex. If I was shipping 2 kgs and under, no, Fed-Ex would not be for me however, almost all our parcels are 20-50 lbs, with ship charges of $20-45. The potential few extra dollars I may be hit with is usually buried within my auction ship quotes.

[snoopwiz]

Futuretech. Couriers will most often insist on using a brokerage service on items over $200 going to the USA. CP/USPS use the same guidelines. It is important to mention in your auction descriptions that the recipient is responsible for any taxes/duties/brokerage charges that may be levied by their country on incomming parcels.

[bestshowtime]

I belief that you got answer from snoopwiz

[djbullet2005]

Snoopwiz:

Just like you, I switched over to FedEx for certain shipments.

I will explain my experience with FedEx to show both sides. You are correct about the FCC forms. What a headache it was when they got to the border and I had to play telephone tag trying to figure out how to send this form out to them. I specifically asked for them to guide me through my first shipment by holding my hand through the computer order process. They asked me what the item was; they must have thought there was a shortage of fruit in Texas when I told them I was shipping a Blackberry. They forgot to mention to send an FCC form as well. Long story short, I called, complained and received an apology and my shipping credited back to me 😄

This is what an FCC form looks like: https://gtm.fedex.com/DOCASSIST?cntry_code=ca_english

You have to know where the product was manufactured and the manufacturers' address etc.

FedEx perks:

1. FREE SUPPLIES! WOW! Better than Canada Post's (Free eBay packs that have no padding etc.), you can actually order Bubble envelopes, packing slips, and more! These bubble envelopes cost $2.50 alone at the post office. Now here is the draw back, you have to use those supplies with FedEx Express not Ground. Solution: turn them inside out. The labels them selves don't matter. Once the item is shipped it won't be returned. So be nice to your pick up driver or store 😛

2. Pickup service: No need to weigh the items! Just provide the first number that pops in your head in the online shipping section. They will weigh your item in the center.

3. Drop off service: some areas there are 24hr stores like Kinko's where you can drop them off and there are ground drop off's in boxes available as well. This is great when I work around the clock or have a nightclub gig (djing) and my schedule is just flipped!

4. Customer service is so far good with the problems I mentioned above

5. When filling out the shipping label online, you can enter an e-mail address of the customer and your email and have it automatically tell you if the shipment is in "exception" or "delivered". It also saves default information as well. On top of that, they also have a program you can download as well if you don't want to use the online version great for people in rural areas with dial up.

Now for items that I sell over $200 I'm confused as to how my customers pay the brokerage. Normally it costs about $18 for the base fee for brokerage according to FedEx. Supposedly the customer is supposed to pay for that but I received a bill in the mail asking me to pay. Not sure why but when I called FedEx, they mentioned the customer actually needs a broker! I find that this is such a hassle for someone to find a broker company to get a simple shipment.

6. Detailed print outs of shipping information mailed to you! Find out if you are losing or profiting off your shipping with full page details on each shipment!

7. If you have a customer that already has a shipping account with FedEx, you can just bill the receiver directly without having it come off your account!

8. You are also able to find accurate quotes on shipping by specified by "zones" I received an e-mail with detail pricing for the base fee for each area. Gives a great idea of how much it costs to ship almost anywhere!

9. Other than that, I find FedEx to be great for the bigger items!


Tip: when you call in let them know you think you will be shipping between 300-1000 items a week to get the best shipping discount. They haven’t called me to find out why my shipping doesn’t match anything what I mentioned but I still see the discounts applied to my receipts.

Bulut

If anyone has any questions about FedEx Ground feel free to contact me

[alero0]

Bulut
I've been using Fedex Ground for over 2 years now and I've never had a lost package. Much more efficient than CP. Packages sent from Quebec to California usually take about 8 days (or less) to arrive where as CP expedited can take from 2 to 3 weeks for about the same price. Their tracking is fantastic, packages are scanned at every stop that they make so you know exactly where your shipment is at all times.

Now for items that I sell over $200 I'm confused as to how my customers pay the brokerage. I spoke to one of the Fedex agents at their border crossing locations when I had a shipment over $200. He actually contacted me when my package passed through his hands asking me for my broker info. I told him that the recipient is to be charged any brokerage fees but he told me that unless I had his broker info. I had to pay for it and collect the money from my buyer personally. The only way you can have your buyer pay for brokerage is if when filling out the online manifest you put the recipients Fedex account # where it says Bill duties/taxes/fees to: Also note that this is only good for Fedex Express shipments not Ground. As far as I see it there's no way around this unless you lower the commercial invoice to a value under $200. For shipments well over $200. I just bite the bullet and ship CP.

Tip: when you call in let them know you think you will be shipping between 300-1000 items a week to get the best shipping discount. When I first opened my account I told them that I expect to ship about 30 packages a month (which was about accurate)and they gave me what they called an incentive discount of 9%. By saying you'll be shipping between 300-1000 items a week did you get a bigger discount? If so I'll try to re negotiate my discount.

FREE SUPPLIES! WOW! The free supplies are great and I also just turn them inside out, but I use the Fedex boxes. (cut them and re tape them reversed. For the Bubble Envelopes is this also possible? Are they lined inside so that the bubble padding isn't exposed? If that can be done I think I'll change to those envelopes.

Harvey

[djbullet2005]

Harvery

I haven't had a lost package either with FedEx and the detailed tracking details can eliminate customer service questions and create excitement for the buyer on when to look forward to their item.

Free Supplies: I shipped boxes of shoes with the bubble on the outside. You could make your own lining depending on how creative you can get. You could use a clear tape roll, brown paper, newspaper, or Canada Post's free eBay packs (reversed) with FedEx lining. B-). Another method is to put the item in and fold the bubble wrap in half.

DiscountsI'm not sure what the discount rate I have is but the maximum you can go up to is 15% I believe or if you work at FedEx, you can get up to 75% if I remember correctly. Imagine charging ground prices for express service!

Brokerage That sentence very well outlines my situation I was not aware about. The only drawback is that the item is not fully insured. Another one might be that if the government decides to audit you (if you are a business collecting taxes) they want to see shipping receipts for sale of goods made outside Canada. When you present the receipts and the item sold the numbers will not match. Do you think they would really care about the value you put on the items? I'm not sure? When I used to make purchases some sellers would not mark the item as a "gift" or lower the value because they report their sales to the "IRS." It could be paranoia who knows?

[djbullet2005]

Where's the edit button? 😮 It got a little too bold.

[snoopwiz]

Their discounts DO go over 15%. It all boils down to the number and total weight of boxes you are going to ship with them and, of course, how good your negotiating skills are on that particular day while discussing with their rep.