eBay

ospreylinks · ‎01-16-2004

I received a note from Canada Post before Christmas that my agreement was being reviewed and I would no longer be able to use manual manifests after Jan. 19th.. (you all know, the $5.00 charge for manual manifests.... ).

In any event, I decided to try out the CP on-line service... it is cumbersome and slow and a real pain in the a$$. Not to mention, that it doesn't allow me to charge shipping to my CP account, but only to a credit card.

So I call CP techincal support to see what can be done, and the very helpful (and I mean that truthfully) lady on the other end indicates that I should download and install the CP desktop shipping software.

So I go ahead and download and install it....go to do two shipping orders tonight and I struggled through 45 minutes of hell (when manually I would have had them both done in 5 minutes with time for a washroom break).

So who here is using this crappy software.... when I click on it to load, it takes 3-5 minutes just to load, then when you mouse-over the menu options the fonts are distorted and you can't read them.....

Anyways, call going out to CP in the AM and they can take this crappy software and shove it....

From here on I'm taking all my parcels with addresses on them, dropping them at my Canada Posts counter with my V1 card and get my discount that way and they can do the paperwork.... If they want me to do the keypunching for them, they better give me better and faster tools.

Jeff

acurael · ‎01-17-2004

haha, ok I got it now... explode into fragments, then reselect the powerpaste thing 😄

Seems I just answered my own questions. Now it'll break the whole address into seperate pieces.

Cool app! I don't need city/state with the UPS software though, just name,address and zip - but this is still better than flipping back and forth.

Thanks!

Wade

your-chic-shopper · ‎01-17-2004

good to here Wade ..I can not take all the credit for this program "Work in progress" showed it to me .

phoebescollectables · ‎01-17-2004

Hi Wade,

One thing to remember is that the exploding power paste relies on certain characters to determine how to explode an address into fragments.

The default charcters that are used as delimiters are commas, periods, colons, semi-colons, tabs and line-breaks (they can be changed by going into the Pasting tab in user preferences.

Besides using it for CP software it has a lot of other handy uses.

ospreylinks · ‎01-23-2004

Okay.... as the author of this thread it is time of an update...

After using the software for about a week now, I say it does have its problems including slow loading, slow screen refresh, terrible mouse over text distortions.

But in terms of doing the job, I must now give it a passing grade.

One of the things that the software does if you desire it to do so, is notify the customer via email of a pending shipment, including a link to go to the tracking numbers (providing the item you are sending generates a tracking number), but one of the things that I just found out is that if you select expedited or better service, it also sends you an automatic confirmation of receipt of the parcel.....

Jeff

ospreylinks · ‎01-26-2004

I normally send golf clubs to the US via UPS. Just for a lark I decided to use the CP desktop software to figure out the price of sending a golf club to the US.

Dimensions of the box this club is to be shipped in are 48"x6"x4" with an actual weight of 2lbs.

So I go into the old CP software, punch in all of these numbers, select Commercial Expedited Parcel USA and get the error message that this box does not meet the minimum size requirments. However, if I select Small Parcel USA Ground (or air I presume), there is no problem and the rate is unbelievable at only $8.50. (meanwhile, back in the old days of manual manifests, we use to ship this same box Expedited and get charged for an oversized item.)

So then I decide to try the same on the on-line shipping tools and low and behold, I get the same error message.

Seems strange to me, so I then go to the old on-line rate inquiry web-site that Canada Post operates and punch in all of the same info, and this time the rate quotes are for Expedited and better services only.

So I can CP help desk with my problem.....which service is applicable, which rate is correct, if I select the wrong level of service, will my parcel be delivered, will I be assessed extra freight, even though the software quoted me the small rate.....?????

Turns out....okay you're not gonna believe this....there is a flaw in the software when it comes to assigning service levels based on the dimensions of a package. This package should not be eligible for Small Parcel USA at all, it should go Expedited or better.

So I query the operator.... if I sent the package based on the output by the program, would my item be delivered?, would I be charged additional fees? etc. Of course the tech help guy had no idea.....

The solution is not to enter any dimensions of the package where asked.... only a weight. If the parcel is longer than 1 meter, you must check off for oversized.

Way to go CP!!!!

Jeff

amberwoodottawa · ‎01-26-2004

And oversize as an automatic $7 surcharge.
Malcolm

ospreylinks · ‎01-26-2004

Now $7.50 up from $7.00

Jeff

weedsellit4u · ‎01-31-2004

Hi all,
I use the Desk top Software & agree with most of your comments. I do quite a bit of programing (Windows & Web Development) and this program is terrible & uses old technology. Recently I wrote a program that automatically extracts the shipping information from Sellers Assitant Pro and automatically generates the shipping label and Manifest for a program that is used by Endicia in the United States(a program similar to the Canada Post Desk top but better). I did it working with XML files & it works great. So I called CP to see if I could do the same thing with their desktop program & I could not even get to talk to any of the Code Cutters at all. Evidently they do not take advantage of the XML Format at all, which is really the way of the future. And from what I gathered from the help desk is that the program is developed by IBM for Canada Post and they will not let anyone have access to the code or the API so you can interface with it.

Having Said that...The program works if you can get past the learning curve, and it allows me to bill my account & they send me an ivoice every Week. So if you want to use this program upgrade your ram, & after you install it call the help desk to have them walk you through the set up. The documentation in the help files is the absolute worst. But the guys at the help desk helped me get up an running fast.

The biggest beef I have is there is a function that will allow you to import mailing lists & shippin information. But the documentation that comes with the program is all wrong, I called the help desk to find that out after spending hours trying to make it work. And when I got the suposed fix from the help desk & another hour it still does not work. I will keep on them until I get satisfaction. Once I have discover the real text format it needs I will create a little program that will generate that text file from the info that I can extract from Sellers Assitant Pro & then I can save a bunch of time.

GW.

Gehres

ospreylinks · ‎01-31-2004

The program was not written by IBM, but it is being supported by IBM Canada.

The tech who I talked to and who was an IBM employee gave me the name of the company who wrote the code, but the name now escapes me. (and he agreed that it was a terrible piece of work).

Jeff

amberwoodottawa · ‎01-31-2004

Jeff
I can probably find out. I have 2 brother-in-laws with IBM in Toronto. One is a senior manager and the other a senior engineer.

The problem with IBM saying it is not by IBM is a joke as IBM has divisions with other corporate names, that way they can say they provide support but not take responsibility if the software is a dud.

If one of their divisions creates a piece of techonological crap, IBM doesnt get a bad name, they sell off the division, often to the employees or senior managers who are unaware of the seriousness of the software or hardware problems.

They did that with a division my brother-in-law was with and when it went private, the employees turned it around so IBM came back in and bought the company again except for 10 times what they sold it for 3 years earlier.

Malcolm