"Lost" Packages?

[shirtsbyshik]

Hey there everyone, I just made powerseller a couple of days ago. I send 98% of my T-shirts south of the border. As a result, I am usually using the Small Packet Rate from CP. Insurance and a tracking #is a no go since Airmail is necessary (plus like $10). Most of my packages are under the 500g rate. I have found that a lot of ppl are saying that they are not receiving their packages. I've sent out a few seconds in response to that. Should I be more strict on the "purchase insurance" to recoup costs? Or should I not send out seconds if they don't purchase insurance. What are your opinions on this?

Thanks a ton

Aaron

[llee2]

Small packets now include up to $100 insurance. See earlier posts for details and how to try to process a claim.

[rd1000]

I self insure. I charge an optional modest fee (less than Canada Post) for insurance. I keep it. If a customer says they didn't receive it or it is damaged, I send a replacement. Doesn't happen often , but when it does I have the money set aside and no hassles with a post office insurance claim. Makes for a happy customer.

[momosworld]

Sad but out of every 100 packages we ship every 2-3 days, we lose about 3-4 and that really bad especially when they cant be tracked so we have to take the loss and reship another package, we also charge a self insurance price but even if the bidder doesn't pay for it, they will leave us a negative if they don't receive it, so we are basically at their mercy to reship another.

This new $100 policy for small packages sounds good but I really don't know how we will keep track of so many missing packages.

good luck,
momo

[retrorescue]

For small packet air, only one or two customers out of a thousand wrote to say they have not received their package.

For Expedited USA, about the same applies.

Canada Post says they will insure but to get the insurance proceeds is no easy thing. Bottom line, if the item is expensive, get it registered, otherwise, it's a cost of doing business this way..

RAY(retrorescue)

[mikers99]

I ship over 30 small packages a week (air Mail) to USA (95%) World (3%) Canada (2%) for the past 3-4 years and HAVE never lost one. Anywhere in the world for that matter. I guess I am just lucky. I have bought tons of stuff around the world and only one time have I not received the Air Mail package (From New-Zealand) and since then I don't buy other than USA as it always comes in (on big purchases, I take insurance from the States tho). By Putting 3-4 Air mail stickers on your package and one on the back helps a lot (I have been told) as they pay more attention to them.

[shirtsbyshik]

Thanks for your input. I have been charging an optional $1 insurance and I have been using that money to help pay for these bogus lost packages. Does anyone here make the insurance mandatory? If so/not, do you think it affects a customers decision to actually go ahead and hit the Bid Now!/Buy It Now! buttons?

Aaron

[ospreylinks]

We have recently started shipping more goods via CP to the US and honestly, out of a couple of hundred shipped this past couple of months, only one did not arrive.

Does anyone ship many packages to APO or like addresses. My receipt rate to APO's is about 50%, so when I get a buyer from a US armed forces base, I am nervous, not about getting paid, but me being able to get the goods to them.

I do have a somewhat funny story about Postal Delivery though that re-affirms ones belief in their committment to delivery.

We live in a small city of about 50,000. My dream is to go to Australia sometime... Well a couple of years ago, my wife and I met a couple originally from Australia now living in Canada, however their son still lives in Australia. My wife made arrangements through them to have their son buy me a sweater from a local Australian golf club and send it to me. The envelope it came in was address:

Jeff Rogerson
North Bay, Ontario
Canada

I guess someone knew me at the local post-office, because low and behold, one day there it is sitting in our door...

We still have the envelope somewhere..

Jeff

[whoscloset]

I don't know what is going on with USPS.

In the past four days I have had 2 parcels arrive damaged (well packaged!) and one has gone missing but the label that was attached to it arrived! Thankfully these were shipped with insurance and I have provided my customers with detailed instructions on making claims.

It's odd though, this just seems to be happening a lot lately. Over the Christmas rush I had no problems.

Monique

[aabros]

Jeff: That is spooky!

[shirtsbyshik]

Jeff, that's hilarious. I see where you are coming from. I'm originally from Timmins and whenever I mention it, someone will say "Do you know_______? or whoever, and I usually say no, but a couple of times, I have known the people they know. Actually quite funny.

Aaron

[amberwoodottawa]

Aaron
I used to be with E.B. Eddy that owned the lumber mill in Timmins, did you ever know ...?

Malcolm

[gloriaguides]

I've mailed out about 3000 parcels (about half small packets, 1/2 expedited, about 50 overseas never lost even surface) over 3 years now and only "lost" 2 (both this fall to the USA, both low $$ items) which I made good on by refunding. For sure one was lost..guy was too pleasant to be otherwise. CP is looking for an expedited US parcel for me right now. Maybe t-shirt buyers aren't as honest as book buyers and are taking advantage of your uninsured items?
Re: APO and US Territories, I've only mailed about 10 but all 10 arrived, although most of them were traceable. Glori

[whoscloset]

My "lost" item for which the label showed but not the package was an Easy-Bake Oven shipped just before Christmas. Very hot toy this year and difficult to find in the stores in the US.

I'm sure some postal worker's child is enjoying it very much right about now!

Monique

[shirtsbyshik]

LOL No Malcom

I didn't know an EB Eddy. A friend of mine from what I understand is running Feldmans Lumber up in Timmins. Used to be his father. I'm not as lucky I guess 😐

Aaron

[amberwoodottawa]

Aaron
E.B. Eddy Forest Products was the company not the guy's name. It has since been bought out by Domtar but when I was there we had $1 billion in annual sales.

I think the lumber Mill in Timmins was actually called McChesney Lumber.

I was just kidding you if you knew a guy at the mill named .... (but I never named anyone).

We also had a huge pulp operation in Espanola. Maybe you knew ... ?

Malcolm

[ospreylinks]

I still hold my nose everytime I drive through Espanola.

(For those who have never been, the mill gives the town a very distinctive odor).

Jeff

[treasure-pot]

Jeff, it was a smell imported from the Irving mill in Saint John.

Bill

[muminlaw]

Malcolm, we had a friend who worked in the lab at the Eddy Plant in Espinola! Did you know .....

Seriously, we really did -- he retired to Victoria and died a couple of years ago.

Glenda

[amberwoodottawa]

Glenda
I never went to Espanola nor Timmins, that was the great thing about having a senior position with the Head Office. I visited our customers and used to go throughout Canada, the US, the Carribean and Latin America.
Jeff,
As far as smell from Espanola, that ended in 1983 a few years shortly we bought the mill and spent $250 million using oxidization to bleach the pulp instead of chemical bleaching which is associated with rotten egg smell.

Glenda,
I dealt with a lot of guys over the telephone from all our mills including a couple of mills we had in the US as well but I left 13 years ago and bought my own paper company in Georgia and most of the names allude me.

I reported to a guy for a year who came out of the Espanola operation but he was the Corporate Controller. Ths was shortly after a major change in management with the company and we got into some politics that had me reporting for 1 year to a subordinate position. Anyway, he moved out west, ran as VP Finance a mill Eddys bought on the west coast but I think that guy was dead before they moved him out (HA HA).

Bill
I know senior people with Irving Paper (President of Irving Tissue). They came out of our White Swan company that we sold to another BC paper company.

I think that is where the smell originates, with some of those people and not the mill (not all of them, just one or two of the ex salesmen that went over after we sold).

Malcolm