What are the odds my GSP item from USA to Canada will be trackable in Canada

[theoldestfart]

I am giving it a 5% chance (being generous) of being able to track the item once it crosses into Canada. The last GSP it was Erlanger who put the address label on it which included the tracking # for Intelcom but PB never bothered to include the tracking # in the shipment info page. The Global Shipping tracking # number is useless in Canada for US sourced purchases devon@ebay 

[marnotom!]

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

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@marnotom! wrote:

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

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For many buyers they watch the tracking to confirm first it is getting close and secondly that it is out for delivery so they can watch for it. Ordering something and not getting it for whatever reason is most annoying. And if an item is delivered to the wrong address it takes major discussion with Intelcom to first accept this as a problem and then you are required to deal with eBay as an INR. Issue being...Item tracking states delivered.

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So are you saying that tracking is useful to buyers or that they'd be better off without it?  🤔

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@marnotom! 

@theoldestfart 

Definitely useful for both buyers and sellers. It's how it's being "interpreted" inconsistently when any sort of situation arises. In the past couriers including the post office used to routinely get signatures when they handed them to the receiver. Even when no signature was required. That got thrown out the window with Covid and no person contact. Leaving us with drop and dash. At least with community boxes its a secure delivery. It does state that on couriers websites Puro/UPS(Interlcom should be included), that parcel should be left in a secure location....NOT in plain site. This is not happening. Parcels are getting left on walkways, steps, driveways and lobbies. 

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My takeaway from this and the rest of your post is that you're more concerned with confirmation of delivery than the actual tracking history of an item, and that's fair.

[reallynicestamps]

I asked the clerks at the postal outlet about Flex Delivery and the senior clerk gave a thorough and detailed answer:

"No."

OTOH - a new UPS office has just moved in to a shop across the street and one of their services is mailboxes/parcel acceptance for ANY delivery company. And they also give an address that does not appear to be a box, according to their list of services.

[marnotom!]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

I asked the clerks at the postal outlet about Flex Delivery and the senior clerk gave a thorough and detailed answer:

"No."

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I'm assuming the question you asked was if a courier unaffilated with Canada Post would be able to deliver to a FlexDelivery address.

The fact that they won't is actually a good thing.  If Intelcom can't reliably deliver to residential addresses, what would lead us to believe that they can deliver to a post office or postal outlet box?

The whole point of using FlexDelivery, as I see it, is that it completely cuts out non-postal carriers from the picture, at least when it comes to "last mile shipping."  It forces the GSP to use Canada Post for the last leg of the item's delivery.

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

OTOH - a new UPS office has just moved in to a shop across the street and one of their services is mailboxes/parcel acceptance for ANY delivery company. And they also give an address that does not appear to be a box, according to their list of services.

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Again, would you really want a carrier with a poor reputation for delivering eBay and Amazon packages to residential addresses handling a shipment to a UPS Store instead?

[reallynicestamps]

More or less. They were a bit busy but as always answer with a smile.

But we all know the couriers hand stuff over to Canada Post for last mile delivery in rural and isolated (ie unprofitable) locations anyway.

I don't know if complaints here were what led to AppleDelivery disappearing from the GSP mix, but it makes one wonder why they don't go back to CanPar and Canada Post. Or is it just that parcels handed to the latter two get delivered without fuss.

It may come down to the franchise office / branch manager . I get packages through IntelCom here in Victoria. Usually the same guy. Knocks on door, leaves package, waves as he runs down the driveway.