eBay

redribbonred · ‎05-16-2016

Hi - here's the situation from my point of view.

I sell primarily from Taiwan in Asia (not quite the same as China!) worldwide - and a main problem recently, which had worsened in 2015, and now in 2016 seems even worse - is that stardard airmailed packages to Canada used to take 1-3 weeks (same as USA) whereas they now commonly take over 1 month. Possibly 2 months now or soon in some cases.

I believe that its due to customs delays (and maybe or maybe not domestic postal delays) because of some new Canadian policy since around late 2014.

Its a major problem which this year I started warning all customers in Canada about, but now, because of two problems, I am putting them in the same basket as South America, Italy, Spain and Portugal - I will not mail there without the customer paying an extra $3 (our cost) for registered mail. (our items are too small to afford paying it ourself - more importantly all other western countries don't need it)

The problems forcing this are two-fold:

1. Ebay forces refunds when customers open cases and are unwilling to communicate or wait, even when I've forewarned them about delays (this happens sometimes - not all customers are heartless to us).

2. When an impatient customer (who I've communicated with) appeals to close the case and refund, eBay makes the decision before I can make the refund myself, and then I get a mark against my account rating for "unresolved cases". This risks restricting and ruining my entire account! (not that ebay even cares about their own loss of revenue)

So in a nutshell, its a shame for Canada, and for businesses selling to them from Asia. Also eBay isn't on the ball about the situation (typical).

Can anyone shed any light on if there has been any changes in policy by the Canadian government, or customs services, with respect to packages from China/Asia? (I know they cancelled a huge amount of Chinese visas to deal with the immigration/real estate problems around 2014).

And for what its worth - I don't think Chinese/Asian sellers are becoming or are less trustworthy - from my experience this is a delivery time issue unique to Canada I'm afraid.

I hope this information or perspective is useful, and I hope to hear peoples thoughts or point of view 🙂

Anonymous · ‎12-02-2016

Yes you can get 200 stickers but every 3 months.

reallynicestamps · ‎12-02-2016

The smallest package I can send to China with only ONE vinyl record will cost $23 by untracked airmail. The same package tracked is $83!!!

On the other hand, the customer in China who is sophisticated enough to use eBay (instead of Alibaba or TaoBao) is probably wealthy enough to buy a house in Vancouver, so there's that.

Never assume a customer will balk at shipping. Of course some will, but there are others who will happily pay the total cost because they want it and you are the only one who has it (and will ship to them).

I was at a public auction last month, selling off the estate of one of the Butchart Gardens family. The man in front of us brought a translator.

Among other things he bought was a white jade bowl, about the size of a cereal bowl.

For $55,000 .

Plus buyer's premium of 20%.

Plus sales tax of 12%.

Plus the translator's wages. Well, that's probably not much considering.

You may not have money. And I certainly don't have money. But some people do have money.

zee-chan · ‎12-03-2016

Here is an off-topic translation related rant. When "customers" at my workplace don't bring a translator and I had no choice but to stand in as a translator (on top of my normal workload), I feel that I should get paid a second wage on top for the time I spent translating... and I don't really like translating. Once you've done it for them once, they expect you to drop your current work and go translate for them whenever they show up... so I always avoid translating and pretend I don't speck their language unless it's urgent...

ricarmic · ‎12-03-2016

One would think the decent thing to do is provide some sort of reward, a gift certificate or bonus at the end of the year or whatever.

Doubling of the wage is perhaps a bit higher goal than would ever be achieved.

A lot depends what kind of company you work for and what you do.

When I had a corporate job (as well as eBay etc), there was this pesky line at the end of the list of my duties that said "other duties as required" (this was on everyone's list) ........

I only speak 1 language so never had to translate before!

reallynicestamps · ‎12-03-2016

Yeah, it's the other duties as required.

Like when a customer throws up in the ladies' room.

83bj60 · ‎12-26-2016

For those who may still wonder, the problem is definitely at the CBSA because of the Fentanyl drug scare. Apparently there are warehouses full of stuff waiting to be inspected. I've had a package sitting in one since October 4 and it was only delivered December 21st.

4 weeks has been the norm this year until this summer. Now it's more like 8 to 10 weeks, with the occasional 12 weeks.

I sure wish eBay would extend buyer protection by another 30 days or better, 60 days instead of the existing 30 days past due to adjust to this new reality.

Canada is now on par with remote third world countries using camel or donkey delivery. Seriously, this scandalous situation should make the news, not just a few forum posts here and there.

oragex · ‎01-09-2017

Correct, the reason why packages take over 2 months to arrive, it's because of the Canada Border (CBSA) agency. They block the packets for weeks for inspection and I wonder if they tape back small packages or if they simply threw them to the garbage.

You can complain at

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/contact/feedback-retroaction-eng.html

zee-chan · ‎01-09-2017

@ricarmic wrote:
One would think the decent thing to do is provide some sort of reward, a gift certificate or bonus at the end of the year or whatever.

I don't have a corporate job; I'm a public servant paid by taxes and translating is one of those "other duties as required". Can't really get a bonus from that lol. I really don't mind translating when it's understandably urgent. I get bothered by it when it's for something like an appointment (ie. they knew they needed an interpreter ahead of time) and they didn't bring an interpreter themselves.

@oragex wrote:
Correct, the reason why packages take over 2 months to arrive, it's because of the Canada Border (CBSA) agency. They block the packets for weeks for inspection and I wonder if they tape back small packages or if they simply threw them to the garbage.

You can complain at

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/contact/feedback-retroaction-eng.html

None of my super late parcels had that "opened by CBSA" label on them though... I still have a Japan parcel of 5 books that was sent in October but still not delivered. I have a November and December Japan parcel both delivered by the postie at my door this morning and he was venting about his truck full of parcels to deliver. He rang my doorbell but took him 3 minutes to find both parcels in his truck! It looked like a mess in there lol. November parcel was untracked while December parcel was tracked needing signature. I started paying $5 to track my Japan parcels because of that one October parcel that's still not delivered...

redribbonred · ‎04-13-2017

Hello guys, I am the original poster - still doing good business with Canadians from Taiwan, but I'm giving all customers very clear notice deliveries are taking 1-3 months+, and getting their OK to wait such a long time, before we mail. It IS the slowest in the world now! Really sad and sorry for you guys!

Most customers are ok to wait, only a couple out of 100+ this year forced refunds.
I've found the registered mail doesn't help at all possibly - it makes sense there are just big piles of little packages waiting for months to be processed.
The Fentanyl drug issue makes sense - an epidemic in parts of Canada which already has major drug problems from what I've seen.
Perhaps moreover its the overabundance of packages Canada can't afford to process and deliver that are coming from Asia.

I'm looking to try adding signature required, which costs about US$1 extra, as an option. Not sure if it will help, but someone above inferred that it might.
Let's see!
(and hoping delivery times in general improve through 2017!!)

andyandted · ‎04-13-2017

The problems seem to come from most shipments coming from overseas. It took exactly one month from the day of shipment for my item to arrive from Spain via airmail. The seller was awesome and kept me apprised of any changes in the shipping status, I can't /won't blame the seller as he did everything he could to ensure timely shipping. In speaking with the seller he related that he has been having ++ problems shipping to Canada due to increased wait times, and was considering putting us on his exclusion list! We are not supposed to be a third world country, yet our National postal system appears to be heading that way in terms of reliability. As a Canadian it's an embarrassment.

redribbonred · ‎04-13-2017

Items from Australia to Vancouver have been very slow too. Items from Europe that come through Canada's east may not be affected. Vancouver is the worst drug affected area, and asia is where drugs may get through the most - hence they're processing at customs most slowly and carefully there?

redribbonred · ‎03-07-2018

Update - packages are still very slow sometimes to Canada - it may be to do with Canada's handling of packages from Taiwan/China, and/or the massive amount to be dealt with.

We're about to make it mandatory for Canadian and many other poor/slow countries' customers to have no choice but to pay extra for registered mail. It's a real shame. USA still has best delivery times and reliablity.

Hopefully we won't have so many unreceived items to deal with/refund this way, even if it reduces some customer business.

No other news that answers why still so slow?

momcqueen · ‎03-07-2018

May I recommend reading on the issues facing the Universal Postal Union?

http://www.upu.int/en.html

momcqueen · ‎03-07-2018

Also, it’s impossible to measure USPS standards against Canada Post. Plus, paying for ‘Registered Mail’ is a waste of a seller’s time and a buyer’s money.

hlmacdon · ‎03-08-2018

@momcqueenwrote:
May I recommend reading on the issues facing the Universal Postal Union?

http://www.upu.int/en.html

This is the answer. If you want things to arrive quickly they have to now ship under UPU services covered under the Post Expres/E-packet programs which are localized under various service names depending on the country. Not every country is on board yet so there mail goes to the back of the line since they are paying peanuts. Canada is one of several countries pushing hard on this as they have zero interest in deliver parcels at lettermail reimbursement rates.

momcqueen · ‎03-08-2018

Thank you for taking the time to summarize the international postal issue at play for the Original Poster; they are a seller located in Australia and dropshipping from China so likely they’ve not heard it from the Canadian perspective this way.

hlmacdon · ‎03-08-2018

@momcqueenwrote:
Thank you for taking the time to summarize the international postal issue at play for the Original Poster; they are a seller located in Australia and dropshipping from China so likely they’ve not heard it from the Canadian perspective this way.

If they are dropshipping from China their suppliers may have access to forward via e-packet and e-express. E-express is Asia's version of Tracked Packet/Post Expres. The two get heavily leveraged by most ali express sellers who have had to contend with this issue. It gets a bit murky in China as some forwarding services have arrangements through other countries for E-express so there can be a delay independent of the actual shipping time for whatever interchange goes on there. In my experience that is still generally faster as there are very minimal delays once it hits Canadian customs.

reallynicestamps · ‎03-08-2018

slow countries' customers to have no choice but to pay extra for registered mail.

You do NOT want to use Registered Mail.

It will not be tracked outside your own borders.

https://www.post.gov.tw/post/internet/U_english/index.jsp?ID=1400024737190

There are services that do track to the customer's door.

They are also usually faster .

Never underestimate what your customer is willing to pay for your goods.

But if you can-- look into Free Shipping , which is just a form of Flat Rate Shipping in which the cost of postage and packaging is folded into the asking price.

It isn't always suitable, but it is very popular with buyers.

The OP does not ship from China.

He ships from Taiwan.

China, Taiwan and Hong Kong have different postal systems.

Taiwan is NOT a part of China.

Hong Kong is a part of China, but a very special case.

momcqueen · ‎03-08-2018

“The OP does not ship from China.
He ships from Taiwan.
China, Taiwan and Hong Kong have different postal systems.
Taiwan is NOT a part of China.
Hong Kong is a part of China, but a very special case.”

Thank you for clarifying that. I was being dumb and lazy, I suppose. I’d overlooked the special status of Taiwan in relation to The People’s Republic of China.