CANADA POST STRIKE DILEMMA

[silverpinups]

I have a Canada Post Strike dilemma. I sold a item last Thursday, Nov.14/24. I messaged the buyer to hold off paying until I knew what kind of strike action CUPW was going to take on Friday morning. 

On Friday morning I messaged the buyer  to hold off on paying until I messaged him back. I let him know that it could be 7 to 10 days before any resolution was found. The buyer agreed and all was well until he paid on Sunday, Nov.17/24. Now I have to ship by Nov.22/24 (I have 5 days handling time).

I messaged him back on Sunday and asked why he paid when I asked him to hold off until he heard back from me. He said eBay keep sending him reminders to pay and he was getting nervous about it. 

My dilemma is what if the strike is still going still on Friday, Nov.22/24? I don't want to use a different shipping method as I have solely used Canada Post for 18 years. 

Can I just mark the item as shipped on Friday then mail it out at a future date? If I don't ship until Canada Post is up and running and I get a late shipping defect, will I be able to have it removed because of the strike? 

If the buyer just waited to pay when I messaged him all would be well. 

[fergua3]

just don't ship it until the strike ends.   There is no penalty for marking an item shipped late that i have ever encountered, unless you do it a lot and then you will lose your top rated seller discount temporarily.  You get late shipping defects when the buyer indicates that the item was received late, not because you marked the item shipped after the due date.

Just message the buyer, tell them that you are going to hold their package until the strike is resolved and then ship it.  Ask them, if they leave feedback, to NOT indicate the package was recieved late as you will be penalized by Ebay.   They will most likely be understanding.  Tell them if they get tired of waiting for their item to ship, to contact you and you'll cancel the sale and send them a full refund.

[silverpinups]

Yes, I covered all my bases in the buyer messaging department but thank you for reminding me about the part where the buyer leaves feedback and to not indicate that the package was recieved late. 

I will use Xpresspost when I do send it so I hope that covers any delayed shipping. The buyer is also a regular customer of mine.   

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Where is the buyer located? 

Check to see how much UPS costs via Canada Post labels. Between two major cities in the same region it should be similar to Canada Post Expedited, about $15 w/ $100 of insurance included. Similar to Canada Post, if you're nervous, you can buy additional insurance for a few dollars per $100.

If you can ship this UPS for close to what it costs to what you charged the buyer, I would just do that. You can book a UPS pickup online and it costs less than a dollar if you book it the day before. Just make sure you politely ask them to scan the item if you are nervous since they don't scan by default on pickups.

If the expected delivery date is very fair in the future and you want to wait to send it, manually mark it as shipped, and then when the strike is over go back and use the "Print Another Label" function to print the label. You may get a late shipping defect, but one defect won't matter.

The only reason not to do this would be if you cannot meet the expected delivery date doing this. So for example if they are shown an expected delivery date of November 29th and the strike ends November 30th. If you send the item on November 30th and they open an INR either out of ignorance or to as a deliberate way to scam you, they could potentially get eBay to step in and refund them if it is not marked as delivered before the INR deadline, which is only a few days. Now the odds of that happening are slim, but if it's the $300 OBO sale you have in your sold listings, I wouldn't send it after the delivery window. A $20 item? Sure, I'd send it. 

At the end of the day, if the price difference between what you charged/budgeted for Canada Post and UPS isn't going to kill you, like it's $5-$10, I would just send it now with UPS to get it over with and not have to waste addtional mental energy worrying about it. 

[silverpinups]

Where is the buyer located?

The buyer is located in Texas, USA. He's one of my regular buyers.

Thanks for your reply.....

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I have started using UPS since the strike. Sold to Canada & the US.  The prices are comparable to Canada Post.  Sometimes a little more & sometimes a little cheaper. The labels are just as easy to print out through eBay & UPS also provides tracking.

[msau4301]

As others have said you can either wait for the strike to end (but don't mark as shipped if you don't ship) or use alternative carrier.

I wanted to address the fact that your buyer said "eBay kept sending reminders to pay and he was getting nervous". I've had this several times in the past where buyers have asked me if they could wait a little longer to pay, or they wait to combine items. I always tell them yes, it's fine to wait and some do message me to ask why they are getting reminders. They think eBay will give them a defect or black mark or something. I've had to explain it's an automatic message that goes to everyone and it will not affect their account. Only the seller can open an unpaid item claim. While it is great that eBay sends them reminders (sometimes that's the push the pokey people need) there are those out there that do worry.

Hope the strike doesn't last too long but I had ended my listings a couple of weeks ago just in case.

[ricarmic]

My plan if I were caught in your situation would have been to ask the buyer if they were ok with me cancelling the purchase until the strike was over then I'd relist the item (perhaps as an only for them item) and they could purchase it again. Them saying ok to cancel would give me the way to cancel without defects (buyer requested) and I could relist and it would be a normal situation after that once the mail service became reliable again. 

I was fortunate that I didn't have to use it......

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Depending on what you charged for shipping, UPS might be viable just to get it over with.

If you are in a perfect situation where you have a Chit Chats drop spot nearby, you could sign up with them and ship it USPS Ground Advantage for likely under $10. Or priority for slightly more. The Chit Chats route will be more work than UPS but it might be a good opportunity to learn how to use them so that you have that in your **bleep**nal for future orders.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

It would be annoying to have the buyer pay when they could have waited, but I don't exactly blame buyers for not being well versed on eBay. I can see how those reminders might make someone nervous if they didn't know better.

[silverpinups]

Yes, I let him know he could cancel at anytime and repurchase when the strike was over. 

[byto253]

https://try.sendle.com/en-ca/ship-to-the-united-states

You can ship up to 4 oz. to anywhere in the US from Manitoba for $10.57  and 8 oz for $10.91 with a free account and they will pick it at your place. 

[recped]

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@silverpinups wrote:

Can I just mark the item as shipped on Friday then mail it out at a future date? If I don't ship until Canada Post is up and running and I get a late shipping defect, will I be able to have it removed because of the strike? 

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I will probably do this (mark as shipped) for the 3 orders I'm currently holding (placed prior to the strike). I informed them they could have a refund or wait, only one has got back to me and was agreeable to wait. I'll likely mark these orders as shipped before my stated handling time ends.

If I get more Canadian orders I "can't" ship (either not possible at all or way too expensive) I'll  probably follow that pattern with them.

I have a notice posted with this info on my listings.

I only use Canada Post for real rural packages and Lettermail

[valuestore]

Be mindful of eBay's use of A.I monitoring of sellers. Lots of banter between buyer and seller=problem. Slow to process, print label =problem. Slow to first acceptance scan=problem. Low stock=problem. The eye is always watching.

[dinomitesales]

I'm also in Winnipeg. We have many UPS drop-off locations here in the city. I would not wait until after the strike, I would just send it out UPS if the buyer is fine with this. It will be a similar price, if not cheaper than Canada Post to send it to them via UPS. I can't think of a reason not to do this, especially for a $300+ sale.

[recped]

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@valuestore wrote:
Be mindful of eBay's use of A.I monitoring of sellers. Lots of banter between buyer and seller=problem. Slow to process, print label =problem. Slow to first acceptance scan=problem. Low stock=problem. The eye is always watching.

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Acceptance Scans and even any form of tracking are not required and not monitored for Canadian Seller Metrics. You do need to ship (or mark as shipped) within your handling time.

If you want to be TRS in the USA you need tracking and timely acceptance for sales to the USA but not for Canada.

[silverpinups]

You do need to ship (or mark as shipped) within your handling time.

What if I don't mark it as shipped by Nov.22/24 (last day of my handling time) and just mail it out next week if there ordered back to work?

Are there any consequences or does it only matter if it arrives within my delivery time? 

[fergua3]

it only matters that it arrive within the delivery time if the buyer says it didn't.  It could arrive 2 months late but if the buyer does not indicate to Ebay that it arrived late there are no penalties by Ebay to the seller.

[dobo5250]

well tis strike is certianly screwing thing up i  have three items in the mail stuck and  that where sent priorty post friday morning  cost a small fortune to send them that way but was trying to contril the strike problem nope got caught and two of the three people now want their money back --- i tried to explain but no use -- sent out one new  listing  out   monday by u.p.s.-- never never do that again regular customer  mind you  he orders three times a years same product  alwasy costs about 24 dollars to send to him can post -- ups price 37 dollars lost money on the deal will try fedex next -- maybe  canpar -- one more problem  because of this strike and iam shutting my site down for rest of strike even though i can't afford to - the problems and emails i have sent out explaining the situations to customers is to much -- changed postal rates from free shipping to enough to cover extra fees but i think i might have to do everything over as nothing i do seems to affect my listings so i will have to go in a manually fix each of the 1687 listings  starting right after i take my blood pressure medications and tai chi session  to relax and believe this all will pass -------this wil all pass --the bills will get paid---- the bills will get paid ---

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

This is what I am referring to for late shipping defects. 

I have received them before in scenarios where a cancellation or refund was merited. Like an untracked package being returned and marked as 'not known', and the buyer never returning my message to verify their address. If I recall, I have received an OOS defect because the system thought I was trying to circumvent an item not being available. Although, I was able to get a CSR to remove it manually. 

I wouldn't be worried about manually marking a few orders as shipped and printing the label at a later date. Especially since eBay knows about the strike and will almost certainly remove the defects. It is something to consider if you have a very large amount of orders. 

Keep in mind, I am not saying people will absolutely get a robo-defect for doing it that way. I'm just saying that it has happened in the past with similar mechanisms.