Canada Post International suspension of service (March 19)

[ypdc_dennis]

Canada Post is not accepting mail and parcels for these countries due to a temporary service disruption. Date posted: March 19, 2020

 https://www.canadapost.ca/cpc/en/our-company/news-and-media/service-alerts.page

ALBANIA
ARGENTINA
AUSTRIA
BOSNIA/HERZEGOV
BRUNEI
CAYMAN ISLANDS
CHILE
COLOMBIA
CYPRUS
DENMARK
DJIBOUTI
ECUADOR
ESTONIA
FRENCH POLYNESIA
INDIA
KAZAKHSTAN
KUWAIT
LATVIA
LEBANON
LIBYA
MACEDONIA
MALDIVES
MALTA
MOLDOVA
NORWAY
PANAMA
PERU
PHILIPPINES
POLAND
RUSSIA
SAUDI ARABIA
SERBIA
SOUTH AFRICA
SPAIN
TUNISIA
TURKEY
UKRAINE

-..-

[ricarmic]

Uggh that's a fairly significant list!

More to come I'm sure.

[flyhooks4less]

Wow that is a big list, I wonder how temporary? Wondering if I should begin modifying my listings or not?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

tyler@ebay @ypdc_dennis 

As this list is going to be constantly growing do sellers need to update their ship to list constantly or in the case of an order getting through and paid for is there a choice sellers can use to cancel these orders without penalty that would cover these cases.

-Lotz

[ricarmic]

My current plan is to contact the buyer, and explain that I can't ship to them at this time because of this, and their options are I can cancel the transaction for them (there won't be a defect if they reply - the bots count it as evidence buyer changed their mind when I mark it that way) or I can hold it and wait until service is resumed (but I'll have to put something in there to remind them NOT to ding me delivery time wise).

So far the list, other than Russia is of countries I rarely encounter.

I have been having lots of problems with stuff coming back from Russia as of late, got one today sent in September 2019. Never heard any problems from the buyer, it is so old I can't contact them in any way. I have received positive feedback from stuff sent to Russia only a couple weeks ago, so some stuff was getting through ok.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

The rules and suggestions are going to change constantly until this runs its course. Especially when you're looking at everything that is going on in the individual countries. Trying to remove defects is a major nuisance especially when the buyer chooses the wrong option or were worked out with a bit of back and forth. I've been told on a few occasions in cases like that that the defect would be removed in either 24/48 hours or in 7 business days and then seeing that not happen as promised. (Is a defect still a defect when it never was a defect in the first place? Hmmm...Similar to a tree falling in the forest). If there is a quick add on choice this would be the easiest solution. In most cases customers will be totally understanding. I seem to get orders for Scandinavia(Denmark included) and Italy and Spain in bunches. Messaging customers if 1 or 2 sneak through with the bombardment  of orders as of late should not be a big problem.

-Lotz

[tyler@ebay]

Hi @lotzofuniquegoodies - interesting question!

If you are stipulating the courier and service used in your listings, we should be able to take care of that for you. If you are using a generic shipping service in your listing, we wouldn't know you're planning on using Canada Post so would still present shipping to impacted countries and you'd need to manually block the countries or cancel the transaction after it comes through with the reason "Problem with buyer's address".

Thanks!

[twlj53]

Canada is not accepting mail to these countries.

I wonder if Canada will be accepting inbound mail from these countries ?

BILL

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

tyler@ebay 

Everything I send is either Canadapost or Pick up. Just thinking for anyone that runs into this problem now they know they can use "Problem with buyer's address" as the easiest solution without any aggravation down the road. To be constantly updating Country Ship to list will be a never ending game of cat and mouse.

-Lotz

[cumos55]

Something new mentioned on CNN....

All flights grounded in the US.

If this happens then it is goodbye to all airmail delivery to the US.

The critical wording is ... If it happens.....  looks to be ... just a thought... so far....

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@cumos55 

Mail for me goes Calgary to Richmond and on to LAX for processing. They may have to switch to trucking  it across the border, clear in Blaine and forward from there. Again more "We shall see".  Anything i sent to Vancouver was routinely overnight in the past. Most likely by air. Now with flights being in limbo, more freight in Canada will start being trucked. Eastbound seemed to vary for actual transit times and consistency. I'm even starting to see more time between items dropped off 1 day and in transit 2/3 days later.

-Lotz

[kawartha-ephemera]

I've been hoping for a couple weeks now the situation would not become as dire as the experts have been modelling this event to be ... I fear the U.S. situation could quickly come to this.  I will be either limiting shipping to Canada only or ending everything I can until this mess passes. Just used a 500 listing promo yesterday ....

[jolp_emporium]

As long as they don't cut us off from the USA!

[brettjet38]

The "writing" was on the wall years ago with a "Pandemic" they (GOV) all knew this was coming and if Basic Incomes had been implemented as the LIBERALS wanted to do with "Policy Resolution 100" a few years ago, every single Canadain would already be prepared for this mess!

With a constant basic amount of "Credits" to keep their "universe" intact during this crisis.

Now, look around you all!!

Me, I will stay open and work with my Buyers. As we are all in the same boat I think the majority will understand.

BASIC INCOMES for ALL Citizens lets put society before "economy" because as you see it no longer works...

And no this COVID-19 is not a short term thing, it could come back in the fall more virulent...

...just as the Spanish Flu did a century ago!

Did you ever wonder what it was like for your grandparents during the war with ration books, I think we are all going to get a "taste" of that "experience"!

[ypdc_dennis]

---

@brettjet38 wrote:

...just as the Spanish Flu did a century ago!

---

"Spanish" flu was different.  Higher kill rate for people with healthy immune systems (which overreacted to the virus and caused more damage).  Death rate about 3 times higher than COVID-19.   Spanish flu had several different waves.

Official rationing unlikely. Unofficial, yes. Groceries stores in my area have restrictions on how much you can buy at a time. The restrictions vary by store. One store has no limits on bread versus the one across the street which limits you to 2 loaves. 1 package of toilet paper versus 2 packages.  2 dozen eggs versus 4 dozen limit.

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpc/en/our-company/news-and-media/service-alerts.page

-..-

[darak10]

Thanks Tyler....I have over 2000 listings and its taking forever updating them manually, is there really no other way to do it? An important heads up for you as I'm already encountering problems with cancelling for this reason - the first two cancellations I used the "problem with buyers address" no problem then the next two it sent me thru to an old school eBay page where I had to select reason from a drop down menu ("other reason") and then explain the reason (which I already did when I advised the customer what I was doing and why) and this is the message I got:
If buyer accepts reason, you will refunded your final value fees.
if the buyer does not accept your reason, you will not be refunded your final value fees.
Currently these two are sitting as open cancellations. The other two went thru no problem and I was able to relist them quickly changing the excluded country list.

Can you please clarify why it sent me to this old school page and has reverted to this drop down menu where I have to give an explanation? (I don't have a problem doing it, but its holding up the process, I cant relist the item until this runs its course. Also, what is going to happen in these circumstances if buyer chooses to say no, am I out of the final value too, as well as having to refund the customer?
Thanks

[darak10]

yeah. I think if service delays start happening to the US, I'm just going to close shop. My Canadian customers have gone to virtually zero this week.

[darak10]

I posted this to Tyler's response, I've hit a snafu using this technique, it redirects me to another cancellation process that I described in the message to him. I'll cut and paste it here to describe what its now doing to me when I select "problem with address" as cancellation reason:

the first two cancellations I used the "problem with buyers address" no problem then the next two it sent me thru to an old school eBay page where I had to select reason from a drop down menu ("other reason") and then explain the reason (which I already did when I advised the customer what I was doing and why) and this is the message I got:
If buyer accepts reason, you will refunded your final value fees.
if the buyer does not accept your reason, you will not be refunded your final value fees.
Currently these two are sitting as open cancellations. The other two went thru no problem and I was able to relist them quickly changing the excluded country list.

Can you please clarify why it sent me to this old school page and has reverted to this drop down menu where I have to give an explanation? (I don't have a problem doing it, but its holding up the process, and I cant relist the item until this runs its course. Also, what is going to happen in these circumstances if buyer chooses to say no, am I out of the final value too, as well as having to refund the customer?
Thanks

[darak10]

about Russia, this has happened to me too. I've got the package back 8-9 months after the transaction and Canada Post charged me to receive it back, the same price of shipping the item there. so not only did I have to refund the customer, I had to pay for Russia Post to return to sender. Customer said he never got the item. When I got it back, it was marked abandoned by the Russian postal carrier, it had obviously sat uncollected somewhere for god knows how long. I had another Russian customer told me Russia Post just willy nilly sent an item back before he could collect it and told him tough luck essentially. More non paying Russian customers as well. I suspended sales there prior to all this. Not sure what is going on there, service to Russia was reliable for me from 2017 to mid 2019 or so.

[wecango88]

Thank you for this post as I finally found out after several phone calls to Canada Post that mailing to these countries was halted. The CP shipping calculator and backend API was just dying with a 404 so I was utterly baffled.