Canada Post Woes Update

[snoopwiz]

Canada Post delivery issues. Was bad. Is bad. Will remain bad for the time being. 

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/wheres-your-delivery-canada-post-backlog-amid-covid-19-keeps-c...

[reallynicestamps]

Retail postal outlets are NOT currently closed.

My nearest one is slightly closer to my house than the actual Post Office. I use both depending on my day's messages.

You can google "postal outlet" and get directions to both post offices and postal outlets.

Some stores that have postal outlets may not be open for any business during the pandemic shutdown.

If you are registered for Shippo you can also use Paypal or SnapShip (Canada Post) shipping.

SnapShip is a bit of a pain because you have to manually fill in all the information that is automatic with the other two.  Personally I prefer PP.

Here is how to order Pickup from Canada Post. 
https://www.canadapost.ca/cpc/en/business/shipping/request-pickup.page?

[ypdc_dennis]

How to find postal outlets.

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/fpo/personal/findPostOffice

Unfortunately, Canada Post does not show the reduced pandemic hours that many outlets are now using. My local RPO (in Ontario) went from 72 hours/week down to 40 hours/week when most staff stayed at home during lockdown.

-..-

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Sign up at Canadapost.com for a "Small Business" account. It is free. You can then sign in, and use the request a pickup feature. Canada Post will pickup your parcel. They are not charging for this service during the pandemic. If you know what time your local mailman delivers your mail, and if you schedule your pickup in this time frame, they will usually pick it up very quickly.

It doesn't matter if you use Paypal to create your label. As long as it is a Canada Post label, they will pick it up. I use Shippo to create my labels. You just need to open the Canada Post site once your packages are ready, and use the 'Request Pickup' feature. It takes 30 seconds to schedule a pickup. 

You can also drop parcels in a regular mail box if they fit. The only downside to this is that there is no pickup scan. If your package takes a long time to arrive at a sorting center, a customer might wrongly think that you didn't ship the package right away.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

UR, as in Small Packet Air?

Small Packet Air has been a headache for me. It was amazing until mid-May. Lots of my orders aren't even being scanned by USPS. They are also taking 30+ days. So it will just say 'Tracking Number Provided'. Even with great communication, when an item hasn't arrived in 30+ days, and tracking hasn't updated, some US customers become very skeptical about whether the item was sent.

I've temporarily switch to Tracked Packet, which for the category I sell in, is as good as not selling to the US at all because of the added cost. The right business choice would be to continue to sell Small Packet Air, and eat the losses, because the added profit would be worth it - but I don't want to set people up to wait 35-40 days for their orders. Canada lettermail was really bad a month or so ago and bounced back, so I am hoping that I can try Small Packet Air again in the next few weeks.

[esclyons]

tracked packet is still not meeting ebay's guesstimate for delivery times..

[readinglady10]

Expected delays and I always tell my buyers to be patient but after 5 weeks I made a full refund.   Package was sent by regular mail from Saskatchewan to California.   Mailed on April 6th.    Buyer contacted me today that package had arrived.   Eleven full weeks for delivery.

WOW.   This is the worst

[reallynicestamps]

I've got an Expedited domestic shipment hanging fire since June 4th. Repeat customer and no complaints but extremely annoying.

[momcqueen]

I'm seeing mixed results with Canada Post but most are the opposite of good. Within recent weeks, I've had two parcels delivered to addresses within the USA within two and three calendar days via Small and/or Tracked Packets. All other destinations are late. Like very late. Two weeks late or longer. Incoming, outgoing: it doesn't matter. When a parcel gets stuck even for a moment, it seems to pile up and is buried and then doesn't see the light of day. 

I've had a few buyers being borderline irate over this but it hasn't yet cost my money.

I'm not sure what measures I can or need to take to circumnavigate this. On the one hand, I think sellers and buyers should be reasonable with expectations and on the other they have a right to expect their goods to be delivered when promised. 

[arsi-4234]

Recent shipment to a non major point in Germany with Intl Air Small Package. 

[shallow_karl]

How did Amazon respond to the big increase on online sales?  They hired 120,000 people in less than 2 weeks.  How did Canada Post respond?  They cut hours open, cut days open and their stinking UNION won't allow workers to be just hired and brought in. 

[momcqueen]

Amazon can hardly be cited as a pillar for either good customer service or good employee relations. When online purchases increased, they quadrupled delivery estimates while continuing to charge their Prime members for two-day delivery while extending delivery times up to six weeks. 

I had a problem with a crummy $27 item today that I wasted 90 minutes of my life trying to fix with Amazon. It took five different Customer Service Reps three of which transferred me right back to the department from which I came. 

And there is legions of information from reputable online news sources about how crummy Amazon is as a company for which to work. I hold no great love for the Canada Post union (as anyone who knows my history on ebay can attest) but Canada Post has done a much more acceptable job managing their response to the pandemic regardless of whether we can thank management or the union for that. 

[reallynicestamps]

https://jobs.canadapost.ca/go/Canada-Post-All-Current-Opportunities/2319117/300/?q=&sortColumn=refer...

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Is anyone still using Small Packet Air? (Not tracked packet).

I'm curious how reliable it has been during June.

It was a disaster in May. Some orders took 30-40+ days. So I switched to Tracked Packet. The added cost of Tracked Packet means that my US orders dropped. I'd like to be able to offer Small Packet rates as soon as possible, but it is difficult to know if it will be reliable, because I only find out about issues a month or so after orders are placed.

[reallynicestamps]

I have been, with no problems.
My only problem shipment is an Expedited domestic package shipped June 5 which still has not arrived. I have an open ticket on it.

[momcqueen]

I had opened a ticket on an item that fell off the radar for several weeks and it was a process because the online ticket closed itself due to there being 'no delivery guarantees' which wasn't the issue. I had to explain to the rep at Canada Post (after waiting an hour on hold) that I was opening a go-look-for-me ticket as opposed to money-back-it-was-late-ticket. There was still no movement on the parcel after that call for several more days and then it miraculously resurrected itself and was (according to tracking) delivered. I considered the matter closed until I got a letter three weeks later from the Claims Department stating that as of today they were sorry they still had no idea where the parcel was and the recipient had not answered their call so the case was closed, the end. I was, like, Whuh?

There has been an awful lot of aggravation with carriers lately but sales from ebay are the only source of any kind of revenue coming in so I will continue to grin gratefully and bear it.... Or bare it. It's about 41 degrees Celsius in Winnipeg this week. Love the summer heat. Mostly because I can hide below ground. 

[reallynicestamps]

My Expedited parcel arrived on June 29th, just before the eBay INR expired.

[mrdutch1001]

still using Small Packet Air...averaging about 3 weeks for delivery time to the USA, dependent upon that USA location as there are some trouble spots and that results in bigger delays...

[travis7s]

Everything has been pretty good on my end for both domestic and USA shipments. I think it helps that I've changed all my listings to "Economy" shipping regardless of what speed I actually end up using. This gives a pretty massive delivery timeframe and doesn't really seem to affect my sales.

[ricarmic]

I've sent a lot of stuff all over, where it is possible to these days.

I've seen no rhyme nor reason as to what stuff takes longer, something to Toronto (a 2hr drive) can take up to 5 weeks, but something to the UK gets there in 5 days. Then another TO item gets there in two days and another UK item takes 6 weeks. Canada(Toronto area) and the US are the bulk of the problems but they're also the bulk of the sales. 

It doesn't seem to matter if it is lettermail or small packet.

I've had 8 COVID related refunds in the last couple months. As of this morning 4 have since contacted me to advise that it has arrived and have repaid, I suspect more will when the item eventually arrives. Fortunately I live in a pretty honest "stamp" world.

I'm purposefully NOT watching tracking for anything I send, it is just simply nerve wracking. I await the "wheres my stuff" messages from the buyers. Some are very patient, some are not, the same story as always.

I am selling a lot more stuff than normal for this time of year so the increased pain in the rear all the messages, refunds and reinvoicing causes is worth it!

[peterkat2020]

Is anyone using Xpresspost within Canada and are the packages arriving on time or are they delayed like with Expedited parcel? I have Expedited parcels sitting in the Montreal sorting center for 2 weeks or longer before they get scanned / processed.