Canada Post new postal rates

[coulect]

Ever since the Canada Post new postal rates came into effect my sales on Ebay have evaporated. I am wondering if any other sellers are experiencing the same problems? Who is going to pay $25.00 for an item when the postage can cost $20.00?
I think the people at Ebay and Paypal 'dropped the ball' when negotiating with Canada Post.
Lewis

[cumos55]

Whatever i do today  has been the result of a transition over many years, and not just January 2013.

It involved a change in type of inventory sold....  something that continues to sell with a higher total dollar value for each successive year...

[aramatic]

The real disgrace is that there is no Small Packet equivalent within Canada, so we don't even have the opportunity of taking the risk of no insurance. Any package thicker than 2cm has to be sent at the parcel rate.

Taking as an example a package 17x11x3cm weighing less than 250g:

To the USA (Small Packet Airmail) $7.80

To New Zealand (Small Packet Airmail) $10.36

Within Canada (Expedited Parcel, only option) $6.09-$14.66

Cheaper to send from BC to New Zealand than to Newfoundland! Canada Post needs to wake up.

[toff3]

Aramatic,

The situation wrt the lack of a domestic Small Packet service has been with us for decades.

It's not Canada Post that needs to wake up, it's the people of Canada, who own Canada Post.

Tom

[toff3]

Cumos wrote:

Without insurance the surface option is not acceptable.

Wrong.

For international shipping insurance was a primary concern.

To you. But why exactly?

Tom

[pjcdn2005]

I'm curious Cumos.....what was your average number of insurance claims per year when you used small packet?

[cumos55]

International surface shipping.... with today's  small packet... Even with small packet airmail ... and ...A potential for Insurance claims on high priced items

One of the reasons international shipping was cut back to a select number of European countries was unhappy buyers,  and insurance claims....

Without tracking buyers  had a free run for an insurance claim....  something that Canada Post most likely had to address..

Small packet without insurance just does not work... and was not viewed as an option for shipping... atleast by me....

Canada Post International Parcel - Surface with tracking and insurance is a more than acceptable option for high priced books.... which are being bought....the cost of postage does not overshadow  the cost of the item being shipped.....

Also shipping to countries  outside of Canada and the US has been scaled back dramatically over  the last few years, without a loss in dollar value of sales........

Every Canadian seller on eBay has to make an adjustment appropriate to what, and where they sell... That is what I have done.....

[cumos55]

It was the filing of non-receipt with Paypal that was more traumatic...  That is when I cut back to shipping internationally over very long distances... 

and they say refund or it will be negative feedback.....

not the most comfortable of situations  whether once, twice or many other times.....

A lot of the situations were related to country as much the use of small packet... I have cut international shipping back dramatically  over the years   in response to paypal non-receipt  and a few insurance claims... years ago  but not most recently...

I have learned what countries not to ship to....  and that is where it is today

[cumos55]

Small packet to the US was never a big problem,  with one insurance claim about two years ago...

Buyer wanted a hardcover copy,  my copy, and bought many softcover copies of the same book,  and paid much less than my one copy,  once the non-receipt claim was made with Paypal........

Strange situation...

[toff3]

Cumos,

Why don't you answer PJ's question?

Tom

[cumos55]

It was the non-receipt claims that were important...not appreciated by me, but I dealt with them carefully

Insurance claims... As far as I was concerned... one claim was too much...

And every time I got the question....

Where is my item?  I did not not like it even though I was covered by insurance...

Over 10 years the average was no more than one insurance claim per year...  and for me one claim was too much

My understanding is that the probability of a claim has increased over the past three years... It was felt that buyers have learned how to play the system,  get their purchase  and get their money  at the same time.

In turn  I cut back on which countries I would sell to ... thereby decreasing the probability of a non-receipt claim and in turn an insurance claim...based on my experience

I have also learned how to communicate to a buyer, as to when the parcel will arrive...  and was quite successful  with sales to the US

Yet there was always a sense that an insurance claim was a probability....  Something I did not like to experience

I also did not like going to Canada Post to make an insurance claim....  

In 10 years I have had only one oversize parcel, with no insurance, disappear in the postal system.

What I do is based on what I want... no non-receipt claims.... no insurance claims... no problems ...

[canrock]

I buy alot of items on ebay but with this new tracking postage i refuse to pay  10.00$ for a ticket stub and 15.00 for traking postage. BAD EBAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[coulect]

I am only going to ship to Canada and the USA. I am quoting Airmail to USA and if I want to insure I will pay the extra for tracked packet. International is too expensive and based on previous experience, too risky without insurance. I am finding local sales on Kijiji are picking up and also on my website www.canadianpicker.com

I am still disappointed with Ebay not being able to get us a better deal with Canada Post but I have to look to the future and make the necessary  adjustments

Good luck everyone,

Lewis

[pierrelebel]

According to the Conference Board of Canada, which was hired by Canada Post to look at its options, the post office will lose $1 billion a year by 2020 unless fundamental changes take place.

Options include eliminating door-to-door service, delivering mail only two or three times a week, closing post offices, raising prices and freezing wages.

The question of whether Canada Post should switch to reduced delivery or alternate-day service depends on whether you send mail or receive mail.

"...Canada Post understands it has an obligation to serve rural and remote communities...."

http://www.thestar.com/business/2013/05/16/canada_post_weighs_how_best_to_cut_costs.html 

[cumos55]

As Canadian sellers on eBay  we have to accept

That which we cannot change..

(1) Canada Post options and rates

(2) eBay costs for selling on eBay

(3) The exchange rate, Canadian and US dollars...

That which we can change

(1) the price of inventory that we sell

(2) The balance between Price paid and postage paid by a buyer

(3) The type of inventory we  sell

(4) Where we find our inventory

(5) Where we sell that inventory... Internet and elsewhere....

(6) Which delivery service, Canada Post versus courier

(7) Insurance options

There is a lot more to consider

This is a start

Selling as a business means we must be flexible, and be ready to adjust those variables that we can adjust... and it is the same for a large or small business...

----------------------------

What I sell today is totally different that what I sold 5 to 10 years ago.

Inventory from those many years ago was finally sold at a local auction... Total sales $2000, and with $1500 after commission... with more to sell next fall...

I changed to have a better business...  Adjustments have been made.... Fortunately  those adjustments in the years before 2013 were appropriate for 2013...  Canada Post and more....

[cumos55]

The biggest change for me occured several years ago when the store was moved from eBay.com  to eBay.ca,  Canada Post options were now a part of the listing.....  Easy to Bulk Edit!

The focus for inventory became Canada  and things Canadian... with several types of inventory that also were found to sell well, and continue to sell well.....

Nothing is static... The store is constantly evolving....

[treasure.hunter.d]

Options include eliminating door-to-door service, delivering mail only two or three times a week, closing post offices, raising prices and freezing wages.

Hah! How about rolling back wages? Much like our LCBO workers who are planning to strike on the May 24 weekend these sloths are all overpaid for their workload and especially for their performance levels. IN a union, exemplary performance is discouraged so we end up with a bunch of overpaid sloths habitually trying to find that exact sweet spot where you can do the absolute least amount of work for the most pay. Canada Post's troubles start with it's employees and branch out into many areas including the fact that they have raped us for years and done very little to keep up with the changing times so now they are crying poor. Well, what is the answer to that? Stick it to the consumer of course, without ever once addressing your internal issues that are pi$$ing money out the window.

Canada Post is basically one more increase away from someone like Puro, UPS or DHL making a really aggressive move to snap up all of Ebay's Canadian Seller business with a promo. Fed Ex would be the most likely candidate for that except for their partnership with CP making it unlikely I would think.

In any event, I am left where my first post stated, having to spend $16 in postage where I used to spend $10 with no help on the horizon...

[toff3]

Insurance claims... As far as I was concerned... one claim was too much

With the business model Cumos has adopted, no wonder he's so paranoid about insurance and tracking. He admits he's had very few claims (exactly how many out of how many shipments he refuses to say) and we don't even know how many (if any) of those claims resulted from actual losses and involved refunds on his part. I do feel sorry for his customers, who have to pay extra or suffer slow service so that he can cover himself. Still, each to his own, I guess.

While I can't make Cumos see sense (no one could), I am disappointed in Lewis (Coulect), who's decided selling outside North America is either too expensive or too risky. The high cost? No argument about that. But too risky?? No way, no way. There's a lot to criticize about the postal service (not only in Canada but elsewhere in the world) but overall the postal system works extraordinarily well in all but a handful of countries. If it didn't, eBay wouldn't exist.

Tom

P.S. to Lewis. You make a point of saying you offer airmail service to USA. You can't offer any alternative - Canada Post made sure of that.

[tobyshitzu]

cumos posts are as good an argument as have ever been made here to NOT ever pay for tracking, insurance or even the $1.50 for third party insurer as it can not ever come close to making sense to

[cumos55]

My biggest problem with international shipping... using small packet surface, with insurance and a least cost option, was not so much insurance problems...

It was the non-receipt claims with Paypal... Australia with three one after another,in the fall of 2009 and many others from Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Germany  Belgium

and that is when I blocked those countries....except for Germany.

Much of the blocking of countries had to do with the temperament of the buyers in those countries

They filed with Paypal mainly because there was NO tracking.

With tracking they can follow the progress of the parcel.....

eBay as it is today puts a premium on tracking, and insurance....

and if people ask "Is there tracking"  there are fewer problems  than if there is no tracking... which then becomes an Paypal claim.....

Shipping a low cost item without insurance works... I do that with oversize airmail envelopes...

Shipping a high priced item, such as a book with a $95 value is not acceptable with no insurance.

I do what I do  because of the price of my inventory,  and have found that what I do works.

Different sellers do different things, based on what they sell

[cumos55]

Do a comparison of inventory on eBay

Your inventory relative to mine., and arranged highest first

(1) The highest price., and then second highest price

(2) The average price for the 200 items with the highest price.

(3) The average price for the 400 items with the highest price

and you will have a better understanding why insurance and tracking is important