Chit Chats vs. Stallion

[wilsonharborsales]

Chit Chats is now taking 2-3 days to induct packages with the USPS. This is new as of this week. Previously they offered next day induction. A 2-3 day handling time is unacceptable for my business.

For those using Stallion, are you receiving next day USPS acceptance scans (induction scans)? If Stallion has a better lead time, then I will make the switch.

[sin-n-dex]

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@wilsonharborsales wrote:
Chit Chats is now taking 2-3 days to induct packages with the USPS. This is new as of this week. Previously they offered next day induction. A 2-3 day handling time is unacceptable for my business.

For those using Stallion, are you receiving next day USPS acceptance scans (induction scans)? If Stallion has a better lead time, then I will make the switch.

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I'm using Stallion, they tend to do "next day induction" (except for untracked letters, those have a special status of being the last to be processed). I've noticed they do big parcels much quicker than small parcels when they are backlogged, so if you ship big things you are probably OK to mostly have next day induction.

When there is snow storms and customs problems, the induction time is longer. I've only had them not do next day induction when the Canada Post strike was on (they did pretty well, but it might have been 2 days a few times, and it took them a week to do my untracked letters in the midst of the strike), they had problem a week ago with the tariffs. They had a notice on their site that the snow storm might cause delays, but it's reasons like that when there is a delay.

If you're taking your packages to the Mississauga branch at Stallion you should have no problems. I'm expecting some of the delays are at the branch level (getting stuff to Mississauga for processing).

Also Stallion's rates are less expensive, so I'm glad I made the switch. Especially for the UK stuff that goes Royal Mail, the prices are really good.

C.

[wilsonharborsales]

I live in the Niagara Region and am in the process of starting U.S. LLC to move my business fully into NF, NY. My drop would be St. Catharines (closer than Burlington). Thank you for taking the time for this concise response. I am going to send them 5 packages on Tuesday and see how it goes.

[sin-n-dex]

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@wilsonharborsales wrote:
I live in the Niagara Region and am in the process of starting U.S. LLC to move my business fully into NF, NY. My drop would be St. Catharines (closer than Burlington). Thank you for taking the time for this concise response. I am going to send them 5 packages on Tuesday and see how it goes.

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Ah, I remember you posted about going down to the border with packages. I have thought of doing that (because of the tariff fiasco) but people are advising me against that.

I didn't know Stallion had a branch in St Catharines, I'm presuming they'll send them to Mississauga for processing from there. Check if there's a cut off time (for one day processing). At my branch they come at the end of the day (7pm), but they sent the trucks earlier last week when the storm was coming.

Do you know why Chit chats is taking so long to process packages? When I used to use them (before they closed the Kitchener branch, it was 1 km from my work), they would get things across the border in one day. I have extended handling time in case of delays (so that I don't have problems with eBay). Stallion moved to Kitchener and it's kind of on the way home, so I drop packages off after work (it works better there, they're open until 7pm, Chit Chats was 10-5pm, so I had to go at lunch time).

C.

[wilsonharborsales]

I spoke with them on Friday about it and they were very vague. If I had to guess, I would say it is either a cost cutting measure, they are picking up other freight along the way (I saw a CC truck at a loading dock at Costco) or they hold their trucks until they are full.

[recped]

I'm using Stallion but I would not be making any decisions based on what has happened over the past 2 weeks.

Stallion has been a mess since November 3rd, seems to be getting back to normal but I would not be sure of that until next Tuesday/Wednesday. From what I have heard Chit Chats has been even worse but again these issues should be temporary but who knows what new "wrench in the works" Trump will impose.

As far as Acceptance scans, for eBay metrics the scan when you drop off at Stallion is all you need and those scans show up on USPS tracking so your buyers can see that your packages have been shipped.

[sin-n-dex]

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@wilsonharborsales wrote:
I spoke with them on Friday about it and they were very vague. If I had to guess, I would say it is either a cost cutting measure, they are picking up other freight along the way (I saw a CC truck at a loading dock at Costco) or they hold their trucks until they are full.

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Oh that's not good. Chit Chats has been having to cut costs for quite a while (started a year ago with branch closures all over). Even when my branch was open, they didn't have lots and lots of packages being dropped off. When I go into Stallion, they've got these big 6 by 6 foot bins that are 4 feet high and they're filled with packages. Stallion also runs Shippsy (the service that receives USA packages to be picked up at branches in Canada), and there's always people coming in to pick up lots of packages, I've seen people picking up a dozen or so at a time.

Thanks for the heads up on Chit Chat's new cost cutting measure (I would think they're holding trucks until their full to make fewer trips across), makes me certain to not switch back. I was trying to decide who was best with the border troubles we recently had, but it seemed that whoever I shipped with was all equally bad and not able to get their trucks across.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@recped wrote:

I'm using Stallion but I would not be making any decisions based on what has happened over the past 2 weeks.

Stallion has been a mess since November 3rd, seems to be getting back to normal but I would not be sure of that until next Tuesday/Wednesday. From what I have heard Chit Chats has been even worse but again these issues should be temporary but who knows what new "wrench in the works" Trump will impose.

As far as Acceptance scans, for eBay metrics the scan when you drop off at Stallion is all you need and those scans show up on USPS tracking so your buyers can see that your packages have been shipped.

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OP and I use Niagara NY as our shipping location which means the tracking needs to start in NY. If we have Niagara NY as our location and a Stallion scan in Canada we are at risk for a policy violation if reported (and some of my customers probably would report me if they didn't like the fact their package was coming from Canada, but tracking starts in NY with a NY return address).

I talked to eBay CSR more than once about this by phone, they said if I use Niagara NY as my item location, to use the USPS/UPS tracking that starts in the US to ship. If we use Canada as our item location we can use Stallion's tracking dropping it off (because the tracking starts in Canada).

C.

[recped]

The Stallion scans for USPS shipments don't show Canada at all, they all show Sanborn NY

This is what the Stallion scans up until December used to show, the first scan location shows the first 5 digits of the Canadian Postal Code but they don't show either US or Canada as the location.

[sin-n-dex]

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@recped wrote:

The Stallion scans for USPS shipments don't show Canada at all, they all show Sanborn NY

This is what the Stallion scans up until December used to show, the first scan location shows the first 5 digits of the Canadian Postal Code but they don't show either US or Canada as the location.

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I'll have to take a look. I know on USPS it shows Stallion, but I think you're right it's Sanborn NY.

I don't try to hide I'm in Canada, it's actually part of the offers I send out for discounts (letting them know I'm in Canada but USA shipments are domestic with USPS/UPS). But if it takes a few days to get the items across the border (due to the drama we've had the past few months), I don't want issues with eBay, so I extended my handling time. I don't have any late shipment dings as a result, and the handling time can be used to explain getting packages from my city to Niagara to ship with USPS. (It says 5 days, but I ship 3 times a week most of the time).

C.

[recped]

From my Experience the scan done at the Stallion drop off is all you need to make eBay happy about on time shipping. I also have an extended handling time but it's not unusual to have a single package that is dropped off at Stallion on the last day, never had any late shipment dings from eBay on any of those.

I did have one late shipment (US) last year, I thought it was a mistake at first but when I checked it actually was dropped off 1 day after my handling time had been used up.

In normal times (no Trump, no blizzards) If I drop a package off on Monday afternoon it will be Accepted by USPS on Tuesday in Sanborn and scanned again in Rochester either Tuesday night or in the early hours of Wednesday.

Here is the scanning history for a Media Mail package I droped off (drop and go) on the 10th.

[cottagewoman]

My local service in the greater Montreal area is back operating - same day if packages left by 11:30am otherwise next day. No other locations, but if you can make it to the St Laurent industrial area around the 13-40 interchange, they're great. mailtousa.com.