My notes about Snap Ship

I used CPC's "Snap Ship" for the first time tonight.  I had 2 parcels to send, one by Tracked Packet, the other by Small Packet, both to the USA. 

 

Things I liked: 

 

  • Easy to follow and fill in the screens, quite user-friendly.  The flow from one step to the next was clear, and editing back was easy
  • Although I had to manually input the address, the system saved customs info (description, HS code) from one entry to the next (hooray!) 
  • Entering customs info generally was quite easy, and 7 separate entries are allowed for
  • Got the 15% discount 
  • The invoice/receipt for my VISA payment printed on the other half of the label sheet.  Nice touch. 
  • Payment processing was quick and simple (but see below). 

Things I wasn't impressed with: 

  • It took me nearly 20 minutes to access Snap Ship.  I couldn't get past the login pop-up screen, no matter how many times or ways I tried.  It kept looping back to the Snap Ship main (start) screen.  Finally I completely logged out of the CPC site, then signed in with my SFSB password on the main CPC page before going to Snap Ship.  That worked.   
  • No Paypal payment option available.  I just don't understand why CPC can't offer this.  I had to charge the postage to my VISA, then make a note of how much to transfer back to my bank account from Paypal to cover it, and a note to remember to make the payment to VISA once the Paypal money comes through.  Still, this is probably better than Shippo's idea of once-in-a-blue-moon billing. At least the charges showed up immediately on my VISA account. 
  • No connectivity with eBay of course -- tracking # and shipped status has to be input manually on eBay
  • No connectivity with Paypal and the customer's payment details and address.  Although I didn't expect this of course, I found that having to deal with 3 separate places to complete my records for one order was a real time waster.  It was SO nice when you could jump directly from the eBay transaction to Paypal and back again, with each site communicating the data.  
  • No customer packing slip/invoice as we had with Paypal (although I admit I didn't search for this feature on Snap Ship).  I had to go back to eBay for that. 
  • The label printed out quite small.  I wish they could just fill the available space and make the address larger and more legible

So -- bottom line -- it took me nearly an hour and a half to get two parcels labelled and ready to go, and my records completed, what with all the flipping around between the 3 sites and inability to actually get into Snap Ship initially.  This was a job that used to take me about 15 to 20 minutes in the "good old days".  

 

Better than the current alternatives is about the best I can say about it, certainly better than Shippo at the moment.  But nowhere near as efficient as the old Paypal procedure.  Can't you please give us Paypal labels back, please?  Woman Frustrated

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My notes about Snap Ship

Hi -  Just wanted to let you know that you can still print labels for ebay sales if you log in directly to paypal.  I just printed a label for an expedited parcel being shipped within Canada for less than $10 with the discount.  All you need to do is sign up for a Canada Post Small Business Solutions account on the paypal website and you're good to go.  Quick, easy and none of the hassles others have mentioned on the boards lately with the other shipping options recently available.

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My notes about Snap Ship


@forester_studios wrote:

... you can still print labels for ebay sales if you log in directly to paypal.  I just printed a label for an expedited parcel being shipped within Canada for less than $10 with the discount.  All you need to do is sign up for a Canada Post Small Business Solutions account on the paypal website and you're good to go.


But if you do that, you give up the extra 15% discount that Snap Ship has until July 31

The exception for PayPal is Expedited parcel for Canada, which does get an extra discount until July 31.

 

If you ship outside of Canada -- Snap Ship beats PayPal when it comes to price (until July 31).

 

-..-

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My notes about Snap Ship

I quite like Snap Ship so far. I have used it to print two labels and I do like that they are smaller (lighter). Out of habit I always hand write the buyer's address on the package anyway. And I do like that it takes credit card as I like paying with credit card for the cash back anyway... back then when I used Paypal label, I always had to withdraw my CAD balance first so that Paypal would allow me to use credit card to fund the shipping label. Now I don't have to do that anymore.

Ctrl + C (copy) and Ctrl + V (paste) work really fast with filling out the customer's address, in case people aren't aware of such keyboard short-cuts. Took me about 5 minutes to make one Snap Ship label.
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My notes about Snap Ship

Canada Post recently has done something back-end that has made it impossible now for many Mac users to use Snap Ship. 

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My notes about Snap Ship


@mjwl2006 wrote:

Canada Post recently has done something back-end that has made it impossible now for many Mac users to use Snap Ship. 


Is it possible to sign into your Solutions for Small Business account and then go to Snap Ship?

 

Support links on this page:

https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/pages/support/default.page#panel2-3

 

Have your SfSB number handy.

Solutions for Small Business: 1-877-262-5762 (M-F, 7-11 ET, weekend, 9–9 ET)

Technical Support: 1-866-511-0546

 

...

 

As a side note: I haven't successfully used Snap Ship for over 3 weeks because one of CP's updates broke something different for each of my older browsers. I have to put every thing on vacation and set aside at least a day to upgrade the computer (it might only take a couple of hours, but I've worked with computers for decades and fully expect Murphy to make a long visit).

 

-..-

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My notes about Snap Ship

I tried every possible way to sneak into it after being stuck in the endless loop. I am allowed to sign into my account but any time I try to access the Snap Ship component of the website, I am asked to log in again before doing so. Despite being logged in and with the confirmation I am logged-in on the upper right-hand portion of the screen. I repeated the login-in process six times as part of this infinite loop before abandoning it altogether.

 

At some point this week when I have a half-hour to spare, I'll try calling Canada Post to report it as a bug.

 

 

 

 

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My notes about Snap Ship


@mjwl2006 wrote:

I tried every possible way to sneak into it after being stuck in the endless loop. I am allowed to sign into my account but any time I try to access the Snap Ship component of the website, I am asked to log in again before doing so. Despite being logged in and with the confirmation I am logged-in on the upper right-hand portion of the screen. I repeated the login-in process six times as part of this infinite loop before abandoning it altogether. 

 

 


I'm not sure it's a MAC issue.  I'm using an HP laptop running Windows 10 and this is exactly what was happening to me yesterday too.  The bizarre thing was that it appeared from the banner line at the top that I was logged into CPC, but like you, I kept getting a loop when logging into the Snap Ship login pop-up screen.  Then I had the idea of logging out, closing down Canada Post altogether, re-opening the site, logging into the site (not specifically into the Snap Ship service page), then finding Snap Ship.  

 

A real rigmarole, but you might want to try it in the meantime until Canada Post fixes the problem (please do report it, thank you). 

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My notes about Snap Ship


@ypdc_dennis wrote:

@forester_studios wrote:

... you can still print labels for ebay sales if you log in directly to paypal.  I just printed a label for an expedited parcel being shipped within Canada for less than $10 with the discount.  All you need to do is sign up for a Canada Post Small Business Solutions account on the paypal website and you're good to go.


But if you do that, you give up the extra 15% discount that Snap Ship has until July 31

The exception for PayPal is Expedited parcel for Canada, which does get an extra discount until July 31.

 

If you ship outside of Canada -- Snap Ship beats PayPal when it comes to price (until July 31).

 


 

I was aware I could print labels directly from the Paypal transaction (I've done so on many occasions in the past), but yes, the 15% discount was exactly the reason I persisted with Snap Ship yesterday. 

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My notes about Snap Ship

Yes, please bring PayPal discounted shipping back.  I find the same situation as Rose-Dee

 

It takes over twice as long to handle shipping labels, accounting and reconciliation with Shippo and Snap Ship as it did with PayPal.  

 

I never realized how clean and streamlined PayPal was until I tried these other methods.

 

Rodney, please bring PayPal back into the fold.

 

 

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My notes about Snap Ship

Something weird occurred with Snap Ship today.

 

I've purchased a few labels in the last couple of weeks with no problem (except I continue to get charged an additional $2.00+ after the fact on certain parcels).  This is offset by their discount I guess.

 

Today, I had to go through a whole process to even log in.  I had to enter my account number and then all my business and personal info that has been on record for years.  Finally, when I clicked on Continue, I got this error message:

 

Error 403--Forbidden From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1:10.4.4 403 Forbidden The server understood the request, but is refusing to fulfill it. Authorization will not help and the request SHOULD NOT be repeated. If the request method was not HEAD and the server wishes to make public why the request has not been fulfilled, it SHOULD describe the reason for the refusal in the entity. This status code is commonly used when the server does not wish to reveal exactly why the request has been refused, or when no other response is applicable.

 

I've never seen this before ... ever.  When I googled it to see what it meant, there was a link to an explanation.  When I clicked on it, I got to some dating site which I exited out of it quickly -- it looked pornographic.

 

I've suffered through a lot of label problems in the last few weeks but nothing like this.

 

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My notes about Snap Ship


@jt-libra wrote:

Something weird occurred with Snap Ship today.

 

I've purchased a few labels in the last couple of weeks with no problem (except I continue to get charged an additional $2.00+ after the fact on certain parcels).  This is offset by their discount I guess.

 

Today, I had to go through a whole process to even log in.  I had to enter my account number and then all my business and personal info that has been on record for years.  Finally, when I clicked on Continue, I got this error message:

 

Error 403--Forbidden From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1:10.4.4 403 Forbidden The server understood the request, but is refusing to fulfill it. Authorization will not help and the request SHOULD NOT be repeated. If the request method was not HEAD and the server wishes to make public why the request has not been fulfilled, it SHOULD describe the reason for the refusal in the entity. This status code is commonly used when the server does not wish to reveal exactly why the request has been refused, or when no other response is applicable.

 

I've never seen this before ... ever.  When I googled it to see what it meant, there was a link to an explanation.  When I clicked on it, I got to some dating site which I exited out of it quickly -- it looked pornographic.

 

I've suffered through a lot of label problems in the last few weeks but nothing like this.

 


I switched to Chrome and purchased the label without incident.

 

At any given time, I have 3 browsers open -- Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.  So, often I'm not looking to see which browser I'm in when I'm hopping from website to website.  However, IE has run its course, I'm afraid.  I never upgraded to Windows 10, even when it was free, so I'm thinking that Microsoft is offering little support for IE.  It just barely functions.

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My notes about Snap Ship

It never did function well, and they have now gone to Edge.

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My notes about Snap Ship


@dutchman48 wrote:

It never did function well, and they have now gone to Edge.


They usually give you a date when they will stop providing support to an existing platform, but it's pretty obvious there's not much being given the last few months.

 

I didn't upgrade because I read a lot of experts' opinions on Windows 10 and they were saying that if 7 was not creating a problem, to stick with it because 10 still had a lot of glitches.  I imagine they're sorted out now.  Anyway, I need a new computer soon, so I'll get it then.  I remember when my XP conked out; it took so long to get all my preferences and defaults set on Windows 7 .... I'm dreading doing that again.

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My notes about Snap Ship

Anonymous
Not applicable

@rose-dee wrote:

I used CPC's "Snap Ship" for the first time tonight.  I had 2 parcels to send, one by Tracked Packet, the other by Small Packet, both to the USA. 

 

Things I liked: 

 

  • Easy to follow and fill in the screens, quite user-friendly.  The flow from one step to the next was clear, and editing back was easy
  • Although I had to manually input the address, the system saved customs info (description, HS code) from one entry to the next (hooray!) 
  • Entering customs info generally was quite easy, and 7 separate entries are allowed for
  • Got the 15% discount 
  • The invoice/receipt for my VISA payment printed on the other half of the label sheet.  Nice touch. 
  • Payment processing was quick and simple (but see below). 

Things I wasn't impressed with: 

  • It took me nearly 20 minutes to access Snap Ship.  I couldn't get past the login pop-up screen, no matter how many times or ways I tried.  It kept looping back to the Snap Ship main (start) screen.  Finally I completely logged out of the CPC site, then signed in with my SFSB password on the main CPC page before going to Snap Ship.  That worked.   
  • No Paypal payment option available.  I just don't understand why CPC can't offer this.  I had to charge the postage to my VISA, then make a note of how much to transfer back to my bank account from Paypal to cover it, and a note to remember to make the payment to VISA once the Paypal money comes through.  Still, this is probably better than Shippo's idea of once-in-a-blue-moon billing. At least the charges showed up immediately on my VISA account. 
  • No connectivity with eBay of course -- tracking # and shipped status has to be input manually on eBay
  • No connectivity with Paypal and the customer's payment details and address.  Although I didn't expect this of course, I found that having to deal with 3 separate places to complete my records for one order was a real time waster.  It was SO nice when you could jump directly from the eBay transaction to Paypal and back again, with each site communicating the data.  
  • No customer packing slip/invoice as we had with Paypal (although I admit I didn't search for this feature on Snap Ship).  I had to go back to eBay for that. 
  • The label printed out quite small.  I wish they could just fill the available space and make the address larger and more legible

So -- bottom line -- it took me nearly an hour and a half to get two parcels labelled and ready to go, and my records completed, what with all the flipping around between the 3 sites and inability to actually get into Snap Ship initially.  This was a job that used to take me about 15 to 20 minutes in the "good old days".  

 

Better than the current alternatives is about the best I can say about it, certainly better than Shippo at the moment.  But nowhere near as efficient as the old Paypal procedure.  Can't you please give us Paypal labels back, please?  Woman Frustrated


eBay labels on PayPal are gone for good. 

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My notes about Snap Ship

Anonymous
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@thewoodguy1 wrote:

Yes, please bring PayPal discounted shipping back.  I find the same situation as Rose-Dee

 

It takes over twice as long to handle shipping labels, accounting and reconciliation with Shippo and Snap Ship as it did with PayPal.  

 

I never realized how clean and streamlined PayPal was until I tried these other methods.

 

Rodney, please bring PayPal back into the fold.

 

 


This is part of our separation agreement with PayPal. We won't be bringing that feature back.

 

What we will do is continue to work with Shippo to address feedback from Canadians so far. They're pretty responsive and have been working on solutions to the feedback we've heard from sellers so far. 

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My notes about Snap Ship

MJ I don't know if you saw my other post about this but doing the following did work for me and at least one other person.

 

 Make sure you are signed out of your small business account and then to canadapost.ca and sign in there using the link at the top. Click on your sign on name at the top to get the menu and then click on dashboard. There should be a snap ship link on the right. When I clicked on that, I was taken right there...no endless loop.

 

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