PayPal / Canada Post On-Line Shipping Partnership

[jt-libra]

The following is an excerpt from an e-mail received today from PayPal.  I'm assuming all of you have already or will see it today.

Does anyone know how to link the two platforms?  They say we can do it from within PayPal but I didn't see anything to enable that. 

 I tried to post a screenshot but after 30 minutes, I gave up!!

We’ve updated our online shipping tool. It will still allow you to pay for your shipment, print your shipping label and automatically track your package, all in one seamless experience. And through our partnership with Canada Post, now you’ll get more.

The next time you make a sale and want to ship your product to a customer, you’ll need to register for Canada Post Solutions for Small Business™. Registration is easy, it's free, and you can do it within your PayPal account. If you’ve already registered, simply link your Canada Post Solutions for Small Business account.

[reallynicestamps]

I don't often use the labels but when I printed a PP label recently I was asked for my Small Business number, I gave one and I have not been asked since, so I assume that it has been recorded.

fingers crossed.

[hlmacdon]

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@jt-libra wrote:

Does anyone know how to link the two platforms?  They say we can do it from within PayPal but I didn't see anything to enable that. 

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A bit of false advertising there. Less discounts, less services it should really read

There are no platforms to link really. I'm not sure if it is still the case but when you go to print a label it will prompt (if not now, eventually) for you to enter your Canada Post account. That will then get stored in your paypal profile and when paypal shoots submits a rate request through the API it'll use your account number to return the rates. They may have temporarily disabled the account link when they mangled this launch/transition, I haven't checked since they launched. Should be no reason for ebay users to make use of this unless they have a transaction outside of ebay that was paid via paypal. You'll get better rates through the ebay --> paypal flow, through shippo when it launches, and temporarily through the Canada Post site while they have that extra discount offer running.

[hlmacdon]

A bit of false advertising there. Less discounts, less services it should really read

There are no platforms to link really. I'm not sure if it is still the case but when you go to print a label it will prompt (if not now, eventually) for you to enter your Canada Post account. That will then get stored in your paypal profile and when paypal shoots submits a rate request through the API it'll use your account number to return the rates. They may have temporarily disabled the account link when they mangled this launch/transition, I haven't checked since they launched. Should be no reason for ebay users to make use of this unless they have a transaction outside of ebay that was paid via paypal. You'll get better rates through the ebay --> paypal flow, through shippo when it launches, and temporarily through the Canada Post site while they have that extra discount offer running.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@hlmacdon wrote:
... Should be no reason for ebay users to make use of this unless they have a transaction outside of ebay that was paid via paypal. ...

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Exactly.

There are lots of reasons to buy shipping that has nothing to do with an eBay sale. And it allows spending of paypal $ balances instead of edging the credit card too high (Canada Post).

-..-

[jt-libra]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

I don't often use the labels but when I printed a PP label recently I was asked for my Small Business number, I gave one and I have not been asked since, so I assume that it has been recorded.

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I'd forgotten about that.  Two or three weeks ago, I was asked for my Canada Post account number and couldn't figure out why.  I did enter it and then forgot about it.  And I was never asked again.  So I suppose the link happened at that time.

[tobey_arih]

I have CP small business account and the integration with PP is useless -- costs even more with "Expedited" option, domestically. So I had to do it with CP's.  I am not even sure I want to make attempt using UPS, the EbPP integration with shipping carreirs is not -user-friendly.  I cannot even use my UPS account when I tried.  So in essence,its a finicky.

[jt-libra]

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@tobey_arih wrote:

I have CP small business account and the integration with PP is useless -- costs even more with "Expedited" option, domestically. So I had to do it with CP's.  I am not even sure I want to make attempt using UPS, the EbPP integration with shipping carreirs is not -user-friendly.  I cannot even use my UPS account when I tried.  So in essence,its a finicky.

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I haven't purchased many labels lately -- I've been shipping mostly lettermail.  But, the other day, I shipped an expedited parcel to Nova Scotia and the price I saw on PayPal was the same as Snap Ship.  Snap Ship was lower than PayPal at one point but, based on that one label, maybe they're now in sync.  It seemed to be the same price as it has been for months. 

[tobey_arih]

For some reason, PP does not list it the same as CP. Expedited and Regular costs the same on CP, but for PP it  was 10 bucks over. So I had to do it without integration.  No biggie, at least I save the processing fee for CP. 😄

I would like to use Lettermail for near weighless items, domestically. BUT if a dispute opens up from the buyer's end......It has happened to me already from a weirdness, a non-us member, who has a US shipping address.

[jt-libra]

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@tobey_arih wrote:

For some reason, PP does not list it the same as CP. Expedited and Regular costs the same on CP, but for PP it  was 10 bucks over. So I had to do it without integration.  No biggie, at least I save the processing fee for CP. 😄

I would like to use Lettermail for near weighless items, domestically. BUT if a dispute opens up from the buyer's end......It has happened to me already from a weirdness, a non-us member, who has a US shipping address.

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I ship lettermail most often for lightweight items (100 to 300 g) which are 2 cm or less thick  $1.80 > $2.95 > $4.10 EXCEPT for higher item values.  Anything with a value of, say, $50 or more I usually send Expedited in order to get the tracking feature.  However, of the hundreds of lettermail items I have shipped within Canada during the past 11 years, I have been informed of only two lost shipments. So, yes, you will likely lose a dispute in a case like that and have to refund the buyer, but think of all the money you save by not shipping by a tracked parcel rate.  Think of it as self-insurance.

[pjcdn2005]

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@tobey_arih wrote:

I have CP small business account and the integration with PP is useless -- costs even more with "Expedited" option, domestically. So I had to do it with CP's.  I am not even sure I want to make attempt using UPS, the EbPP integration with shipping carreirs is not -user-friendly.  I cannot even use my UPS account when I tried.  So in essence,its a finicky.

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I'm not sure why it would cost more with expedited, I've never seen that happen as expedited does have a discount and regular parcel does not.

Are these for ebay sales? If so, make sure you are starting the label from ebay by clicking on print shipping label in your sold history.  The shipping costs less if you do it that way than if you start directly from paypal.

[dinomitesales]

I got this e-mail too and it confuses me.

I thought PayPal was looking to get out of the label-printing game, which was why eBay was moving to Shippo?

Or is that false, and eBay is just moving to Shippo to further distance themselves from PayPal? And PayPal wants to continue offering label printing? How does Pitney Bowes fit into all of this?

I don't understand the point of this new PayPal-CPC connection - are we not currently getting discounts through printing labels on PayPal? Did they not have a connection before this?

Ugh, I work for Canada Post as a retail clerk and trying to keep track of all this stuff is just a nightmare. I try to be informed to help out my customers but it seems like things are always changing. Trying to explain the three(!) different ways to print labels off of the Canada Post website to new business owners is already a headache in itself (assuming they can figure out how to even navigate the website; I have older business owners that will not print labels online simply because they can't figure out how to update/change their password and log into their account).

[hlmacdon]

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@dinomitesales wrote:

I got this e-mail too and it confuses me.

I thought PayPal was looking to get out of the label-printing game, which was why eBay was moving to Shippo?

Or is that false, and eBay is just moving to Shippo to further distance themselves from PayPal? And PayPal wants to continue offering label printing? How does Pitney Bowes fit into all of this?

I don't understand the point of this new PayPal-CPC connection - are we not currently getting discounts through printing labels on PayPal? Did they not have a connection before this? 

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Previous Canada Post rates available via paypal were Ebay contract rates, not paypal. When paypal and ebay split that created a weird scenario where technically eBay's contract rates were being used for non-ebay shipping on paypal, with paypal stuck as weird middleman in the support relationship. From the looks of it, paypal will now just provide a pass through to Canada Post using the contracted rates of the seller. this is why you may have seen prompts to enter your Canada Post account number when going to print a label directly via paypal. If Pitney Bowes is still in the loop it will be for management of the backend API (software layer that connects Canada Post to third parties) flow that is responsible for the generation of rates/transmission of shipping data to Canada Post.

If you want to get discounts based on the previous ebay contract rates you need to start your label printing through ebay first so that paypal uses the ebay account when getting the rates. That will be replaced by shipping via the Shippo website once that goes live. The only thing that has currently changed is paypal has essentially restricted access to the ebay rates to label printing that is initiated through ebay.

As a Canada Post clerk the biggest confusion will likely be informing customers how to get access to printing light packet, as that will only be available via label prints that are initiated through ebay, or through the retail branches in person.

[dinomitesales]

As a Canada Post clerk the biggest confusion will likely be informing customers how to get access to printing light packet, as that will only be available via label prints that are initiated through ebay, or through the retail branches in person.

Nah, that's really not an issue. Anyone printing labels off of CanadaPost.ca was unable to print Light Packet anyway, so that doesn't change anything. I'd say 90% of the eBay/Etsy sellers I have refuse to print any labels online through those respective platforms, and just fill out customs labels on their own and bring them to the store to buy the postage manually. 

[tobey_arih]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

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@tobey_arih wrote:

I have CP small business account and the integration with PP is useless -- costs even more with "Expedited" option, domestically. So I had to do it with CP's.  I am not even sure I want to make attempt using UPS, the EbPP integration with shipping carreirs is not -user-friendly.  I cannot even use my UPS account when I tried.  So in essence,its a finicky.

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I'm not sure why it would cost more with expedited, I've never seen that happen as expedited does have a discount and regular parcel does not.

Are these for ebay sales? If so, make sure you are starting the label from ebay by clicking on print shipping label in your sold history.  The shipping costs less if you do it that way than if you start directly from paypal.

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Yes, ebay sales. I did use the *option*.

Maybe its transition with Paypal as in-between relationship with CP and Ebay will end and start with (what the heck is this) Shippo??  it could be also that Paypal did not prompt me for CP account number.  Its all **bleep** confusing.  Where do newbie sellers find the info in a timely fashion. I do not want to quibble about costs.  After two months I find out it shipping can be done online via Paypal and there are savings when done so.

[tobey_arih]

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@jt-libra wrote:

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@tobey_arih wrote:

For some reason, PP does not list it the same as CP. Expedited and Regular costs the same on CP, but for PP it  was 10 bucks over. So I had to do it without integration.  No biggie, at least I save the processing fee for CP. 😄

I would like to use Lettermail for near weighless items, domestically. BUT if a dispute opens up from the buyer's end......It has happened to me already from a weirdness, a non-us member, who has a US shipping address.

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I ship lettermail most often for lightweight items (100 to 300 g) which are 2 cm or less thick  $1.80 > $2.95 > $4.10 EXCEPT for higher item values.  Anything with a value of, say, $50 or more I usually send Expedited in order to get the tracking feature.  However, of the hundreds of lettermail items I have shipped within Canada during the past 11 years, I have been informed of only two lost shipments. So, yes, you will likely lose a dispute in a case like that and have to refund the buyer, but think of all the money you save by not shipping by a tracked parcel rate.  Think of it as self-insurance.

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Well, I suppose me being a newbie, and Ebay did not disclose the actual fact the onus is on the seller that all shipments are trackable or has tracking number. the seller "*always* loses.  The protection program is evidently partisan to the Buyers vs the sellers (novice, intermediate, advance). 

For your the 11 years, well, I would say it rarely happens but  it does.  I remember doing legal name change in 2014/15  The info was sent to RCMP and CP, for some inexplicably reason, lost the letters twice  Even more mysterious, the  two letters were delivered eventually 4=5 months later. o.O