Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

Is anyone closely following strike negotiations?

I'll likely have Time Away scheduled to avoid any Strike mayhem, but wondering what will happen to any lettermail/ packages that are already in the "stream". Will they sit at a depot/DC or on a truck for the duration, or will they likely have a rotating strike and keep moving things along with just delays?
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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

Ebay is offering some help:

 

"eBay is working to monitor and adjust estimated delivery dates and eBay Money Back Guarantee timelines to ensure that you are not penalized for late shipments due to the labour disruption."

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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?


@qwestsupply wrote:

We have been using UPS for most shipments since the possibility of a strike was announced. We just shipped several heavier packages to various parts of the USA and Canada for cheaper than it would cost to ship via Canada Post. However, we sold a small item to a buyer in Sparwood, BC, and the shipping cost for a 322g in an 8x6x4 box sent via UPS is $106.31! FedEx is $85! Insane.

 

It seems like we will have to delist our smaller items until the strike issue has been resolved. Very unfortunate for us since we rely on the income from our eBay sales to cover our living costs 😞 


@qwestsupply 

@videotimeplus 

@38e_avenue 

@fergua3 

@needsmorerobots 

 

Have you been monitoring actual shipping charges using UPS? There have been numerous recent drive by reports with sellers getting revised charges when using Fedex since it's implementation last year. Unsure if the same thing has been happening with UPS.

 

I do find it interesting that eBay is highly suggesting for sellers to keep their listings active as per the recent email.  Unfortunately UPS/Fedex etc are NOT realistic options for ALL Canadian sellers and there is that detail about PO boxes being in play. (Not available when using a courier.)

 

To minimize the impact of these strike actions on your business and customers, we recommend the following:

  • Keep your listings active. To help manage expectations, consider extending your handling time.

  • Consider adding an alternative shipping option to your listings. Note that UPS and FedEx services are still available on eBay Labels.

  • Offer local pick-up for buyers in your area.

Message 102 of 211
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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

My listings will be "active" as per "Time Away"  settings...

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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

I havent switched yet, i'm still waiting to see what happens tomorrow but i will never use fedex after all the horror stories i've heard about them. I have two packages in transit right now with CP so if they get stuck i will message the buyer explaning the situation. If a strike for sure happens tomorrow i will likely use UPS even with the higher cost. 

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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

@videotimeplus 

In my situation UPS just isn't convenient and then having to filter out PO boxes. I get orders going to PO's all the time. Never had an issue with them with CP/USPS.

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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

UPS charges very high surcharges to some remote areas. It is why you need to use calculated shipping. If you ate that $100 shipping charge, I don't think that you would have been in the wrong to cancel given the buyers address would have no longer been reasonably serviceable after the Canada Post strike was announced. If I was the buyer, I wouldn't expect a seller to lose $100 in that circumstance.

 

Rather than de-list, use a shipping calculator. That way, you can still sell the items. 

 

You have 146 items, which in terms of eBay is not a lot. If you do not have your items pre-weighed, you can likely group them up into "like items" and come pretty close to guessing their weight and dimensions. Almost all your items are small and likely to be under a KG. 

 

I wouldn't put a bunch of time into weighing your items because the strike could last a day. Since all your items except a few are under 1KG, I would just stick with 1KG and 30x30x30 CM as a generic shipping size (or if you have a box you usually use for everything, go with that. The way UPS works, you're not going to overcharge customers with that, and if you somehow do you can issue a partial refund. 

 

You may have to prepack and weigh a few larger items like the Xbox, but this is work you will have to do anyways in the future when it sells. So it's not really extra work.

 

I wouldn't edit your BIN prices or anything. I would simply suspend free shipping and charge UPS calculated rates. You don't want to nuts and redo all your prices, spend a bunch of time, and then the Canada Post Strike is resolved quickly. Even know people are less likely to buy your items without free shipping, leaving them up with calculated rates is better than removing them entirely. You may still make a few sales. 

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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?


@ilikehockeyjerseys wrote:

UPS charges very high surcharges to some remote areas. It is why you need to use calculated shipping. If you ate that $100 shipping charge, I don't think that you would have been in the wrong to cancel given the buyers address would have no longer been reasonably serviceable after the Canada Post strike was announced. If I was the buyer, I wouldn't expect a seller to lose $100 in that circumstance.

 

Rather than de-list, use a shipping calculator. That way, you can still sell the items. 

 

You have 146 items, which in terms of eBay is not a lot. If you do not have your items pre-weighed, you can likely group them up into "like items" and come pretty close to guessing their weight and dimensions. Almost all your items are small and likely to be under a KG. 

 

I wouldn't put a bunch of time into weighing your items because the strike could last a day. Since all your items except a few are under 1KG, I would just stick with 1KG and 30x30x30 CM as a generic shipping size (or if you have a box you usually use for everything, go with that. The way UPS works, you're not going to overcharge customers with that, and if you somehow do you can issue a partial refund. 

 

You may have to prepack and weigh a few larger items like the Xbox, but this is work you will have to do anyways in the future when it sells. So it's not really extra work.

 

I wouldn't edit your BIN prices or anything. I would simply suspend free shipping and charge UPS calculated rates. You don't want to nuts and redo all your prices, spend a bunch of time, and then the Canada Post Strike is resolved quickly. Even know people are less likely to buy your items without free shipping, leaving them up with calculated rates is better than removing them entirely. You may still make a few sales. 


For anyone that is using either UPS/Fedex in conjunction with eBay labels are you cheating when it comes time to include numbers/email addy's? Those 2 pieces of info have been long requirements by couriers for years. I have personally never used UPS from within eBay so not positive of how the form looks. Without that info there is the potential for delays or even returns at sellers expense which in some cases could be substantial.

 

This morning I had a very small order come up for Spain. UPS didn't even come up as an alternative option. Fedex Intl Economy did but was 15.00 more than what buyer paid.

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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

byto253
Community Member

I had a chat with my local CP Manager in Shopper's Drug mart and she felt from talking to folks that it would be not more than a week then ordered back or settled.   That sounds optimistic but I hope that is the case.

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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

Took chance and dropped off 1 package (Intl) today just to see what was going on.  As of 5 pm their location would not be accepting any more packages. The bin was about half full.

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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

You can change your settings so that buyers have to include a phone number with their order. It's somewhere in the account settings. With that said, most buyers, whether they know it or not, have their phone number attached to their shipping address on eBay.

 

eBay provides carriers with an e-mail for all buyers. It is an eBay messages proxy e-mail that is a long string of random characters @ members.ebay.com. 

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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?


@ilikehockeyjerseys wrote:

You can change your settings so that buyers have to include a phone number with their order. It's somewhere in the account settings. With that said, most buyers, whether they know it or not, have their phone number attached to their shipping address on eBay.

 

eBay provides carriers with an e-mail for all buyers. It is an eBay messages proxy e-mail that is a long string of random characters @ members.ebay.com. 


@ilikehockeyjerseys 

Turned on that setting ages ago. Passed on about the above to in the Tyler era. Even included a link to the info from the Royal Post website.  It was never corrected. Do we know with certainty that eBay proxy emails work outside of ebay or are just designed for ebay to ebay use? A seller can ask a buyer for a valid email address. No guarantees you will get 1. When I used Shippo for 3 plus years all of that standard info automatically got dumped into the long customs form including the option regarding customs fees (seller pays/buyer pays) when applicable plus Return to Sender/destroy option. No such option with eBay Labels. For anyone that uses UPS/Fedex they know the UPI is much more detailed than what we get with eBay labels. 

 

As a side it has been reported numerous times on here that some sellers are creative and use all 0's or 9's as an example to fill in that blank. Does little to help if there are issues when an item is in question.

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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

@lotzofuniquegoodies I believe "the manual" says to put in your phone number if the recipients phone number is absent/unknown.

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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

Nov 15: The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) has started a national strike. Canada Post’s operations will be shut down for the duration of a national strike.

www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/our-company/news-and-media/corporate-news/negotiations-list.pa...

 

I rely on Canada Post for most of my shipping, so "vacation" time for me. Time for me to rework my ebay listings plus put up some that are local pickup only.  Fortunately for me I have no undelivered Canada Post shipments (the last was delivered yesterday) -- partly due to sales drying up since the start of the month.

 

🙄

 

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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

I also now on "Time Away". No outstanding orders...all have been successfully delivered...Whew!

Now back to "life" and its day to day chores & tasks that don't involve online selling....

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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

I'm on time away as well.

 

I'll use this time away to fix up listings by readjusting prices and filling in information that I missed the first time. I'll add new listings, too.

 

Of the 5 packages I sent out this week (4 on Tuesday and 1 on Wednesday), I believe they were all halted.

 

The two tracked US packages I sent Tuesday, were halted Wednesday at the Vancouver depot.

 

My US packages usually take 2 business days, to get into the US. I believe it might've been a lead up to the strike, by slowing down the work.

Message 115 of 211
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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

Being off a week with no pay doesn't even make sense to me.  How long would it take them to make back the lost wages with a first raise?  I know they get some money when on the picket line, but I don't think it is a lot.  And I don't think it is daily.

 

I hope it is over by Monday, I have too many items shipped in the last week.  eBay better suspend claims until this is over, and extend existing shipped delivery times.  I see they have longer times on sales as of this morning. 

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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

Didn't know it was an option.  Just started showing up for me a while ago now.  Buyers email address also used to show up, but now back to the eBay email address.  Probably had too many sellers hounding buyers through email to buy direct.

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I still see your listings.  Time to buy a record.  It better be here fast!!!  Haha.   I think eBay will protect its sellers, or there will be a lot of **bleep** off people.  They better anyway, I have 30 plus items in Limbo.

Message 118 of 211
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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

yes my listings are atill available as I use auction format, but the handling time is set for 5 days so that gives me time to find alternate shipping method if needed...

Each and every listing also states this:

"The seller is away until 21 Nov, 2024. If you buy this item, expect a delay in shipping."

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Re: Should We Be Preparing for a Canada Post Strike?

Just to confirm.  If I put listings on time away, current auctions will continue to run but the fixed price will dissapear.  

 

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