USPS/ Canada Post grind to near dead-stop. Packages taking over a month to receive

[shallow_karl]

Canada Post ground to a near halt now that the union representing the customs processors in Mississauga walked off the job.  In addition, the American USPS Chicago and L.A. transit hubs are hopelessly buried in the volume of packages.  What this has meant is that packages can take over a month to receive leading the thousands of refunds by Ebay, and lost goods by sellers.  Much as some dislike them, UPS and Fedex are better choices at this point.

[reallynicestamps]

The customs officers did not go on strike.

They were pulled by CBSA, the employer, due to the outbreak of COVID at the Gateway Terminal.
https://www.cp24.com/news/covid-19-cases-at-canada-post-facility-now-up-to-182-as-cbsa-pulls-some-wo...

The effect may be the same, but it was not a decision by the workers, but by management.

"On January 21, CBSA border services officers working on the main floor at the Toronto International Mail Processing Centre (IMPC) were moved to the upstairs mezzanine area of the facility, where Canada Post Corporation (CPC) employee presence is limited, to focus exclusively on secondary exams. International mail continues to be processed by CBSA officers at the CPC satellite facility located at Toronto Pearson International airport," the statement read."

[ichopshop]

I've actually found things improved greatly post Christmas.  I had a Expedited Parcel take 30 days Nov/Dec, many took weeks.  Now, this whole Mississauga Covid situation may screw things up a bit but the volume in the system should still be down from 4th quarter highs.

[flyhooks4less]

My shipments in the west and to US have been moving fairly well, the ones in the east seem slower.

[mrdutch1001]

I am finding shipments within Canada going fairly well, but shipments to the USA are a different matter. Shipments to the eastern USA have been taking considerably longer but especially slow for anything that was shipped the week before Christmas...the slowest being 6 weeks...

It should be noted that most of my shipments to USA are oversize letter mail, with the occasional Small Packet Air. Even as slow as many packages have been, have some very patient, understanding customers = NO INR cases.

[hold.your.own.media]

I'm finding that oversized letters are arriving within 2 weeks to the US & Canada. Small Packet Air (unfortunately untracked) are taking closer to 6 weeks. I'm just now getting bombarded with refund requests, and since selling years ago on ebay.com have yet to see a "kind" buyer contact me after an item has arrived post-refund.