We want to hear from you—Canada Post labour disruptions

[happy_pigeon]

Hi all,

With Canada Post rotating strikes continuing for the third week with no indication of a resolution between Canada Post and CUPW, the eBay Canada team are looking to hear from Canadian sellers about the impact of the strikes on their business.

Feedback and examples from our seller community helps us to better advocate for you. If you're comfortable with sharing your experience, we want to hear from you, whether you've felt an impact from the postal labour disruptions or not.

Some members of my team (someone other than myself or Tyler) may reach out to you via PM for more information after you post in this thread. We look forward to hearing your stories!

[cumos55]

People will learn

and....  They will remember what eBay has done so far in 2018...

but only if they know what to read.

[pmlinne]

Considering that Canada Post has asked other countries not to ship things to Canada and that there are so many trailers waiting to be unloaded, I have made the decision to end all my listings.   I do not want to disappoint buyers who may/may not experience a delay in receiving their item.  Even if the situation was settled in the very near future, there is still the possibility that people buying things for Christmas would not get them in time.  Once things are back to normal I will be back on Ebay and hope that Ebay.ca will offer a promotion (eg.  list 100 for free).

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Maybe any offers that we receive during the strike, that will be extremely difficult to cash in on, we can ask for a rain check and use later at our convenience. Sound reasonable?

-CM

[theoldestfart]

thank you for doing that. Seems its the small companies/sellers that care for their customers more than the big players.

[oldhousejunk]

Just want to add another problem-  due to the strike, I've been having to the list!

I sell by auction, and have it posted right on my listings that there will be a delay in the shipping time because of the strike. 

This weekend, after my buyers have paid, I thanked them and reminded them of the strike and that it would take longer to arrive.  Buyers response has now been "I don't want to wait longer. Cancel my auction".  So now I'm having to send a bunch of refunds, but at least I won't have to worry about them not being recieved in time. 

I have read that ebay.com has posted about the strike, but people seem to know nothing about it. 

[around_again_records]

latest update for happypigeon from my end on how the strike has affected me

Very slow sales - more watchers than usual, but sales have been pretty slow until just recently

I still do not have feedback for 12 items that were sent untracked to various locations locally, nationally, and internationally since the strike began. Have they been received, but no feedback left, or are they still sitting out there in a trailer somewhere OR has eBay stepped in and stopped INRs being reported???? I don't know, and I don't like not knowing.

Currently I have 3 items that need to be mailed locally, but could not mail today because the rotating strikes closed my branch of the Post Office. 2 of those items are only going a few miles, and I don't think will have to go through Mississauga, but I'm not sure. I will find out when the Post Office reopens. If they do not have to go through Mississauga, I will probably take a chance and put them in the mail. The other item I know will have to go through Mississauga, so I have contacted the buyer to see if he wants to take the chance and I will mail it, OR I will hold on to it for awhile and then send OR if time is an issue he can cancel the order.

I have another shipment that needs to go to USA. I know this one has to go through Mississauga too, and have asked the customer what he would like me to do. He is OK with waiting a bit.

I checked out UPS shipping for this item and UPS Standard Shipping would cost approximately the same as Canada Post expedited parcel to his address. The catch is that there would be a close to 20 dollar brokerage fee for him, and also I don't know if he has a drop off close to him in the event that he is not there when they attempt delivery. I still have to get back to the customer on this one. I was very surprised though that the UPS price was the same as Canada Post. This is on a 2 Kg box. I checked UPS for the other smaller local items that I have, and the prices are more than double.

Long story short. My conscience says that I should cancel my listings. It's really embarrassing, and just plain wrong,  when I make a sale and have to explain what is going on. If I was the customer I would probably be understanding, but at the same time I would wonder, WHY ARE YOU LISTING these items if you can't ship them??? 

I'm not relisting anything new until things get back to normal. I'm very close to cancelling the listings that I have up right now - it seems like the right thing to do, but of course, I paid for those listings and I hate to loose the sales even if it is pretty slim pickings right now.

I'm just a casual seller, and even to me this is a really Bad situation, causing me extra work and stress. I can only imagine how terrible it must be for large sellers and small business people who depend on this venue. The Postal Service really needs to be an essential service. With online business becoming such a mainstay, what is the cost to the economy when there is total disruption every 2 years??? It's really not an acceptable business model at all.

[msmaggie060]

I, for one, am fed up with this whole mess. I live in a rural area, my mail lady tells me she is not underpaid (although more $ would be nice) and enjoys her job and can’t understand all the fuss by the union.

My ExpressPost pkg that was mailed at the post office was mailed Nov 7th and shows as having left Mississauga Nov 18th (ExpressPost remember) on its way to Alberta but hasn’t moved since. Hope it’s okay, it’s a Christmas gift of homemade cookies and other things!

I normally buy lots of gifts online but am waiting for mail to return to normal before doing any more buying. I’ll just have to give cash instead this year; that I can transfer through my bank.

Not sure if I should put my stores on vacation at this point, will wait and see a little bit longer. Still getting a few US sales but nothing from within Canada.  And my UK sales have dropped right off. And to think we have to go through this every 2 years!!

[ypdc_dennis]

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@msmaggie060 wrote:

 ... And to think we have to go through this every 2 years!!

---

Normally 4 years -- the 2 year agreement last time was to allow pension and rural pay to get sorted out.

This one is for 4 years (2018-2021), but almost a year has been used up so far.

[katlover1952]

Up until October sales were fairly decent. Since mid October have slowed to almost nothing. Have only sold 3 items since Oct 25th. I can’t say with certainty it is the postal situation but other than that nothing has really changed. Still had promoted items etc. Have watchers but no buyers. Because I sell smaller items Canada Post is really my only option for shipping; couriers just too expensive. Very discouraging as not making enough to pay store fees. With the backlog of mail & no settlement in  sight I think the Christmas season is pretty much a write-off.  Very discouraging situation.

[triber]

I have put my store on vacation, there is no point in having sales that can't be mailed. One concern is that those of us with stores will still have to pay the store fees even though we can't sell and get the income to pay the fees.

[cumos55]

This postal strike is going to kill on-line selling in Canada.

Canada Post says it has done about everything that  can be done.... to clear any backlog at major sorting facilities.

CUPW  does not focus on on-line sellers or buyers..... only CUPW.   CUPW appear to be very happy with the current situation.

I have been selling on eBay for 15 years, and I figured that 3 to 5 more years would be a good option.  CUPW is working very hard to kill my business.... and the business of others that sell on-line.

Nobody needs this type of frustration.

There has to be a way to put CUPW away forever..... somewhere where they never again can influence on-line business like they are doing right now.

What CUPW Is doing can be called..... Interfering  with business....  that is the business of on-line selling.

But that is something very hard to prove in a legal manner

------------------

The only option I can think of right now  is to declare Canada Post an essential service.

The end result should be..... a work stoppage never again

[forester_studios]

Either make it an essential service or privatize it. Something has to be done to control costs. The cost to ship has grown so much in the last few years it is getting very challenging to continue. Eliminating light packet was a disaster. Mailing a small item to the USA went from $5 in 2015 to $8.49 by small packet this year! I am trying to shift away from small inexpensive items to higher value, but it is more challenging to find those items. Will have to reevaluate over Christmas. After 12 years of growing a little business it might be time to stop.

As far as I'm concerned CUPW shows no intent to bargain in good faith. What they are doing is heading towards a form of economic terrorism threatening the livelihoods of thousands of Canadians and potentialy damaging the countries economy by millions of dollars. Merry Christmas Mike!

[momcqueen]

This is how I feel as well. My family is self-employed with no benefits of any kind and we live hand-to-mouth; any postal worker is already far better off than anyone here and yet their ultra-affluent union bosses are pushing for yet more and more. While I don’t begrudge what the union members already have, Canada Post is offering every employee $1000 just to sign a contract to end this punishment of unwilling victims (all Canadians, buyers or sellers) but no one cares that I’m losing $1000 in sales every two weeks to this debacle. The longer this continues, the higher MY losses will be.

[katlover1952]

Totally agree. I kept my store open as eBay suggested but sales have not been sufficient to pay the store fees since Oct.  I got a bid on an item tonight but not sure what to do now. I cannot believe it has come to this. The postal union has done this to Canada before (although not at Christmas season) & I for one am sick of it. The cost of their action will never be fully calculated. Loss of revenue to the PO is just a small part. If they actually thought they would win the support of Canadians they were sadly mistaken. This Christmas season is toast. No matter if Trudeau legislates them back to work ( which Harper did but Trudeau is weak & doubt he will) it is too late to clear the backlog by Christmas. People just simply will not order on  line as there are no guarantees for delivery.  Guess it will be good for the malls & retail stores. 

If Canada Post is advising people to stop mailing items I wonder how long before a lock out occurs. And yes if this drags on into Jan we will still have store fees to pay even if we are not doing listings so not only will we lose revenue on sales we will have expenses with no income.  Feeling frustrated & angry as am sure the rest of you are as well.

[momcqueen]

Given that Canada Post has now begun to warn commercial customers to expect prolonged and unpredictable delays, does ebay still recommend its sellers carry on as if it’s business as usual?

https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/comm/details.page?article=2018%2F11%2F19%2Flast_ditch_efforts_t&cat...

[momcqueen]

Or are we expected to contract our shipping to couriers at any cost? Will eBay be skewing the search results on eBay.ca to favour Nearest First in order to facilitate Local Pickup?

[forester_studios]

Here's an idea. If ebay wants us to keep selling they can reimburse us in full for all costs to use couriers. Seems reasonable, after all they are a multi-billion dollar operation. 🙂 On a more serious note. Wouldn't it be nice if they gave us a free listing promo at least to cut our costs and numb the pain a bit. (Expecting both things will happen are as likely as Santa coming down my chimney - and I don't have one!) LOL. Yes I'm desperately trying to at least keep my sense of humour. Crazy world, eh?

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

@happy_pigeon

I think a free listing promo later on after the strike situation ended, and perhaps waiving one month's worth of store fees for those who were forced to put their store on vacation, would be very helpful.

Personally I'm ending all of my listings tonight. I only have two orders that were mailed during the last two weeks so even if I have to refund later on both it's not a huge hit, but I don't think it's worthwhile for me to keep my listings up at the moment.

Another question about INR: I will not have internet access for a week as I'm going on a family trip soon, so if INRs are filed while I'm gone and they closed in buyer's favour because I didn't respond within 4 days, will eBay be able to remove those defects?

[forester_studios]

Not sure how ebay will handle defects but I think they mentioned they would help. Maybe ask in the Wednesday chat?

[ypdc_dennis]

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@momcqueen wrote:
https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/comm/details.page?article=2018%2F11%2F19%2Flast_ditch_efforts_t&cat...

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I was told by a seller with a Canada Post commercial contract that they were contacted two weeks ago advising them that any time sensitive parcel should be send by some other method as the mail system was getting seriously overburdened.

...

This is a more general announcement for everyone.

A Canada Post effort to push back at the union and at the government.

-..-