eBay

happy_pigeon · ‎11-08-2018

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 · ‎11-23-2018

eBay management has been very active in letting the Government know the effect of the Postal Strike on eBay sellers.....

We now have an eBay Canada, a part of eBay whose focus is Canada... and someone who has chosen to speak on behalf of Canadian eBay sellers.

Small business in Canada is now speaking up against the Postal Strike.

CUPW must be careful with what they say and what they do. It is one thing to go on strike against Canada Post, but the monetary value of damage due to collateral damage is adding up.

momcqueen · ‎11-23-2018

Which reminds me: I’ve been telling people my holiday-period sales are down 20 percent this year from last. It’s more than that, my math is faulty. My sales should be three to five times (even six if you count that outlier year) higher than they are at the moment. It fluctuates from year to year depending on a variety of factors but even at their worst/slowest they were at least 2.5 times higher than this.

momcqueen · ‎11-23-2018

It won’t improve until the mail is moving again but, more importantly, sales won’t resume until Canadian shoppers have CONFIDENCE in the postal system.

I had a brief blip of orders as soon as it was announced the government was preparing to table back- to-work legislation and now again a holding pattern. Crickets.

tyler@ebay · ‎11-23-2018

@photoseeum wrote:

I totally agree with you as Ebay Canada is not protecting sellers. I sold an item via letter mail as it would cost more than the item is worth via tracked pack. Customer did not care about a strike and wanted a refund. Ebay refunded him even though I asked for him to wait 1 more week. Because, he escalated it to a claim I got dinged as I was not the one who settled on refunding him. I call up Ebay. The rep does not know anything about a CDN postal strike. Was told that there is no Canadian 1-800 the USA now handles both. My problem he told me was that I did not use tracking showing proof of shipment. I told him I understood why Ebay refunded the customer who would not wait. But why am I getting a strike on my performance. It actually turned out to be two strikes. One for not settling and Ebay having to step in and the other for non shipping. I told him that I thought Canada Ebay was going to protect sellers who continued to sell through this strike. He told me he knew of no such protection and was only focused on the fact that I did not have tracking. I have been selling on Ebay since 1997 very disappointed with the way I was treated.

Thanks for the tag @momcqueen!

Hi @photoseeum - sorry to hear about this situation. There are protections in place for items sold during the strike window (from October 22nd on). If your item initially sold within that timeframe we would definitely make sure that you are taken care of.

If the item sold before that time, it would not have automatic protection. CS could evaluate it for a manual appeal for the strike reason, but most of that will depend on when it was sold (something sold on the 21st of October would be more likely to be approved than say, something sold in September).

I hope that helps clarify!

Tyler,

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎11-23-2018

According to eBay racking information and parcel routing appears "messed up" during this current Canada Post kerfuffle. Most recent scan 15:21 Nov 23, 2018. Current Calgary time 11:30am Nov 23, 2018. Not sure how Ottawa fits into this routing. In checking Canadapost website tracking information item was delivered to community mail box 2 hours ago. (9:30 am)

Shipment: Thunder Bay to Calgary

Nov 23, 2018
15:21pm

Item processed
CALGARY, AB T2E 1Y0

Nov 23, 2018
12:18pm

Item processed
CALGARY, AB T2E 0A0

Nov 22, 2018
05:01am

Delivery may be delayed due to labour disruption
OTTAWA, ON K1V 1J0

Nov 21, 2018
00:01am

Delivery may be delayed due to labour disruption
Canada, Ca

Nov 20, 2018
00:01am

Delivery may be delayed due to labour disruption
Canada, Ca

Nov 19, 2018
10:59am

Item processed
WINNIPEG, MB

Nov 19, 2018
00:01am

Delivery may be delayed due to labour disruption
Canada, Ca

Nov 18, 2018
00:01am

Delivery may be delayed due to labour disruption
Canada, Ca

Nov 16, 2018
20:32pm

Item in transit
THUNDER BAY, ON

Nov 16, 2018
18:08pm

Item processed
THUNDER BAY, ON

Nov 16, 2018
16:38pm

Shipment received at originating postal facility
THUNDER BAY, ON

Nov 16, 2018
00:01am

Delivery may be delayed due to labour disruption
Canada, Ca

Nov 16, 2018
13:54pm PST

Tracking number provided

-CM

photoseeum · ‎11-23-2018

Thank you I called CS, and they said they would make an appeal on my behalf and have it removed. I waited on the line and they confirmed that it will indeed be removed. I feel a lot better

about still selling and not worrying about the strike.

Thanks very much to both of you

tyler@ebay

@momcqueen

doc_scribe · ‎11-23-2018

Yes, at longer term risk now is that most fragile commodity of all in eCommerce, "confidence."

momcqueen · ‎11-25-2018

A majority of my buyers in the past two weeks have been American. Usually? About 35 percent of my orders go south to the USA. I can only think this is due to being unaware of the postal strike here. I ship with tracking so I’m not worried about their items not making it there in time for Christmas.... yet.

However, my sales to Canadian buyers are suffering. I’ve today finally regained my monthly average. Except that at this time of year, my numbers should be, on average, triple that. At least double where they are at present and, on exceptionally high-performing years, six times what they are today.

As to delivery times? Domestically, I don’t have much to report. If the order (with tracking) was destined for a part of Canada not drastically affected by rotating strikes, they’re running on time or a day late. Headed into the danger zone? I’ve got two now going that way. We’ll see.

I’ll holding my breath until the Senate resumes tomorrow to see what to expect next.

This is unnecessarily draining for me. I’m a loyal customer of Canada Post, I feel like I deserve better than this.

vivian5612 · ‎11-25-2018

I agree completely. Ebay takes our money for having items listed but does nothing apparently to help us when we need it. I have had a number of customers request refunds since their items have not arrived. My shipping times rating are also falling. Its time ebay did something concrete about our problems rather than spouting unrealistic recommendations to "keep selling and all will be well".

vivian5612 · ‎11-25-2018

My husband and I are trying to live on one and a half pensions (I don't get a full pension until next year plus I am disabled). Ebay is essential to me as it allows me to pay our bills and eat. As a small business, I can not afford to use a courier system as it would make shipping costs ridiculously high. Now, as my sales have dropped considerably, and my regular Christmas customers are saying "sorry, not this year" because of the strike I am in the position of either paying my bills in full or buying food. Yes, this is a reality in Canada. Thank you Canada Post but this year it looks like tuna casserole for Christmas dinner. I'm grateful for tuna casserole as many people do not even have that but I prefer to work hard to make my money to provide an acceptable standard of living. I am angry at being at the mercy of a post office. I'm sure postal workers are NOT facing similar choices regarding food or bills nor are any MPs.

vivian5612 · ‎11-25-2018

I too have issued refunds and am in the red. I sent an email to Happy-Pigeon expressing my concerns but was told to keep selling, there is no need to put your store on vacation. There is a catch-22 on this. If I put my store on vacation because of the strike I still have to pay Ebay listing fees. I can't pay the fees unless I sell. I am not selling because of the strike or my customers are starting to ask for refunds because purchases have not arrived.

femmefan1946 · ‎11-25-2018

tyler@ebay gave us an assurance that eBay would be offering some protection against slow deliveries.

I believe it is up this very long thread somewhere.

EDIT -- found it faster than expcted.

Hi @photoseeum - sorry to hear about this situation. There are protections in place for items sold during the strike window (from October 22nd on). If your item initially sold within that timeframe we would definitely make sure that you are taken care of.

If the item sold before that time, it would not have automatic protection. CS could evaluate it for a manual appeal for the strike reason, but most of that will depend on when it was sold (something sold on the 21st of October would be more likely to be approved than say, something sold in September).

retroman_studios · ‎11-26-2018

I've been experiencing slow shipments too. I sent a package by Xpress Post which is normally 2 business days delivery. Well, it was sent Nov 21. It still hasn't arrived.

Part of the issue is that as CPC gets mail from one depot to another, if the receiving end is on strike, that can't even be delivered as nobody is at the depot, so you have to send it to a location that is. That's why my package is getting a free tour of Ontario. Plus it seems some areas are getting more than 24 Hour strikes. It seems Fraser Valley West has been on strike since Sunday unless they don't update the website on the weekends.

One good news is that my USA shipments are not suffering because the Richmond, B.C. plant basically handles all items for USA that I send. I think some hubs are like that. Toronto, Montreal all have hubs that deal in US mail. I don't think the other provinces have those as the population density isn't as dense.

My incoming shipments are delayed. I'm trying to stay positive. I'm almost at that point where "I'm gonna wreck it" like Ralph in the first movie when he breaks a jawbreaker.

femmefan1946 · ‎11-26-2018

From the reports of the rotating strikes, that long list ypdc_dennis has been posting is mostly quite small offices going out for a day, which looks impressive until you work out how many are actually off work.

The strikes rotating around the Toronto area are more serious, since, as you say, an office closed in Scarborough will still affect deliveries in Hamilton or Gravenhurst.

And of course, the majority of US mail comes into Gateway/Mississauga.

Here on the West Coast, I haven't noticed much change in my home delivery although my Firefly Loot Crates are overdue. But those come by courier as often as the post.

tyler@ebay · ‎11-26-2018

Thanks for the tag @femmefan1946!

Hi @vivian5612 - we've set up protections to keep your selling performance from being impacted due to not-received requests, feedback or other metric-related misses.

To that end, if you have a not received request that was opened on items sold after the start of the strike (October 22nd onwards), if escalated you can contact CS to have them place it on a 15 day hold to allow for additional processing/shipping time.

I wouldn't default to issuing an automatic refund on these, as the chances are very likely it will be delivered (just late due to the service disruptions). Hang in there!

Tyler,

femmefan1946 · ‎11-26-2018

@lotzofuniquegoodies

Your timeline shows a lot of processing numbers but comes down to:

Friday in Thunder Bay

Monday in Winnipeg

Thursday in Ottawa (huh?)

Friday in Calgary.

Was it delivered on Friday or on the next Monday?

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎11-26-2018

Was actually delivered on Friday early AM. According to the eBay tracking shows delivery at around 4 in the afternoon. The Canadapost tracking was accurate. Just curious that the 2 tracking apps are not in sync? I've advised customers in the past, best to confirm the Canadapost website. Usually much more up to date.

-CM

PS. Usually if I receive a parcel it arrives around 11 AM like clockwork with normal mail. Was no other mail that day.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎11-26-2018

Also, have had parcels delivered in the past where the tracking is not updated until much later. We will have to wait and see how accurate scans once the postal employees are back to work. There may be some "skipped" scans do to rushing!!! Unfortunately, handheld scanners can be very temperamental. Very easy for scans to not accept or be wrong.

-CM