@mjwl2006 wrote:Well that was a short-lived rebellion. Thank you for being the cold, wet blanket of reality, and general voice of reason. Otherwise, I might have embarrassed myself or something.
Wait just one cotton-pickin' moment here! I'm going to yank that cold, wet blanket off for a minute.
Volume of scale doesn't necessarily have to mean a single-location volume. The whole reason we Canadian eBay sellers get a discount through Paypal for Canada Post labels has to do with the fact that we are a group representing thousands upon thousands of real or potential customers for CP -- a target market. It makes no difference where we are shipping from, but that we are a cohort.
Another example is the discount offered to small businesses via Venture One (or whatever Canada Post has branded it as recently). As admittedly small as this discount is, the users represent an identifiable market group. It has nothing to do with shipping from a single location or even a limited number of locations.
I agree with you that it wouldn't be a bad idea for Canadian eBay sellers to have a representative to directly approach Canada Post for a "better, new deal", especially in light of eBay's new on-time delivery rules. It's certainly been quite some time since eBay originally negotiated the label discounts. Maybe it's time to revisit the whole subject. Perhaps this could include a better discount on Tracked Packet (especially to the U.S.) for example, or reduced parcel rates for certain routes or distances within Canada.
However, we already have such a representative(s) in the eBay Canada staff, who supposedly are there to work in our interests as a very large group of sellers. I just don't think they've been creative or active enough on our behalf. If the excuse is that they're short on staff, then why does Raphael keep telling us that they are constantly talking to Canada Post and have effectively been unable to get anywhere. I think that's hogwash and horse feathers. I get the impression they have already given up, for whatever the real reasons.
I'll give you one example. During the discussion over the new "on-time" rules, I suggested to Raphael that for Canadian sellers a simple, cost-effective alternative to using expensive tracking in order to meet the on-time delivery requirements would be for eBay Canada to negotiate with Canada Post for the latter to provide a receipt, printout, scan, or whatever it would take that would be acceptable to eBay as an "input/acceptance scan" for non-tracked parcels.
This could be either an online receipt or even something as basic as a confirmation code, generated at the time the shipping label was paid for, or a cash receipt (or uploaded scan) at the P.O. counter. The main point is that if eBay weren't being so truculent, they could certainly find an acceptable form of receipt that would satisfy their requirements and also fit in with Canada Post's abilities. Even if it meant an extra small charge, I think most Canadian sellers would pay it in order to have the all-important confirmation of acceptance.
Well, Raphael quickly and thoroughly dismissed the idea, or any hope of anything like it. I saw clearly after his response that the real problem here is likely eBay, not Canada Post. I suspect eBay.ca is being told by eBay HQ that no efforts whatsoever are to be spent, or commitments of any kind made in attempting to accommodate Canadian sellers or make concessions with regard to the new "on-time" rules, however simple and easy those may be. It would be seen as favouritism by U.S. sellers.
So there we are. I call it conflict of interest, or at the very least, lack of bona fides by eBay.ca people. You may prefer to call it something else. I'm unfortunately too close to retirement age to want to take on this fight, and in any case I think the game is already too rigged for any such simple "solution" to be acceptable, no matter how rational.
I'm sorry, I guess the wet blanket is back on. 
