What is going on with Canada Post?
 

So far this year I have 7 INR Item Not Received disputes from buyers in Canada for badges sold on ebay. This is usually after 3-4weeks. Apart from the most recent item ( in which paypal have frozen the proceeds ) the items do get delivered eventually.
The most recent item was sent 5 weeks ago to a fellow forum member. I have offered to refund their payment after explaining that mail is taking that long for some reason. The problem is I refund the payment and next week the badge turns up.
Any forum members work for Canada Post that can offer any insight to the delays?
Ed

hi ed
i think canada post is the worst in the world.
5 weeks to send a patch from canada to australia. 2 items posted with australia to canada lost. australia post tracked them to canada and confirmed both lost by canada post once scanned over to them.
its a joke
bc

Thanks BC. Its just not me then.

No CW, last two packages from Canada to Aust have taken 4 weeks on the dot, used to be 19 days or thereabouts.

Cheers, Keith

Canada Post
 

In my experience the problem is on the delivery side within Canada, as opposed to mail managing to make it out of Canada to the right country:rolleyes:. Canada Post regularly delivers mail to the wrong address. I really can't understand it, walking and reading are pretty much the only skills required to deliver mail. For months I was getting a distant neighbour's magazine subscription which was correctly addressed to them on another street with a completely different house number. I recently had a valuable badge delivered to me by another distant neighbour, it took four weeks to get to me from within Canada and it too was correctly addressed. I could go on, I've been at the same address for 15 years and it has been an ongoing problem.

Now Canada Post's big idea is "flexible delivery", which means no delivery at all - you can choose to pick up your mail at the nearest post office. I think I actually like this idea because it removes the weakest link! Maybe they will expand this idea so we can pick up our mail at the nearest international airport and really fix the problem!

I hope I haven't offended any Canadian Posties, I reckon I get 99% of my mail first go around but some of the 1% has been painful.

Cheers, Ian.

Ian, I will argue that point about about letter carrier being the weakest link. I live in rural Ontario in an area where I have pick up my own mail at the post office. THEIR HOURS OF OPERATION BLOW DEAD BEARS. I have waited and waited for packages and letters to arrive. Even my bills are frigging late. Sometimes only a matter of days before the due dates.

I have been waiting since June 10th for a package to arrive from Australia. Not impressed at all. According to the Australian post office, it is still in transit. I am getting to the point where if I cannot do a local pick up, I wont be buying.

As a matter of interest what are the carriers like i.e. DHL?

My Canada post nightmare was when I sent a memorial plaque to a collector in Canada but forgot to add my return/sender's address to the package. They refused it and sent it back. Instead of just opening it to look at the letter inside to get the sender's address if it was a big deal. Royal mail had to open it to find my address to return it to me anyway. Madness. So the plaque had to travel 10,500 miles to get to Canada.

I've not had many badges sent to me through Canada Post, and only one didn't show up - there was an empty envelope. I got charged duty on a stable belt once because it was considered to be clothing. However, we often get mail delivered to the wrong address, and bills have gone AWOL. Most of our billing is now done electronically. It's a crap service, which is only going to get worse.

David

I gave up shipping to Australia/New Zealand through Canada Post. Unless it was sent by some expensive service the packages invariably ended up taking at least 8 weeks. Upon enquiring at the post office about these slow shipments I was told that parcels are thrown in a bin awaiting enough to merit shipping. So, if you shipped at the opportune time you could expect the parcel to get there within the ebay / paypal standard. But if your parcel was early in the bin it could wait weeks before shipping. And, then it depended if there was room on the aircraft. (I was told that all overseas mail goes airmail, but some planes are much slower than others.) The net result was that sending material to Australia was too risky. After having two payments clawed back by paypal.

I think Royal Mail's afraid of Canada Post. Last time at my post office I turned up with a packet for Canada with the customs form on the back and the guy in the post office said it had to go on the front, because that is the way Canada post likes it. I said we're in England not Canada.... Still had to put it on the front. :)

Mike, what do you expect when the person running Royal Mail used to run Canada Post. Now we have two f***ed up systems.

David

Canada Post
 

At the risk of jinxing myself, I ship about 20 parcels a week with Canada Post and have never had a loss. I don't ship to Australia for the reason Bill mentioned, it usually takes too long and the buyers are seldom understanding.

other carriers (as opposed to Canada Post)
 

Mike 2817 asked about other carriers "i.e.DHL" I can say with authority and have proof. The following story happened to me. I had a successful bid on e-Bay of a stunning piece of Indian Artillery dress headwear, complete with badge. The seller in India sent it Via DHL. It duly arrived (a little late but not worrisome) at my address in Niagara, Canada. The package looked strange as it was neither square nor oblong and was bound in an odd assortment of duct-tape. When I opened it, I was shocked to find the item destroyed by 5, yes, that's five! deliberate slash cuts, as with a "box-cutter", but there were no cuts in the box itself!. The item had been taken out, destroyed, replaced along with crudely applied bubble wrap, the badge removed and thrown in the bottom of the box and forwarded on to me from the receiving depot in a suburb of Toronto. After a number of telephone calls to DHL depot who kept referring me to contact the seller (which I did) Nothing was resolved at this end. Seller was extremely gracious when I contacted him and replaced the item via a relative of his who was visiting Toronto. I found out later that many of the employees in the DHL depot are of a different ethnic group than my seller's home country. The two have been at odds with each other since 1948. Say no more! Needless to say, I would never trust DHL with ANYTHING!

to all the Canada sellers,
i still buy from Canada and i understand that the parcel will take 4-8weeks. i am accepting of this and i generally work this out with the seller in the first place.
recently bought a patch from eBay Canada and the seller wanted to courier it to me due to the poor mail service. would cost more than the patch was worth so i guaranteed to take all responsibility for lost and or late delivery going with Canada post. 5 weeks later it arrived and we both left good feedback
bc