# Canada Post Yet Again



## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

First: I ordered some small stuff lately from the L&M warehouse in Pickering and it got to my office at Toronto in 3 or 4 days except for the most recent package which took about 10 days.

June 7/21, I ordered a guitar from Brantford L&M and they shipped it a few hours later after going over it and then someone from the store called me to talk about setup. So the store did a good job and the shipping label is correctly addressed to me.

So then Canada Post gets involved. The guitar went from Brantford to Montreal. I'm in Toronto; it's one hour from Brantford.

And yes, I should have picked up the guitar myself but they'd managed to delver a few small things w/out problem as I mentioned.

As an aside, I recently had a guitar come to Toronto from Chicago took 4 days from order to delivery by DHL.

I contacted CP and their customer service was evasive and could not confirm that they even had an address to ship to; they could not tell me that it would be shipped to my address. I asked if I should file an insurance claim and they said to contact the sender.

This guitar is likely to spend another week or so sitting at a facility in Montreal. The longer it is in the system the more chance it will be lost, damaged or stolen.

I suppose that this kind of problem should be no surprise with CP.

But I'm just mentioning, what is likely obvious to many, that this is something to consider when shipping guitars through CP.

I will never voluntarily use CP again for anything again.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

I had a guitar shipped purolator from winnipeg l&m to my store. Aside from however they dinged the case (if the guitar is mint, it stands to reason the case probably didnt have ripped tolex) it took 6 business days to arrive (mon-mon).


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

Had no problems with 2 somewhat recent guitar shipments...other than my new mailman being either lazy or stupid telling me he had nothing for me when there was actually a guitar box back there. I mean it’s easy to miss the biggest box in the truck right?


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

The fact that they simply send everything to Montreal for sorting regardless of destination is ridiculous.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

What looks like "efficiency" from an organizational operations and accounting perspective may not be particularly "efficient" from the customer perspective.


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## mawmow (Nov 14, 2017)

Never had any problem with CP over the years and this Spring where I shipped two guitars.
My most recent packages got to destination even faster than expected.
But I had to ship a small package on Monday and heard they had a new software installed and the clerk had to boost the system to accept the shipping address...


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

tomee2 said:


> The fact that they simply send everything to Montreal for sorting regardless of destination is ridiculous.


Is that what they do ?

The C/S person didn't tell me that or say anything helpful; just a lot canned answers designed to get rid of people.

If I'd know it was going to Montreal for sorting I would have picked it up for sure.


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

@Wardo Give me your phone number so I can call you up tonight when I am losing sleep over the item I got mailed outa Montreal today.  

So far Canada Post is batting 1000 with me...


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

mawmow said:


> ... heard they had a new software installed and the clerk had to boost the system to accept the shipping address...


That might be something to do with it; they could not confirm that they had a shipping address in the system.


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

you wanna share canada post stories? 
i mailed 2 boxes to myself from niagra falls ny, to toronto. one was cords and multi outlets. the other was books. i sent them on sept 6th, the books arrived at the end of nov, the cords showed up a few days before christmas. 

i spent a year paying off a c.c. i had in the states. the only way visa would accept the payments was if i mailed a postal money order. each one was sent signature required. about half of them got lost. it took weeks to cancel the money orders so i could re ship them. no refunds, no help with tracking. hours spent on hold.


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## isoneedacoffee (Oct 31, 2014)

Perhaps this is a Canada Post story... I don't know.

I had a pedal shipped from the States via USPS on April 30. Last tracking update within the US was May 4th... Since then, nothing. And nobody knows who has it (USPS or CP) and where it is. It's been a month and a half, and that would test anybody's patience, no?


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Looking on Reddit. Apparently stuff goes to Montreal for sorting and can be there for months.


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

Wardo said:


> Is that what they do ?
> 
> The C/S person didn't tell me that or say anything helpful; just a lot canned answers designed to get rid of people.
> 
> If I'd know it was going to Montreal for sorting I would have picked it up for sure.


I guess I'm assuming that's what they do, but I've heard of this before.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

tomee2 said:


> I guess I'm assuming that's what they do, but I've heard of this before.


Yeah, there is a lot of internet chatter about it so looks like that's what happens.


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## warplanegrey (Jan 3, 2007)

I’m just going to post these screenshots from earlier this year. I’m in Saskatchewan 



http://imgur.com/a/EiNZfIh


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

warplanegrey said:


> I’m just going to post these screenshots from earlier this year. I’m in Saskatchewan
> 
> 
> 
> http://imgur.com/a/EiNZfIh


Ottawa to Saskatchewan? And it went back and forth between Quebec City and Montreal? Wtf? 

This is something Marketplace or some sort of TV show should investigate.


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## BlueRocker (Jan 5, 2020)

I think it's an Ontario thing. I've had excellent delivery times with things coming out, and very slow going in. Other parts of the country no problems.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

tomee2 said:


> Ottawa to Saskatchewan? And it went back and forth between Quebec City and Montreal? Wtf?
> 
> This is something Marketplace or some sort of TV show should investigate.


Make work projects/vote buying in some areas etc.


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## warplanegrey (Jan 3, 2007)

tomee2 said:


> Ottawa to Saskatchewan? And it went back and forth between Quebec City and Montreal? Wtf?
> 
> This is something Marketplace or some sort of TV show should investigate.


Yeah, just one of dozens of examples I've witnessed of CanadaPost being just terrible at their job. I avoid them at all costs now. It's alarming how garbage their service and customer service is.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

Couple years back, pre-covid, I received a guitar from Edmonton .. via Montreal. Three days from Ed to Mtl. Week and half, Mtl to T.O.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

I'm pissed off at myself for not just going and getting the fucking thing next day which I could easily have done; it's at most 90 minutes each way if that.


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## NashvilleDeluxe (Feb 7, 2018)

Reminds me of StewMac orders that ship out lightning fast, only to get held in Newark, NJ for WEEKS. I feel sorry for the packages...I wouldn't want to spend an hour in Newark.


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## gtrguy (Jul 6, 2006)

My experience with CP is completely different. Halifax to California is usually 5 days. Same to BC. Europe is usually about 7 days. I ship a lot of stuff all over the world and generally I’d take CP over any of the other options though I have had occasion to use DHL a few times and found it good as well.


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## FatStrat2 (Apr 7, 2021)

Stopped using Canada Post in 2011 when I went to send off a package at the local depot and she quoted me $11.00 and less than a minute later rang me up for $22.00. It was for taxes, admin fees and a few other fees that I just don't remember what they were now. I paid it because I wanted to unload the package, but haven't used them since. 

I won't use UPS either.


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

gtrguy said:


> My experience with CP is completely different. Halifax to California is usually 5 days. Same to BC. Europe is usually about 7 days. I ship a lot of stuff all over the world and generally I’d take CP over any of the other options though I have had occasion to use DHL a few times and found it good as well.


I bet it's because they hand it off to another carrier ASAP.

My recent experience was it took an 8.5x11 envelope 4 weeks to get to Ottawa from Edmonton.


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

Can some twitter nerd start a #CancelCanadaPost hashtag and people can post screen shots of these ridiculous tracking paper trails? It might take off.. maybe even make the CTV news in a few years.


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## gtrguy (Jul 6, 2006)

tomee2 said:


> I bet it's because they hand it off to another carrier ASAP.
> 
> My recent experience was it took an 8.5x11 envelope 4 weeks to get to Ottawa from Edmonton.


I don’t thing they are handing it off to anyone between Halifax and BC...

That’s pretty crazy for an envelope to take that long. All I’m shipping is packages so maybe it’s a different stream.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

FatStrat2 said:


> ... other fees that I just don't remember what they were now.


Recycling fee of $5.00 for the rubber that got laid onto to the road by the tires on their trucks because the drivers were in such a hurry to deliver stuff.


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## BlueRocker (Jan 5, 2020)

NashvilleDeluxe said:


> I feel sorry for the packages...I wouldn't want to spend an hour in Newark.


Or one minute in the airport bathroom.


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

BlueRocker said:


> Or one minute in the airport bathroom.


 drive a little further south and take a trip on the jersey turnpike - if you dare. 
i have a lead foot. i can't drive 55. but you get on the turnpike doing 85 mph in the right lane, and little old ladies will pass you while giving you the finger.


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## Fred Gifford (Sep 2, 2019)

my wife is from New Jersey, I love that turnpike ... thrill a second


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

Fred Gifford said:


> my wife is from New Jersey, I love that turnpike ... thrill a second


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

tomee2 said:


> The fact that they simply send everything to Montreal for sorting regardless of destination is ridiculous.



it is worse now because of all the Covid outbreaks at their Gateway facility in Mississauga.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Probably lots of them takin hits of the same joint explains the outbrakes,


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## Squawk (Jun 21, 2018)

Wardo said:


> Looking on Reddit. Apparently stuff goes to Montreal for sorting and can be there for months.


They call it Monthreal at Canada Post.


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## Midnight Rider (Apr 2, 2015)

Wardo said:


> First: I ordered some small stuff lately from the L&M warehouse in Pickering and it got to my office at Toronto in 3 or 4 days except for the most recent package which took about 10 days.
> 
> June 7/21, I ordered a guitar from Brantford L&M and they shipped it a few hours later after going over it and then someone from the store called me to talk about setup. So the store did a good job and the shipping label is correctly addressed to me.
> 
> ...


Yup,... sounds about right.


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## Squawk (Jun 21, 2018)

And rates are soon increasing with Canada Post.


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

They’ve been so-so with my stuff, except the guitar I bought on here (from Alberta) that was supposed to be 5 days that turned into 15. That’s even livable I suppose, but the oddest thing is that it had no tracking updates for days, then said “Out for Delivery. End of day today”, which it actually wasn’t. Hadn’t even gotten into Ontario yet. Did that three times. Then some actual tracking info started to get posted. I was pretty confident that day. It showed up, in one piece. 

Meh, they’re awful, but I used them again to ship two more things. I may never learn.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

I don't think EVERYthing goes to Montreal. I've tracked items from all over Ontario and not all of them were routed that way.

Truthfully CP tracking is better left unobserved. So far they have not lost or damaged a single item of mine (as far as I can remember), and they generally deliver earlier than promised.

I realize that's just testimonial and I'm not presenting data but other than their tracking being almost useless, I don't worry too much about CP.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Yeah, the stuff that came from the L&M warehouse at Pickering in 3 days almost certainly didn't go to Montreal and back before delivery.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Wardo said:


> Yeah, the stuff that came from the L&M warehouse at Pickering in 3 days almost certainly didn't go to Montreal and back before delivery.


I'd imagine there's some sort of logic, but like I said, with CP, you're best to just wait. All their tracking does is stress people out.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Milkman said:


> I'd imagine there's some sort of logic, but like I said, with CP, you're best to just wait. All their tracking does is stress people out.


By the way, if you ever need to do something like this again, maybe reach out to me. I live a couple of KM from the Brantford L & M and although I'm obnoxious, I can be trusted.


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

I think you guys are all big fat liars, making all this shut up. You’re all in cahoots. Lol.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

Maybe CP's union has a clause in it's contract stating that all guitars have to be redirected to MTL so that they can check them out?


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

None of my recent purchases went to Montreal that I know of. Everything seemed to go to Mississauga...and promptly got sent out. No black hole in my experience.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

The stuff I receive from Vineham pickups in Newfoundland does come through Montreal, as you might expect.

Everything else seems to go through Mississauga. I have the tracking app on my phone and that's what I see.


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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

Hey @Wardo !
Really enjoying your guitar down here in Montreal. Will send it your way once I’m done having fun with it !


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Dang, good luck getting the poutine stains off of it.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Pro tip: if you can pick it up, do so. If its a 5hr round trip, and you have 5 hours and a vehicle, pick it up.


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

Budda said:


> Pro tip: if you can pick it up, do so. If its a 5hr round trip, and you have 5 hours and a vehicle, pick it up.


That is sound advice!. I am kinda lucky where I live, where I work, where my dad lives, and even where my rich friends with cottages are. I can cover a lot of territory on my way to _somewhere_.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Frenchy99 said:


> Hey @Wardo !
> Really enjoying your guitar down here in Montreal. Will send it your way once I’m done having fun with it !


Yeah, I was wondering if you had something to do with this .. lol


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Budda said:


> Pro tip: if you can pick it up, do so. If its a 5hr round trip, and you have 5 hours and a vehicle, pick it up.


That was in the back of my mind when I was ordering it; and it's what I should have done.

When it was still in Brantford I contacted CP asking if could pick it up from their depot in Brantford. I was told that I could not; they have to deliver it. They should stick to jamming up mailboxes with useless flyers, that seems to be what they are best at.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Budda said:


> Pro tip: if you can pick it up, do so. If its a 5hr round trip, and you have 5 hours and a vehicle, pick it up.



For me at least, it comes down to the value of time. I'll go a one or one and a half hour round trip to pick something up, but only if I need it quickly.

Otherwise, time is money. Actually, time is far more valuable than money. Every person only has so much.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Milkman said:


> For me at least, it comes down to the value of time. I'll go a one or one and a half hour round trip to pick something up, but only if I need it quickly.
> 
> Otherwise, time is money. Actually, time is far more valuable than money. Every person only has so much.


Time is money in both your scenarios though.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

I shipped a parcel (3.5 kg, Volumetric Eq. of 4.9 ...i.e., a 12 x 750 wine box from the LCBO) from Kitchener to Ottawa on Wednesday at noon and it arrived at the actual destination in Ottawa within about 24 hours. TBH...I was amazed!


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Budda said:


> Time is money in both your scenarios though.


In every scenario. So is your time better spent driving or doing something else?

I like driving, but there are generally more important things to do.


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## BlueRocker (Jan 5, 2020)

Wardo said:


> That was in the back of my mind when I was ordering it; and it's what I should have done.
> 
> When it was still in Brantford I contacted CP asking if could pick it up from their depot in Brantford. I was told that I could not; they have to deliver it. They should stick to jamming up mailboxes with useless flyers, that seems to be what they are best at.


I know that L&&M shipping between stores is very fast - if you have one that is closer and need something from another store. They do a local inventory run between stores frequently.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Milkman said:


> In every scenario. So is your time better spent driving or doing something else?
> 
> I like driving, but there are generally more important things to do.


The crux of it is, what will you be doing without the item vs with the item? What else can you accomplish when going to pick up the item?


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Budda said:


> The crux of it is, what will you be doing without the item vs with the item? What else can you accomplish when going to pick up the item?


Yes well, you can spin it how you have to to get around the reality that you're sitting in the car for five hours.

I can get a lot more done at my desk in five hours than I can in the car. I get that there are times that is time well spent, but just to drive in a five hour circle I would have to really want that item fast to rationalize that in my life.

Your mileage may vary.


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## fogdart (Mar 22, 2017)

FedEx Overnight. 

Every. Single. Time.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

fogdart said:


> FedEx Overnight.
> 
> Every. Single. Time.


I'll certainly vouch for their reliability.

When I absolutely need something pretty much anywhere really quickly, it's Fed Ex all the way.


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

Milkman said:


> By the way, if you ever need to do something like this again, maybe reach out to me. I live a couple of KM from the Brantford L & M and although I'm obnoxious, I can be trusted.


I'll take obnoxious trustworthy over a polite liar anytime.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Milkman said:


> Yes well, you can spin it how you have to to get around the reality that you're sitting in the car for five hours.
> 
> I can get a lot more done at my desk in five hours than I can in the car. I get that there are times that is time well spent, but just to drive in a five hour circle I would have to really want that item fast to rationalize that in my life.
> 
> Your mileage may vary.


I wont be at my desk for 5 hours on a weekend though


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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

Please keep shipping CP !

Montreal needs more guitars !!!


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Budda said:


> I wont be at my desk for 5 hours on a weekend though



Me neither. I'll be floating in the pool, or maybe sitting quietly by my little pond, playing a guitar (or building one)......


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Well, after its tour of Upper Canada and Lower Canada it seems that my guitar is back at the Sauga distribution center.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Betcha it has Habs stickers all over the case.


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## PGuitar6 (Apr 21, 2021)

Is it that easy sending guitars? I'm so scared to ship guitars. Any pointers? Mine are all mint so I'd hate if they got damaged during transit.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

I wouldn't use Canada Post; if anything goes wrong they go into cover up mode and tell you anything to get rid of you.

I think I mentioned earlier that I had a guitar come from Chicago last month by private courier inside of 4 days, ordered, picked up same day, shipped and one day delay here in customs then delivered as per the expected delivery date posted on their app from day one. Shipping was $100 for that and included air.

Recent CP event went from Brantford to Montreal so that someone could read the destination address and enter it into their system then back to Toronto for delivery - whenever. 

CP is pretty much resentful and untouchable government EEs putting in their time who wouldn't warn you if you were about to step into an open elevator shaft because its not part of their job description. I see people like that all the time in government service facilities in this country and I deal with a lot of them


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## PGuitar6 (Apr 21, 2021)

Ya I've had bad dealings with Canada Post but not over guitars. I need a reliable shipper and I need to learn how to pack the guitar properly. I think my unwillingness to ship is costing me sales.


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## SmoggyTwinkles (May 31, 2021)

Wardo said:


> First: I ordered some small stuff lately from the L&M warehouse in Pickering and it got to my office at Toronto in 3 or 4 days except for the most recent package which took about 10 days.
> 
> June 7/21, I ordered a guitar from Brantford L&M and they shipped it a few hours later after going over it and then someone from the store called me to talk about setup. So the store did a good job and the shipping label is correctly addressed to me.
> 
> ...


I'm the complete opposite. 

I LOVE Canada Post and also LOVE USPS. 

I HATE DHL (never again!) and FedEx sucks now too if it's coming over the border. 

UPS I'm not sure.....can't remember the last time someone shipped something to me with them.

DHL will *** you good and hard. Not only will you pay duty, you will have to pay them a "shipping fee" when it shows up on your door, even though you paid someone else to ship it too you. Makes no *** sense, and is a total scam and should be illegal. 

FedEx apparently does the same thing. I have a speaker arriving on Tuesday from FedEx, they CALLED me, Called me yesterday, robot.....telling me I had to pay $30.60 duty before my package could keep being sent on time. I'm at WORK. I hung up, then realized I really want that speaker and if I don't pay the duty it might get held up. 

So I'm at work on the phone, a manager sees me on the phone like "wtf, you can't be on the phone while you're supposed to be working" and I'm waving them away, because I have to say out loud my credit card number, expiry date and my secret back of card 3 digit thing. 

They have my number, why not text me a link to a website where I can do this? There was no option for that! ****** ridiculous. 

I'll let you guys know if they want me to pay even more upon delivery like DHL does, because it happened to my sister for a couple T-shirts. 

This is a custom made speaker from Ted Weber, I can't turn it away on principal. But you definitely make a mental note about who's the shipping company after that. 

Bring it on FedEx, it's a one time ** *** for you, and then you never see me buying something from the states that ships through you again, just like DHL was off my list one and done. 

Sorry, rant over.


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## Jim Wellington (Sep 3, 2017)

I shipped a Martin acoustic from southern Ontario to B.C. with insurance through Canada Post. It took 12 days including a weekend until the owner had it in his hands with no damage. 

I`ve had 2 other smaller packages go missing from Amazon through Canada Post however...last tracking message said both were in B.C. when they disappeared. I`m suspicious that the guy who bought the Martin, might be sportin` 2 new pairs of Levis.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

My guitar got here today; no damage and it plays real good, amazing sustain on these.

Not sure what this stuff was doing in the box though; doesn’t look like the usual Gibson case candy to me and the fuckin bottle was empty as well.


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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

Had a great time with your guitar! Sorry about the left overs …


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

This one left the factory in October 2020. Has a good sized neck carve; not a baseball bat but lots to hang onto. About the same as my 2018 LP Jr and no dud frets after I lowered the action. Intonation is out a little but I'll fix that later. Nut slots could maybe come down a hair or two but I'll leave that for someone who's done it 10,000 times. Great guitar; rips for lead parts and my pedals aren't hissing like snakes as they do with my single coils. Glad I got this one and it has a beautiful resonance through my 57 Custom Deluxe with just a short cable and nothing else. Fret board is a little rough might take some steel wool to it later.


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