# Canada Post, what's up with my package?



## Winterheim (Feb 16, 2014)

So... I live in East York, Toronto, ON. This is what has been going on with package the last few weeks.

WTF.

From Richmond, to Mississauga, to Montreal, then back to Mississauga, then... to Winnipeg?!


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Are they taking turns shaking it, and trying to guess what it is?


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

They have been brutal lately. I've had things packages marked as delivered but not show up for another week, missed deadlines, returned packages, and packages delivered to the wrong address. I suspect cutbacks are starting to show; of course, poor service and declining sales will now justify further cutbacks . . . 

TG


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

Canada Post, being a government agency and like most government agencies, almost impossible to get fired from...I would guess that recent problems are a result of people purposely mucking things up as a form of passive aggressive retaliation for the huge cuts in service recently adopted.


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## Steve_F (Feb 15, 2008)

Hi, I used to work for Canada Post. I can tell you first hand that they are one of the most confusing ass-backwards companies to deal with that I have ever seen. It's like nobody knows what the hell is going on anywhere else along the line. I'm sure your package will eventually make it to you. They DO have a customer service line and you can call with your tracking number to find out more about your parcel. Sometimes they can help and sometimes they can't.


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## bluzfish (Mar 12, 2011)

I live in a downtown apartment and this is the 3rd time I have found a delivery notice in my mailbox saying I wasn't home when I was home all day. No one even rang my buzzer for me to come down and get the delivery.

The pick-up postal station they send it to is way across the other side of town in an area nobody ever goes unless they live there and roughly a 2 hour return trip on the bus. There are plenty of authorized postal stations near where I live, several within easy walking distance.

I'm pretty sure now that the delivery person has decided to leave the deliveries in the truck and simply drop off delivery cards and then just make one stop to drop everything off at one postal station. I have no idea if this is really the case but my faith in Canada Post as a delivery company is now about zero.


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## Winterheim (Feb 16, 2014)

mhammer said:


> Are they taking turns shaking it, and trying to guess what it is?


:sSig_DOH:



traynor_garnet said:


> They have been brutal lately. I've had things packages marked as delivered but not show up for another week, missed deadlines, returned packages, and packages delivered to the wrong address. I suspect cutbacks are starting to show; of course, poor service and declining sales will now justify further cutbacks . . .
> 
> TG


I hope this is not a consistent thing. I've been dealing with Canada Post for years now and they seem to be very good... until this incident.



JBFairthorne said:


> Canada Post, being a government agency and like most government agencies, almost impossible to get fired from...I would guess that recent problems are a result of people purposely mucking things up as a form of passive aggressive retaliation for the huge cuts in service recently adopted.


I just called CP and they were very nice to deal with on the phone. I don't think they are getting complacent in their service - I am giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Hopefully it's just an isolated incident.



Steve_F said:


> Hi, I used to work for Canada Post. I can tell you first hand that they are one of the most confusing ass-backwards companies to deal with that I have ever seen. It's like nobody knows what the hell is going on anywhere else along the line. I'm sure your package will eventually make it to you. They DO have a customer service line and you can call with your tracking number to find out more about your parcel. Sometimes they can help and sometimes they can't.


Thank you. I gave them a call and they're trying to reroute it straight to Toronto.
Fingers crossed!

- - - Updated - - -



bluzfish said:


> I live in a downtown apartment and this is the 3rd time I have found a delivery notice in my mailbox saying I wasn't home when I was home all day. No one even rang my buzzer for me to come down and get the delivery.
> 
> The pick-up postal station they send it to is way across the other side of town in an area nobody ever goes unless they live there and roughly a 2 hour return trip on the bus. There are plenty of authorized postal stations near where I live, several within easy walking distance.
> 
> I'm pretty sure now that the delivery person has decided to leave the deliveries in the truck and simply drop off delivery cards and then just make one stop to drop everything off at one postal station. I have no idea if this is really the case but my faith in Canada Post as a delivery company is now about zero.


That happened to me recently too! I don't own a car and I had a guitar delivered to me. I had to walk 2 kms to get to the postal station and then back hauling a big box.


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## Greenbacker (Mar 29, 2007)

I recently had a package signed for which I had sent out (forged with the same initials as the intended receiver). After opening a ticket with CanadaPost for the package which had been marked as delivered, it arrived in the buyer's mailbox a week later. 'Glad I paid for that _sign on delivery_ service. There seems to be some fishy stuff going on, which is concerning in a community like this where we need to trust each other.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

bluzfish said:


> I live in a downtown apartment and this is the 3rd time I have found a delivery notice in my mailbox saying I wasn't home when I was home all day. No one even rang my buzzer for me to come down and get the delivery.
> 
> The pick-up postal station they send it to is way across the other side of town in an area nobody ever goes unless they live there and roughly a 2 hour return trip on the bus. There are plenty of authorized postal stations near where I live, several within easy walking distance.
> 
> I'm pretty sure now that the delivery person has decided to leave the deliveries in the truck and simply drop off delivery cards and then just make one stop to drop everything off at one postal station. I have no idea if this is really the case but my faith in Canada Post as a delivery company is now about zero.


Yes, it's the case. Our postie is a contractor, who delivers to the superboxes or whatever they're called, that are 4 houses from my front door. He never ever attempts to deliver parcels or returned mail that I need to go get at the post office. (really, they...the contractor has changed about 6 times in the year and a half I've lived here. We had one guy who was superawesomefantabulous, but of course he moved on. The rest, just drop a notice in the box and leave.) Both I and the missus work from home, there's always someone here to answer the door.


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## Roryfan (Apr 19, 2010)

That's why I've used FedEx Ground for years - similar rates to CP, delivery times are the same or better & reliable tracking. 

FWIW I live in a condo & the security guard is authorized to receive packages for the residents & hold them in the office until you can come downstairs to pick them up. For some reason I've had multiple issues w/ Purolator not leaving the package w/ security so then I have to go to the depot.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

in the last 3 or 4 months I've been trading mail with my neighbors regularly. They get mine, I get thiers, etc. It's impossible for someone to make that many mistakes, they must be doing it on purpose.


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## Steve_F (Feb 15, 2008)

bluzfish said:


> I live in a downtown apartment and this is the 3rd time I have found a delivery notice in my mailbox saying I wasn't home when I was home all day. No one even rang my buzzer for me to come down and get the delivery.
> 
> The pick-up postal station they send it to is way across the other side of town in an area nobody ever goes unless they live there and roughly a 2 hour return trip on the bus. There are plenty of authorized postal stations near where I live, several within easy walking distance.
> 
> I'm pretty sure now that the delivery person has decided to leave the deliveries in the truck and simply drop off delivery cards and then just make one stop to drop everything off at one postal station. I have no idea if this is really the case but my faith in Canada Post as a delivery company is now about zero.


Yes, it's contracted out here as well. I've dealt with many of the drivers personally and, in fact, used to be one. Some are excellent and will make a 2nd trip to your house if you aren't home before dropping it off at the post office. Others are useless and will just card everything and drop it off at the post office. Then the poor bastard working at the post office (again, used to be me as well) gets to deal with all the complaint and (rightfully) angry customers despite not being involved in the process at all. It's a confusing and broken system. All IMO of couse hah!


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## grumpyoldman (Jan 31, 2010)

It would appear that those who work in Mississauga do not know where East York is...stuff sent to me in Sarnia always travels through Mississauga when it comes into the province, so that most likely is the main Ontario sorting hub. From the tracking record, it went from Richmond to Mississauga, where it was wrongly routed to Montreal. They knew enough to send it back to Mississauga, where it was again wrongly routed to Winnipeg. I would bet that personnel in both Montreal and Winnipeg were shaking their heads when seeing Mississauga send them East York mail...

It has happened to me in the past, and it was Mississauga where the error happened as well.

John
thegrumpyoldman


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## urko99 (Mar 30, 2009)

I Currently have an order active with Vista Print(located just outside Windsor) and it's being shipped From Windsor to Mississauga, Back to Windsor, out for delivery, back to Windsor again,
and out for delivery again today. Totally ridiculous on how our own Local mail is handled , and why it has to go to Mississauga first.


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## ElectricMojo (May 19, 2011)

I've had A LOT of problems with shipments lately. I'm glad to see I'm not alone.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

traynor_garnet said:


> They have been brutal lately. I've had things packages marked as delivered but not show up for another week, missed deadlines, returned packages, and packages delivered to the wrong address. I suspect cutbacks are starting to show; of course, poor service and declining sales will now justify further cutbacks . . .
> 
> TG


This is completely the case. 

They have actually cut jobs but it doesn't make the news because the people are still working for them...just in a 'clean up' capacity. When one carrier recently stated that they don't want to work 10 and 12 hour days they were told by the manager in front of everyone "get used to it - it is the way that it is now". They haven't cut any high end white collar positions (of which there are MANY) who often screw things up and never have to account for it.

They build the routes by 'measuring the mail'. They measure the mail during the slowest time of the year and often hold back mail to exaggerate the conditions. So, during a recent session of this route building, they said that "route A gets 7 parcels per day and can handle 1500 addresses". During regular mail volumes, that route gets 70 parcels per day. Who knows how many at Christmas. 

One of the big problems is that when the union tells the public what is going on, most people don't care because it is a union talking and people think that there are other laws and regulations out there to protect people so unions aren't required. Sure, the union has its problems too but without it the employees would be even more screwed than they are now...and they are screwed.

C anda P ost has been systematically destroying their own business for years to try to set up for privatization. they are succeeding.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

How much of this nonsense is a result of someone naively assuming that software and automated sorting/routing will do an absolutely foolproof job?


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## Judas68fr (Feb 5, 2013)

ElectricMojo said:


> I've had A LOT of problems with shipments lately. I'm glad to see I'm not alone.



Must be infuriating when you are running a business like you do!
I've had a few issues with them as well, I've had 3 delivery notifications during the last two weeks, although I was in my apartment when the truck was here (they usually deliver my area during lunch time, and I always have my lunch break at home). For the last one I actually saw the guy coming out of the truck with a bunch of notifications already filled up. He didn't even bother to look for the package and ring at the doors, he was just delivering notifications! 

I'm not even sure that the packages actually were in the truck, they might have stayed at the post office...


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

mhammer said:


> How much of this nonsense is a result of someone naively assuming that software and automated sorting/routing will do an absolutely foolproof job?


I don't think much has to do with that...I think it has more to do with them closing the letter sorting part of one plant and processing it at another. The same for parcels...close the processing in one city and do it in another. Then the rush involved causes more mistakes. In the OP, the parcel never should have went to Winnipeg. Rushed workers and poor systems. 

BTW...some of the $1.5 million machines that they bought a few years ago have already been mothballed.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

There is no doubt some problems at Canada Post. With the cutbacks they are having, it's likely the moral has dropped within the company. The problems are likely the system, the changes and sometimes the personnel. We are all imperfect and make mistakes or have a bad day but some personnel are likely poor employees. 

The contractor in our area that drops off packages is great. He always leaves my packages. He knows I'm home and when he comes early (6:30-7:00 am) he just rings the bell and leaves the package on the porch for me.


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## boyscout (Feb 14, 2009)

An iPhone shipped from China via UPS traveled

- Zhengzhou, China
- Incheon, Korea
- Anchorage, AK
- Louisville, KY
- Buffalo, NY
- Sharonville, OH
- Mount Hope, ON (Hamilton airport)
- Concord, ON
- destination near Toronto

Unlike Canada Post, though, they did all that in three days.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

I recall during the lockout a few years ago, another member here said he was going to leave if people (probably mostly me) kept saying negative things about his employer. Shortly afterward, he stopped posting. One of his beefs was that old employees wouldn't retire. *insert super eyeroll*

I wonder how he feels now that his employer took his sick leave away (I think I had over 100 days built up), took away many other benefits, made the jobs much worse, continued hiring supervisors, took multiple measures which hurt the very business which is the existence of the corporation, continued paying bonuses to the white collars and will be giving the workers 0% increase next year.

Of course, that 'wondering' is entirely rhetorical as some people will believe anything that the corporate spokespeople say.


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## Clean Channel (Apr 18, 2011)

This thread popped into my mind as moments ago I checked the tracking on a Jetslide that I ordered on Nov.7 from the US.

It spent quite some time hanging around in the LA sort facility, but today I'm pleased to report that it just cleared customs!... in Belgium. Ugh.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Well, I take it back about the new contractor....I ordered a neck from Stratosphere on Monday, postie handed it to me about an hour ago. Kudos to both the seller and the postie, that's pretty quick - and no brokerage or customs fees


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## stringer (Jun 17, 2009)

Too much money in shipping these days. Gotta get rid of the non profit element so that private enterprise can rape the customers.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

Ask your postie to bring you a postcard that you can send to the Pr Minister which says that you oppose the changes to Canada Post.

Many, many people will miss it when it's gone.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

keto said:


> Well, I take it back about the new contractor....I ordered a neck from Stratosphere on Monday, postie handed it to me about an hour ago. Kudos to both the seller and the postie, that's pretty quick - and no brokerage or customs fees


That's got to be a new speed-shipping record!! Wow!!


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## Winterheim (Feb 16, 2014)

Finally, some resolution. Hopefully it gets delivered today!


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