eBay

musicyouneed · ‎09-27-2025

Take out your crystal ball regarding Canada Post. What do you think is going to happen? Are the postal workers going to be on strike till Christmas? Canada Post has 45 days to produce a plan re the proposed changes, are the postal workers going to stay out till then or longer?

I am hoping that by mid month Oct the government orders them back to work with arbitration. I am hoping that the government says that Canada Post has to work within it's budget and that they are not going to be bailed out by the tax payer. They need to cut about 20% of their workforce. Canada post workers are not going to like that one bit. It is going to get ugly.

What does your crystal ball say?

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎10-04-2025

@musicyouneed wrote:
Do you think that the posties will get legislated back to work? If so, when a week, 2 weeks, November? If the posties were were wanting support from the public, they are not getting it from me and any of the people I know.

I'm hoping it happens by Thanksgiving (which is a week from now). I'm turning my Canada sales (and this eBay store) back on as soon as I hear it's actually going to happen.

C.

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎10-04-2025

@sapphyres-designer-jewellery wrote:
@musicyouneed wrote:
Do you think that the posties will get legislated back to work? If so, when a week, 2 weeks, November? If the posties were were wanting support from the public, they are not getting it from me and any of the people I know.
I'm hoping it happens by Thanksgiving (which is a week from now). I'm turning my Canada sales (and this eBay store) back on as soon as I hear it's actually going to happen.

C.

As an addendum we use Canada Post for all our communications and my hand really hurts from handwriting courier slips all day to get the important stuff out to customers. We mailed out a whole bunch of cheques the week before the strike that we now have to cancel (and my eyes hurt from doing this all day too), and issue new cheques which are being couriered out. We have more important things to worry about in my office than damage control from the CP strike.

C.

canadian_horse · ‎10-04-2025

I hope an agreement is reached before the end of October.

reallynicestamps · ‎10-05-2025

@sapphyres-designer-jewellery Can the business not do etransfers-- at least to Canadian suppliers?

I just did one for the gardener who usually gets a cheque

and another for the housecleaners who normally get a cc payment but my card got compromised and the new one is in the mail.

marnotom! · ‎10-05-2025

@recped wrote:

@femmefan1946 wrote:
From my viewpoint as a user of the postal system, I fear the loss of Canada Post.
One reason is that I have a shipment ready to go to Czechia which would cost me under $30 with Canada Post but over $200 with UPS.
The cost -efficiency of private carriers is just not there.
It's would be like trading our medicare system for the American wormbucket.
It's "not there" when you use one of the most expensive services instead of the many alternative service you could choose that would range from less than Canada Post to sliightly more than Canada Post.

I can ship your theoretical $30 Canada Post shipment to Czechia for $20 (or less) not the ridiculous $200 UPS charge that you cherry picked to "prove" your assertion.

Because you have more options in the GTA than someone on Vancouver Island.

By the way, that shipment to Czechia isn’t theoretical, by the sounds of things.

byto253 · ‎10-05-2025

If it was just economic and CP could go ahead with the restructing of delivery and services it wants to do without the union worrying about it I think this would be over. But it is about more than just pay increase.

The union wants to keep a system with letter carriers can zoom around their route to finish it in half a day then head home, CP wants to change the old 1980's model. CP is not off the hook for blame here, they have not exactly been stellar managers for a long time.

widgetc · ‎10-05-2025

I too have had a quote to Czechia for a small package of stamps that was over $200.00. I actually mailed by Canada post a few days before the sudden strike. I don't know wether or not it left the country. I'm in Val Caron in the Greater Sudbury area and we certainly don't have the options that are avalable in the GTA area.

ricarmic · ‎10-05-2025

I have somewhere around 7 to 9 items "in transit" that probably are in Limbo. I do have 3 to the USA that are still in Canada.

Also have one for Hungary sitting in my "overdue" list now, buyer hasn't responded to any of my messages.

So lots of "wait and see" on the go.

It is pretty Ironic that for a variety of reasons my store was closed from May all the way until a week before the PO went out on strike.....

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎10-05-2025

@reallynicestamps wrote:
@sapphyres-designer-jewellery Can the business not do etransfers-- at least to Canadian suppliers?
I just did one for the gardener who usually gets a cheque
and another for the housecleaners who normally get a cc payment but my card got compromised and the new one is in the mail.

We can eTransfer to the customer (if it's like a weekly benefit) and we do that already. Generally cheques are sent out because the person receiving the money is not computer literate, or doesn't know about online banking or email or what not. We have lots of very old customers receiving benefits and some of them don't use a computer.

For our lawyers, medical providers, etc, we don't do eTransfer because we want to make sure it pays the right invoice and a clinic could potentially invoice us dozens of times on various customers. We have been sending our cheques out by courier since the start of the strike, but unless someone contacts us about the cheques that are stuck in the mail, we won't know if it's received or not (unless it's cashed), so we're not doing anything about those until the recipient reaches out.

At least with the last strike we saw it coming and sent out extra money to customers for upcoming benefits (we were prepared for the strike to go on for a month to 6 weeks).

C.

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎10-05-2025

@widgetc wrote:
I too have had a quote to Czechia for a small package of stamps that was over $200.00. I actually mailed by Canada post a few days before the sudden strike. I don't know wether or not it left the country. I'm in Val Caron in the Greater Sudbury area and we certainly don't have the options that are avalable in the GTA area.

My stuff mailed on Sept 21 seems to have gotten out of the country (if it was going to the US, I don't use CP for non US/Canada shipments very often). I had a couple of packages mailed Sept 23 and 24 that I don't think made it out.

I'm going to send out some coupons to customers who's stuff is missing in the mail (I made a tracking sheet so I could see what's shipped during the strike and how I sent it, so I can keep tabs on those shipments). I don't like using Intelcom because they like to throw packages at the front door and leave them there (even when the mailbox is attached to the side of the house), and I want to make sure if buyers are getting expensive silver coins from me they're received. I really like CP because stuff goes into a mailbox and is usually pretty secure.

C.

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎10-05-2025

@ricarmic wrote:
I have somewhere around 7 to 9 items "in transit" that probably are in Limbo. I do have 3 to the USA that are still in Canada.

Also have one for Hungary sitting in my "overdue" list now, buyer hasn't responded to any of my messages.

So lots of "wait and see" on the go.

It is pretty Ironic that for a variety of reasons my store was closed from May all the way until a week before the PO went out on strike.....

Sounds like some bad luck. I'd say send the buyers a coupon and thank them for their patience (if you have a store with lots of stuff and a coupon makes sense). I have 10,000 items between the two stores, so odds are the buyer will find something they want to get at a discount).

C.

ricarmic · ‎10-05-2025

@sapphyres-designer-jewellery The good news is that all but one (and the Hungary unshipped yet) are repeat customers, some long time, so I think I should be fine in the end. I sent them all a note the day after the strike started to advise them and thank them in advance for their extra patience.

Other good news is that one of my non-online fronts is expanding so I'm using the "online down" time to get that built up.....

PS I only have a wee store of 5,000ish... 😉

movie_galaxy · ‎10-05-2025

Police officers already make twice as much as a postie when you consider their pay and benefits, as well as their pensions. So, the fact that they must attend a training academy for 6 months doesn't warrant giving them double the pay versus a postie. A mechanic is required to take WAY MORE training than a police officer throughout their careers, yet officers can easily make more than mechanics.

As for police work being dangerous, construction work is actually more dangeorus than police work, but the police routinely make more money than construction workers.

The posties have to live in the same community and afford the same costs as the police do, so to pay posties half the compensation is not advisable.

Posties are offered pay increases that don't match inflation, while the police often get pay increases that match or beat inflation. This is unsustainable.

To pay a police officer $100,000 plus and give them 6% pay raises, while paying a postie $50,000 and giving them 3% pay raises, is contributing to the strike action that we currently see at Canada Post. No community can be sustained on such a disparity over contributions vs incomes. If half the community is struggling while the other half is living well, there will be turmoil.

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎10-05-2025

@ricarmic wrote:
@sapphyres-designer-jewellery The good news is that all but one (and the Hungary unshipped yet) are repeat customers, some long time, so I think I should be fine in the end. I sent them all a note the day after the strike started to advise them and thank them in advance for their extra patience.

Other good news is that one of my non-online fronts is expanding so I'm using the "online down" time to get that built up.....

PS I only have a wee store of 5,000ish... 😉

5000 items is still a lot to keep track of. This account has 957 (the store's limit for the fee is 1000 but I'm going to upgrade that as soon as I have time to list a bunch more stuff), the main store on the dot com site has 9000 items... I had 11,000 but have had to remove many items that weren't selling to liquidate in other ways (like group lots), or return stuff to the brick and mortar store.

I sent a coupon to everyone I knew is still waiting for their item, if I wasn't sure I just left it, some of those guys don't leave feedback so if there's no complaining, I'm assuming the letter made it into the US before the strike started.

C.

movie_galaxy · ‎10-05-2025

The strike would end tomorrow if Canada Post management offered Posties pay increases that matched the true rate of inflation - 5%.

The government can't do that though, because it would force them to give every other government worker and every pensioner and every social security recipient the same 5% inflation adjustment every year, plus all the government's borrowing costs would rise higher than 5%, which would be a massive problem on it's own.

This problem is unsolvable. The posties pay increases are below inflation and the government can't afford to give them an increase that would match inflation, so the problem will never be solved.

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎10-05-2025

@movie_galaxy wrote:
The strike would end tomorrow if Canada Post management offered Posties pay increases that matched the true rate of inflation - 5%.

The government can't do that though, because it would force them to give every other government worker and every pensioner and every social security recipient the same 5% inflation adjustment every year, plus all the government's borrowing costs would rise higher than 5%, which would be a massive problem on it's own.

This problem is unsolvable. The posties pay increases are below inflation and the government can't afford to give them an increase that would match inflation, so the problem will never be solved.

I work in the private sector and I get 3%. I understand that makes me more poor as we move forward in time because my raises don't keep up with inflation and what people in my company are doing is changing jobs and changing companies to get ahead and make more money.

My company rewards people who are loyal and stay with bonuses (as much as 10% of annual salary), extra vacation, personal needs days, flexible work hours and work from home opportunities, benefits (like medical, dental and prescription drugs), and short term disability (full pay for up to 4 weeks if off work for illness or surgery), they also use sick days to deal with performance and don't limit us to any number in the year. Probably this year alone I've taken 20 sick days (but don't be judgy about me taking that much time off of work, I had gallstones, surgery and a pulmonary embolsim, plus I caught some weird respiratory virus while travelling in August). I got my full pay for all the time I missed due to illness, most companies are not that generous.

C.

easoss · ‎10-05-2025

My take is the dispute has become far too personal between the two sides. Labor negotiations are best achieved by low key professionalism by all parties. The corporation says the sky is falling, the union knee jerk reacts and like the hamster in the wheel it never goes anywhere. And the losers are the workers and of course the general public. Until the decorum improves this isn't going to be solved.