http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/canada-post-to-phase-out-urban-home-mail-delivery-1.2459618
"Starting March 31 [2014], the cost of a stamp will increase to 85 cents each if bought in a pack, up from 63 cents. Individual stamps will cost a dollar."
That's ridic expensive! wtf inefficient Crown Corp!?
"Canada Post is phasing out door-to-door delivery of regular mail to urban residents and increasing the cost of stamps in a major move to try to reduce significant, regular losses."
Ah... so this way, you (in theory) increase revenues (by boosting the price you charge) and also cut expenses (by reducing the service you provide).
(http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/7/78096/1418670-881999_this_will_not_end_well_super.jpg)
This news, which I read this morning over coffee, actually made me pretty mad.
Lately Postal service has been excellent, I sent a parcel to the US last week and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I get stuff mailed to me all the time... I can't imagine trying to navigate the @%&#ty streets in mid-winter just to get my mail.
Very Not Good.
Yeah, one of the reasons that they have seen a big decline in use is because they've had a big decline in service over the years. everyone I know hates those stupid neighbourhood mailboxes.
I have found that they have improved their service times, but in canada shipments are too expensive. You can send a couple games or dvds to the us for cheaper than to pretty much anywhere in canada. $3-$5 cheaper.
"Cut service! That'll make people want to use us more!"
I am neutral on the change.
The only mail I tend to receive to my door is junk and a few bills not fully available online.
Canada post parcels generally require me to sign so I always have to go to the post office. All other shipped items seem to go though a private service such as DHL.
When out of the blue I need to mail something I do it at the post office because I don't have stamps on hand or generally know the cost up front.
Quote from: Lazybones on December 11, 2013, 05:23:06 PM
I am neutral on the change.
I think the biggest issue is the way they tried to quietly do this with very little consultation of the public who will actually be impacted.
Quote from: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ordinary-canadians-not-consulted-on-canada-post-changes-critics-1.1586734
Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton defended the decision, saying that Canadians are simply not using the mail system as they once did, with Canada Post delivering 1 billion fewer pieces in 2012 than in 2006.
"So we went out to talk to Canadians. We sat down in 46 communities for face-to-face discussions," he told CTV's Canada AM from Ottawa.
Oh, sounds like they did make an effort to respond to the needs of Canadians?
Quote
But NDP Transport Critic Olivia Chow is not convinced that those people who rely the most on door-to-door mail delivery were consulted, including seniors, the disabled, and those who are simply not using email or online bill-paying services.
"The consultation was done via the Internet, online," she said from Toronto. "The face-to-face meetings, those were by invitation only; they were not for ordinary Canadians."
Oops, nice try, C-Po! BS: called! PR recovery: fail!
Exactly!
It's a good point. Why is this not up for public discussion? It's a public service is it not?
If the discussion was online where was it? Canada Post didn't exactly go out of its way to foster this discussion.
Quote from: Mr. Analog on December 12, 2013, 11:13:50 AM
If the discussion was online where was it?
[old person]Online? What is that? I don't understand this new lingo of kids these days...[/old person]
Those fellahs down at the Internet
THE Internet.
[old person]well, i think i will just wait until i get a nice flyer in the mail telling me all about it...[/old person]
They should raise the price of junk mail delivery, then we'd kill junk mail and save delivery.
Quote from: Mr. Analog on December 11, 2013, 03:54:55 PM
This news, which I read this morning over coffee, actually made me pretty mad.
Lately Postal service has been excellent, I sent a parcel to the US last week and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I get stuff mailed to me all the time... I can't imagine trying to navigate the @%&#ty streets in mid-winter just to get my mail.
Very Not Good.
You don't get your mail delivered to your door, you get it delivered to a grouping of mailboxes at the front of your building, no? They're talking about door-to-door deliveries for detached homes, like what I live in. In the newer neighbourhoods, people are already getting their mail delivered to them at the super-boxes, at the end of the street. In fact, they've been working on getting that in all neighbourhoods for nearly fifteen years now, with some progressive areas switching to super-boxes in the late 90s.
Exactly my point though, I've had delivery to a common box for the last 13+ years and it sucks (particularly for package delivery holy moley) I can't imagine having to go outside to use such a wonderful "service"
If there is a delivery you have to sign for Canada Post is supposed to come to your door. They don't (not in my old building anyway).
If there is no room in any of the different size boxes (A, B, C, D, etc) you have to pickup anyway.
Then there's the problem of the wrong mail getting thrown in the wrong slots... UGH
Quote from: Mr. Analog on December 13, 2013, 08:18:04 AM
Exactly my point though, I've had delivery to a common box for the last 13+ years and it sucks (particularly for package delivery holy moley) I can't imagine having to go outside to use such a wonderful "service"
If there is a delivery you have to sign for Canada Post is supposed to come to your door. They don't (not in my old building anyway).
Gotta love the "he's not home, drop it outside the building's buzzer-door" eh? I've had that happen a lot of times over the years in my apartment living, especially Amazon deliveries (wtf?) ... come to think of it, I think CanPost always left a sticker and I had to pick it up at the Office, whereas the unsecure dropoff was one of the other delivery companies. (whoa! something positive to say about CanPost vs the alternatives!)
I really loathe UPS, FedEX and most of all DHL
A lot of times I have been home and received no call or notice or anything and watched the live update change from "recipient not home", a few years ago I had to drive out to the ONE pickup location in the city and wait while they tried to find a monitor I bought for over two hours.
At that time I was suffering heavily from anxiety and they didn't even have a chair for us to sit on. Private delivery firms are only good for corporate delivery, everything else is treated like a joke.
I will say UPS has gotten a bit better but I flat out will not deal with FedEx or DHL for delivery any more. If I get the option for delivery through regular mail I pick it even if it's slower.
Quote from: Mr. Analog on December 13, 2013, 08:34:17 AM
I really loathe UPS, FedEX and most of all DHL
A lot of times I have been home and received no call or notice or anything and watched the live update change from "recipient not home", a few years ago I had to drive out to the ONE pickup location in the city and wait while they tried to find a monitor I bought for over two hours.
At that time I was suffering heavily from anxiety and they didn't even have a chair for us to sit on. Private delivery firms are only good for corporate delivery, everything else is treated like a joke.
I will say UPS has gotten a bit better but I flat out will not deal with FedEx or DHL for delivery any more. If I get the option for delivery through regular mail I pick it even if it's slower.
Since my front door is up some steps, the MAIL ninja will often make the trip up the steps to put the notice on the door but not ring the door bell or knock louder than a mouse. DHL at least, even with a final delivery notice lets you both pay any fees online and schedule an unsigned drop with directions on where to leave the package.
UPS was my favourite, till recently. They are apparently severely understaffed in edmonton at the moment. So they've been skipping my area for a couple days in a row before actually delivering. Kindof frustrating to see the tracking say "On truck for delivery" for two or three days straight.
Did you end up calling them??
I just found out my MemEx order is coming via UPS and not ground delivery (which is what I had selected and paid for)
Quote from: Mr. Analog on December 13, 2013, 09:55:24 AM
Did you end up calling them??
One of the times yeah. It really doesn't help. The people on the support line are like "Thats what the status is, and we can't do jack about it".
Good ol' UPS, service disruption for 3 days due to "weather" (yeah right) and I'm SURE that my name isn't on the shipping invoice so the driver will get here and not know what buzzer to press. So I'll get a yellow notice, have to sit on the phone for an hour+ tonight to wait to speak to some person in a call centre who hates their life about having the driver come back and buzz my apartment again tomorrow
ARGH!!
Three days? That's pretty good, all our UPS deliveries have been over a week late. And on top of it, they have claimed they tried to deliver when they didn't (can see your (lack of) tire tracks in the snow dickheads.).
2legit, there are people who wonder why I would care about home delivery stopping since other commercial services are "available"
From what the UPS driver here was saying, is that they are severly overloaded in edmonton. Short on drivers and space. The warehouse here supposedly is supposed to handle 10k packages a day, and because of the blackfriday and cyber monday sales (and general christmas shopping) its spiked over 20k, and they were short on drivers before that... So my entire area has been skipped a few times.
Just got the FU from UPS. Items sent on the seventh are not going to arrive for Christmas. So PISSED. Asked if they could at least deliver it to an UPS Store so I could pick it up. NOPE, we have no idea where the package actually is sure. It's on the back of a truck in Edmonton, but we have no idea what truck or where on it, so we can't get it for you. So I asked them if there POS tracking system was designed by Upside?? How can they not know what truck something is even on nowadays? SO Fumming.
On the other side though Amazon has been pretty nice so far, sent out a replacement shipment next day delivery in the hopes that we will get it tomorrow. And promised to follow up with a call and see if it makes it. Guess they don't want it getting out that items you order several weeks before Christmas may or may not make it. See that hurting sales a tad!
Ug, that really sucks, I've had FedEx & DHL lose packages in their warehouses / sorting centres but never UPS
I'm glad Amazon is so understanding though, that's actually good service!
Quote from: Mags on December 23, 2013, 02:21:27 PM
Just got the FU from UPS. Items sent on the seventh are not going to arrive for Christmas. So PISSED. Asked if they could at least deliver it to an UPS Store so I could pick it up. NOPE, we have no idea where the package actually is sure. It's on the back of a truck in Edmonton, but we have no idea what truck or where on it, so we can't get it for you. So I asked them if there POS tracking system was designed by Upside?? How can they not know what truck something is even on nowadays? SO Fumming.
On the other side though Amazon has been pretty nice so far, sent out a replacement shipment next day delivery in the hopes that we will get it tomorrow. And promised to follow up with a call and see if it makes it. Guess they don't want it getting out that items you order several weeks before Christmas may or may not make it. See that hurting sales a tad!
Also heard next day deliveries via UPS will not make it. not even if they were sent a day or two ago. So good luck I guess?
Quote from: Mr. Analog on December 23, 2013, 02:52:33 PM
Ug, that really sucks, I've had FedEx & DHL lose packages in their warehouses / sorting centres but never UPS
I'm glad Amazon is so understanding though, that's actually good service!
UPS is stupid swamped this year. warehouse is jammed (its processing double the packages it was designed for), and they don't have enough drivers. Not really an excuse for the really @%&#ty service. They could have at least managed to track things better, instead of leaving packages on trucks for days, and not updating anything (I had that happen, after the third day, it was marked as left at a ups facility, but then arrived the next day with no other updates.. weird, I did call them so maybe that lit a fire). The driver was a little surprised at what happened as well.
Mags! I found your package!!
(http://i.imgur.com/sU6MEtF.gif)
huehuehuehuehuehue
Quote from: Mr. Analog on December 23, 2013, 06:56:35 PM
Mags! I found your package!!
(http://i.imgur.com/sU6MEtF.gif)
huehuehuehuehuehue
(http://fcdn.mtbr.com/attachments/general-discussion/795126d1367368312-any-tricks-seating-tubeless-tires-its-alive.jpg)
...
(http://gifs.gifbin.com/25yuswsw28295.gif)
Quote from: Mr. Analog on December 23, 2013, 06:56:35 PM
Mags! I found your package!!
(http://i.imgur.com/sU6MEtF.gif)
huehuehuehuehuehue
Thanks... grumble.. grumble... grumble....
http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/27/ups-and-fedex-buckle-under-holiday-load
Both packages showed up today. They charged me $0.00 for the second shipment. So there might be some groveling if they want one back.
The backlash continues!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-post-s-super-mailboxes-spur-growing-backlash-1.3074743
Canada Post "missing packages" going viral: https://twitter.com/CBCNews/status/619192881790742530
With the change in Government the move to community mailboxes has been halted:
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/canada-post-halts-transition-to-community-mailboxes
I'd like to see it start rolling back. hire more carriers. The government has been trying to sabotage canada post for at least a decade.
Quote from: Tom on October 27, 2015, 02:58:17 PM
I'd like to see it start rolling back. hire more carriers. The government has been trying to sabotage canada post for at least a decade.
Canada Post sabotaged
itself with
decades of questionable decision making, including waiting until 2011-ish to start a "modernization" effort in the midst of the largest drop-off of mail yet seen
It's kinda like the CBC, a large self-important organization facing extinction with ignorance.
Quote from: Mr. Analog on October 27, 2015, 03:27:12 PM
Quote from: Tom on October 27, 2015, 02:58:17 PM
I'd like to see it start rolling back. hire more carriers. The government has been trying to sabotage canada post for at least a decade.
Canada Post sabotaged itself with decades of questionable decision making, including waiting until 2011-ish to start a "modernization" effort in the midst of the largest drop-off of mail yet seen
It's kinda like the CBC, a large self-important organization facing extinction with ignorance.
Sure, there's been a bit of mis-management, but the ultimate managers is the government. A lot of what they've been doing is de-funding them, and ordering insane changes, that just seem like a way to sabotage them to make people think the service is worthless, to ready it for a sale.
It's been the SOP for governments looking to sell a public service.
Quote from: Tom on October 27, 2015, 03:31:27 PM
Quote from: Mr. Analog on October 27, 2015, 03:27:12 PM
Quote from: Tom on October 27, 2015, 02:58:17 PM
I'd like to see it start rolling back. hire more carriers. The government has been trying to sabotage canada post for at least a decade.
Canada Post sabotaged itself with decades of questionable decision making, including waiting until 2011-ish to start a "modernization" effort in the midst of the largest drop-off of mail yet seen
It's kinda like the CBC, a large self-important organization facing extinction with ignorance.
Sure, there's been a bit of mis-management, but the ultimate managers is the government. A lot of what they've been doing is de-funding them, and ordering insane changes, that just seem like a way to sabotage them to make people think the service is worthless, to ready it for a sale.
A BIT??? no, Canada Post has been off the hook for a very long time and passing the questionable expenses on to us, the consumer
I mean it costs $3.30 to send <100g letter from New York to Toronto (USPS First Class) but to send THE SAME letter from Toronto
to Toronto costs $7.47 (Canada Post expedited)
Quote from: Tom on October 27, 2015, 03:34:08 PM
It's been the SOP for governments looking to sell a public service.
Good. Let it die. If my taxes pay for its infrastructure and it STILL costs more to send @%&# from point A to point B than a FOR PROFIT carrier service there's something
seriously @%&#ing wrong with their organization
And guess who let it happen? Sell it and further mis-manage it and prices only go further up.
Canada Post has a contract with USPS for a specific price for Cross border mail. So they can't just increase it. But they can sure increase the price on local mail!
I just hate the way these things are dealt with by some politicians. They let a useful service degrade into uselessness then go "Look! It's not working! Lets get rid of it!"
It's not a useful service!!
It definitely was, before people actively caused it to fail. And it can still be fixed.
In some cases it is still useful. There are places that are not going to be covered by commercial services for less than an absolute fortune. Canada post has to deliver to everyone.
If you want to play into certain types of politician's hands, don't let me stop you. Just expect it to keep happening. Next stop, health care.
They ARE federally mandated to deliver to everyone but they don't already and they never actually have
The amount of mail that is processed by the system has dropped dramatically since 2006, they tried to offset this by offering a service called ePost (which you may remember) which was in development for 10 years and has less than 1 million users out of a possible 15+ but it doesn't really solve the actual problem of the need just not being there
I'm willing to bet that most mail that comes to you is admail or bills that could be sent electronically. The remainder is likely already being sent via courier service
So if you went 100% electronic billing and didn't receive admail (because who wants that @%&# anyway?) what would the point of having a daily route to your house be, or even a weekly?
The future has been dictated by the users of the system and not the system itself, for it to change and survive it would have to radically alter what service it provides (hookers? pizza delivery?) because there is no future in mail delivery as it was 25+ years ago
The world changed, but Canada Post didn't, and we pay for it
*sigh*
I still use Canada Post, its often still cheaper than couriers for some things. And service actually improved for me in the past few years on Canada Post, and UPS got worse. So yeah.
I just don't think we should allow certain elements to continually undermine our services and way of life to benefit themselves.
Quote from: Tom on October 27, 2015, 04:05:13 PM
*sigh*
I still use Canada Post, its often still cheaper than couriers for some things. And service actually improved for me in the past few years on Canada Post, and UPS got worse. So yeah.
I just don't think we should allow certain elements to continually undermine our services and way of life to benefit themselves.
To be honest I was like you before I took a critical look at what I was
really getting out of Canada Post. 3 things caught my attention:
1. How much meaningful content the service actually delivers (virtually zero)
2. How much I actually pay between competing services (you'd be surprised if you took a critical look at it, Canada Post is NOT the cheapest option)
3. The rise of accessible pick-up centres for competing services
And that's just me, a small time customer that deals with maybe two dozen pieces of
actual mail a year (and I assure you I am a higher frequency user than the average). The cost to business is actually
worse and is fundamentally why most businesses go out of their way to use courier services (especially for intracity mail)
An apple could have been an orange if only it's chromosomes were different
Canada Post could have been functional if several thousand changes were made over the last several decades
Cut it off, privatize it between service providers and be done with it, the only thing that will change is the colour of the drop boxes and the sign over the counter at the drug store
I guarantee you those won't be the only changes. In fact, its more likely it'll just be shut down and sold off for parts.
I have literally just looked into prices for sending small packages, CP was the cheapest, and transit times were reasonable. I sent a motherboard to Ontario a week or so ago. Cost about $20 via CP (before adding insurance and signature options), but more like $40+ via anyone else. And it only took about 3 days.
But yeah, CP is pretty bad off right now.
I just have to ask, will you also let healthcare fail the same way? It's been talked about the same way as CP was for decades "small government! government need not provide services! lets privatize it!". Since enough people weren't that in favour of it, the last government decided to kill it by attrition (same as CP). funding was massively cut, and no attention has been paid it to keep it functioning at a decent level. Health services are pretty bad off now too. SOP.
Canada Post is not an essential service so it's not worth comparing to health care
Sent from my SGH-I317M using Tapatalk
Quote from: Tom on October 27, 2015, 03:54:21 PM
It definitely was, before people actively caused it to fail. And it can still be fixed.
In some cases it is still useful. There are places that are not going to be covered by commercial services for less than an absolute fortune. Canada post has to deliver to everyone.
If you want to play into certain types of politician's hands, don't let me stop you. Just expect it to keep happening. Next stop, health care.
This [heated!] discussion makes me want to right now watch a particular Seinfeld episode again...
-please continue.
Quote from: Mr. Analog on October 27, 2015, 04:50:16 PM
Canada Post is not an essential service so it's not worth comparing to health care
Sent from my SGH-I317M using Tapatalk
CP delivery is a quaint service from the past that has over time become virtually obsolete as a result of changing technology and changing cultural expectations. Health Care is a completely different issue.
And on that note, forget Seinfield, actually THIS is what is coming to mind with the latter part of the discussion you guys are having...
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=other+peoples+money+speech+failure+to+innovate
Quote from: Darren Dirt on October 27, 2015, 05:12:50 PM
CP delivery is a quaint service from the past that has over time become virtually obsolete as a result of changing technology and changing cultural expectations. Health Care is a completely different issue.
And on that note, forget Seinfield, actually THIS is what is coming to mind with the latter part of the discussion you guys are having...
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=other+peoples+money+speech+failure+to+innovate
+1
Hahaha classic! Man, that show was genius...
Also, not sure what mail options Tom might have been looking at earlier but let's say I want to mail a 500g envelope to the Toronto Blue Jays, from my postal code to their postal code in 1 business day
Canada Post: $40.43
Priority
TM Prepaid - 1 Business day (Guaranteed)
FedEx: $23.24
FedEx Standard Overnight?
(delivery by Wed Oct 28, 2015 by 5:00 PM)
UPS: $25.70
UPS Express Saver Guaranteed 3:00 P.M. Wednesday (!)
* Rate includes a fuel surcharge fuel surcharge . For a breakdown of charges, select View Details beside each service.
I'll say this about Canada Post, they sure can deliver admail efficiently...
Quote from: Darren Dirt on October 27, 2015, 05:12:50 PM
Quote from: Mr. Analog on October 27, 2015, 04:50:16 PM
Canada Post is not an essential service so it's not worth comparing to health care
Sent from my SGH-I317M using Tapatalk
CP delivery is a quaint service from the past that has over time become virtually obsolete as a result of changing technology and changing cultural expectations. Health Care is a completely different issue.
I disagree about it not being an essential service. Many people don't have a computer or internet access.
As I said earlier, they talk about health care the same way. And people are ignoring it the same way. Guess what the federal government did? They canceled the health accord with the provinces with no input from the provinces or the people. Now federal health funding is a very temporary and elusive thing that none of the provinces can depend on at all.
They are working on killing it, like they've been killing Canada Post, the CBC and other government run services. If it was a less necessary/important service, they'd have sold it off to the chinese or saudies by now.
Quote from: Mr. Analog on October 27, 2015, 05:36:14 PM
Also, not sure what mail options Tom might have been looking at earlier but let's say I want to mail a 500g envelope to the Toronto Blue Jays, from my postal code to their postal code in 1 business day
Canada Post: $40.43
PriorityTM Prepaid - 1 Business day (Guaranteed)
FedEx: $23.24
FedEx Standard Overnight?
(delivery by Wed Oct 28, 2015 by 5:00 PM)
UPS: $25.70
UPS Express Saver Guaranteed 3:00 P.M. Wednesday (!)
* Rate includes a fuel surcharge fuel surcharge . For a breakdown of charges, select View Details beside each service.
I'll say this about Canada Post, they sure can deliver admail efficiently...
When I looked up those prices for a 400g-500g envelope, I got:
Canada Post
- Priority Prepaid - 1 Business Day (Guaranteed): $40.43
- Xpresspost Prepaid Envelope Cushioned - 2 Business Days (Guaranteed): $19.69
- Lettermail: $5.30
FedEx
- FedEx Standard Overnight: $48.45
- FedEx 2Day: $42.13
- End Of Day (3 Business Days): $16.72
So from what I see, Canada Post is cheaper. Maybe I input things differently in the web sites?
It's interesting reading this thread over from the start. Some people have changed their minds completely in the last two years :P
Bwah bwuh
Community mailboxes found open with master key inside
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/community-mailbox-open-edmonton-1.4370380
It's the 2nd reported incident of community mailboxes left open in Edmonton in 3 months
I am still generally MEH on the issue.
The Wife and I order a lot from Amazon an regardless of which carrier they send on these days (mostly Canada post) I am getting drops at my door.
Only a hand full of deliveries have forced me to go to the post office lately.
With free 2 day delivery I mostly get couriers now. I just wish Amazon could figure out how to group packages more efficiently. I'd rather have one big box than 3 smaller ones.
The package delivery box locks on our community mailbox are starting to stick really badly which means the key often gets left in the keyhole. At least its not outside :/
Amazon has started to deliver things with a new carrier, and they tend to be lazy af. I had some stuff left out in the rain or claim noone was home... I've complained twice now about them. ugh.