Canada Post Strike
Hello Canadian Sellers,
Wanted to touch base with you on the current situation of the current strike that has been ongoing for the past weeks with Canada Post, what has been your action plan of action with your listings?
What alternatives routes have you all been acquiring to oversee this event? Trying to escalate feedback to our team from you all, I'll circle back to your comments Tuesday of next week to create awareness and follow up on your concerns and comments.
Daryl
Canada Post Strike
Hello Canadian Sellers,
Wanted to touch base with you on the current situation of the current strike that has been ongoing for the past weeks with Canada Post, what has been your action plan of action with your listings?
What alternatives routes have you all been acquiring to oversee this event? Trying to escalate feedback to our team from you all, I'll circle back to your comments Tuesday of next week to create awareness and follow up on your concerns and comments.
Daryl
Daryl_Amazon
Dear Sellers,
We understand that many of you are experiencing significant challenges due to the ongoing Canada Post Strike. We want to assure you that your concerns have not gone unheard, and we deeply empathize with the difficulties this situation is causing for your businesses.
While this strike is beyond Amazon's direct control, we want you to know that we are actively working to address its impact on our seller community. Our team is in continuous communication with various internal Amazon departments to find solutions and determine the best ways to support you during this challenging time.
We appreciate your patience and the detailed reports you've been sharing about how the strike is affecting your operations. Your feedback is invaluable and serves as a crucial link between sellers and Amazon's internal teams. We encourage you to continue sharing your experiences, concerns, and suggestions in this dedicated Forum.
If your issue is specifically related to Feedback removal due to the Canada Post Strike, please report it in the dedicated Forum:
Canada Post Strike (Feedback Removal Requests)
This will help us address these concerns more efficiently.
As moderators, while we may not have immediate solutions, we are committed to being your advocates within Amazon. We are carefully documenting all issues raised and ensuring they reach the appropriate teams for consideration and action.
We will update these forums as soon as we have any new information or guidance to share. In the meantime, we recommend exploring alternative shipping methods where possible and keeping your customers informed about potential delays.
Thank you for your resilience and understanding during this difficult period. We're all in this together, and we remain committed to supporting you through these challenges.
Daryl
161 replies
Seller_kNAboD6kRgVt7
I upped my shipping charge to try and partially cover the actual cost of Purolator over Canada Post. But I'm getting several "rural" addresses that are even more expensive to ship to, and they may even not make it, courier is giving "no guarantee of delivery" on those. So I may then have to pay for the return.
My VTR now reads N/A. Does that mean we will not be penalized if we use a courier that is not Valid in Amazon's eyes?
I do appreciate you starting a thread about it. But I feel that Amazon knows what is happening (and has for weeks now) and should be addressing it before it is over and the damage is done. If sellers knew what was going on (good or bad) the stress level would be considerably lower and we would be more likely to know how to move ahead and still make sales.
Seller_7LrAV0m5llaI7
We have pivoted to UPS and Purolator more, but now UPS is not accepting any Domestic parcels until Monday as they are at capacity. We can't even buy labels from UPS for Domestic Standard until Friday.
Hopefully Purolator holds out. My delivery guy had 93 stops today for deliveries and 22 pickups before arriving at our warehouse. Not sure what we're going to do when Purolator fills up. I guess e-commerce will have to come to a stop.
We are mostly currently just eating the cost to our profit margin and haven't increased our price to Amazon customers yet.
We have had to cancel a few rural addresses that are unserviceable by anyone by Canada Post and fully turn off PO boxes for orders.
For some reason our VTR rate dropped down to 70% today and the number does not reflect the amount of packages shipped as we have shipped out 600 packages within the time period on the account health screen but it's only showing 30 now, so i'm not sure what Amazon is doing. Other sellers on this forum are reporting that too the last couple days. Not sure what is going on but are we going to get a warning of suspension due to Amazon disabling VTR for some carriers? VTR stands for Valid Tracking Rate, not OTDR (On Time Delivery Rate)
Seller_MnFJ6jqlMqeSf
Any chance you could offer some relief regarding canceling shipments? I had to cancel a majority of my orders from Canada (US based) as I refuse to ship UPS since they hold packages hostage unless I pay customs for each package (shouldn't that be included in the postage cost)?
Since then I put my account in vacation mode, but still my account health took a big hit and is at risk for deactivation from cancelling orders. Yes I understand I should've gone into vacation mode sooner, but my options are slim for shipping providers as I am based in a rural area and major couriers like DHL are an hour drive away.
Seller_MYY5uBmeYyehr
Hi @Daryl_Amazon!
Will Amazon look into removing negative feedbacks that are clearly caused by the strike and were shipped many days prior to the strike starting?
Seller_DGT1u9nkD6wcL
awful. I understand that it is their right to Strike, however why do we pay the price since we have to pay more for each shipment? It is more like the government getting more tax since the shipping price is higher and Canada Post couriers can get more benefits. Lol
Seller_V3KuUlbwP0zCq
After the Canada Post strike, we switched to using Chit Chats, but our Valid Tracking Rate (VTR) dropped significantly. Despite this decline, we continued to receive five-star reviews praising our "very fast shipping." We attempted to contact Uniuni, an Amazon-approved carrier but did not receive a response. As a result, we needed to fulfill our orders promptly.
Due to the strike, we have had to refund customers whose orders were stuck with Canada Post and we can't get our product back. If we don’t, Amazon imposes A-Z claims against us, which negatively impacts our order defect rate. What should we do?
Seller_I243tlANJDFaQ
Daryl
- Some areas are not possible to ship to due to their rural location, we may need some understanding from Amazon on orders that we have to cancel due to shipping carrier not available. Rural locations are often not possible or the shipping cost is 3 times what it normally would be which is not realistic.
- We have found most customers are understanding but it would help if Amazon customer service reminded customer there is a strike and sellers are doing what we can for orders stuck in the system. It is not helpful that the system automatically tells customers their order is late and likely lost. This only worries/ upsets customers.
- We changed shipping companies as soon as job action was announced but still had a few orders caught in the strike. It would be nice if A to Z would have some understanding and let sellers send the customer a return label vs. refunding the customer and then the product is shipped to the customer after the strike (total lose for seller).
- The strike is killing our margins, forcing much higher freight charges to customers which triggers the bots to tell us our pricing is too high.
Maybe a better question is what action is Amazon considering to help the customers and the sellers who have been negatively affected by this strike. Every business who ship in Canada is being negatively affected by the strike and if would be appropriate for Amazon to extend/ relax some of the delivery guarantees for customers until this is over.
Seller_gHUXqAAEwAcB4
I have closed all listings under 30$ since one week before strike to maintain a healthy VTR and am delivering mostly all FBM packages through Canpar and Purolator as long as they are the final mile solution, otherwise I will cancel sales.
I am finding that even though I have been extremely proactive, these "replacement couriers" to Canada Post are all being extremely slow in delivering packages. None of my packages which shipped after strike started, have yet been delivered. All are in one sort facility or another. I am really starting to wonder what will happen ...
Thanks for taking the time @Daryl_Amazon!
Dan
Seller_AqmUAgQZmM08D
There are lower cost carriers with full tracking and photographs of delivery making on tine deliveries that we could use that are busy but not swamped or refusing packages or delivering late, unlike Purolator and UPS, but they are not Amazon recognized carriers. If VTR rate could be relaxed during the strike that would be helpful. Right now we are using Purolator and UPS exclusively as Amazon recognized carriers, we have raised shipping fees that customers pay and playing whac-a-mole every day trying to buy a label or arrange a pick up or find a drop off. High stress.
Seller_BCsJXNkuO7q9e
The real issue is what is Amazon doing for its sellers. Please explain in detail how Amazon will protect sellers during this strike.
Obviously, as business operators we must take steps to mitigate the impacts - but much is beyond our control. We now have many shipments delayed at Purolator and FedEx depots around the country because they rely on Canada Post for Final-Mile service. A-Z claims are piling in because of this - and we don't even ship with Canada Post!
There is no other way to deliver these parcels to many rural areas. Nor do we have a way to screen in advance for these addresses as Amazon requires you to enable the entire province. There are also weather delays (its Canada in winter) as well as holiday volume. A trifecta of issues.....
Amazon is granting A-Z claims instantly and counting against ODR. There will be a financial loss when CP resumes and buyers get free products - no doubt.
But would it kill Amazon to announce that there will be no ODR impact if the delay is because of the strike? Or at least instruct your A-Z reviewers (robots?) to take it easy and if such claims are being granted to not count against ODR? Same with negative feedbacks if they are delivery related because of the strike.
I think the hope was this strike would be over quickly - but here we are 3 weeks later. Its time for Amazon to be clear and show they value and protect their sellers.
As Amazon sellers, we put up with a lot of unreasonable situations (from buyers and Amazon), this seems like a very easy thing for Amazon to do. Kindly give us that assurance
Thank you
