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_9YP7YHagiaxYP
We are more or less in the same boat! Most of the times, carriers don't even show up for daily pickups, mainly UPS and Purolator. Being said that, there will be some delays between label creation and package picked up (because carriers are not doing daily pick up or they don't have enough room when they show up). Will A-to-Z team factor in this while working the claims?
Seller_9YP7YHagiaxYP
Will Amazon consider removing negative feedback due to delays caused by the strike?
Seller_7LrAV0m5llaI7
I'm not sure, why would you ask me? I don't work for Amazon
Daryl_Amazon
Feedback acknowledged @Seller_7LrAV0m5llaI7 and@Seller_9YP7YHagiaxYP,
I appreciate your proactive approach in exploring alternative shipping options such as UPS and Purolator. It's commendable that you're doing your best to minimize disruptions and maintain operations despite the strike. However, I understand the frustration and uncertainty as these carriers reach capacity limits, potentially leading to further delays or even temporary halts in e-commerce activities.
As for the other 2 points, the main focus we are presenting to the seller performance team is A-Z claims but now that you mention feedback removal requests, I see this as a very valid point too! Will be sure to include these details to them.
Please be assured that we are looking into this matter as these are factors beyond your control.
Daryl
Seller_7LrAV0m5llaI7
@Daryl_Amazon
Within the last couple days it has become more difficult to ship via Purolator or UPS.
UPS is allowing 1 drop off package per day per account, and Purolator has restricted services to some postal codes and some provinces such as Alberta. You can't even buy a label.
It is totally unknown now if the carriers will even sell a label to certain postal codes, and we don't know if it would go through until after the order is taken and packed.
Amazon is still taking orders for these postal codes, and they technically would penalize us with order cancelation rate and negative feedback from the customer.
EBay has come out with a press release saying they will not penalize sellers in any way shape or form for packages delayed by the strike, packages undeliverable due to the strike, and cancelled orders. And that they fully understand the situation and understand the relationship between their selling partners and ebay, and value that relationship?
What is Amazon going to do? Hang us out to dry as usual?
Seller_9YP7YHagiaxYP
@Seller_7LrAV0m5llaI7I was about to say the same thing. We have received a press release from eBay yesterday! Moreover, it seems like, Purolator has completely given up now. We have packages sent on Nov 20th and still not delivered. I am sure if the customer files a claim, amazon will approve it immediately without considering anything. It seems like, e-commerce has completely stopped in Canada! UPS is not doing pickups and now Purolator has given up LOL
Daryl_Amazon
My team is currently looking into this with seller performance and related escalation channels @Seller_7LrAV0m5llaI7, a press release from our end sounds like a good way to minimize the overall stress factor this situation is currently provoking among you all, believe me that once we have green light on the feedback being mentioned here, I'll personally post a thread stating the same through here, I understand the immense challenges you're facing with major carriers like UPS and Purolator reaching capacity limits or restricting services in certain areas.
We recognize that these circumstances are beyond your control, and we value the relationships we have with our selling partners. Please be assured that we are actively looking into ways to support you during this difficult situation.
Regarding your specific points:
A-to-z Guarantee Claims and Negative Feedback: We understand your concerns about potential claims and negative feedback from customers due to shipping delays or undeliverable orders. Our teams are exploring measures to ensure you are not unfairly penalized for factors outside your control related to the strike.
Feedback Removal Requests: You raised a valid point about feedback removal requests. We will include this in our discussions with the seller performance team to find a fair and reasonable approach.
While we cannot provide definitive solutions at this moment, we want to assure you that your challenges are being heard, and we are committed to working towards resolutions that protect your seller account health and performance metrics.
The whole purpose of this thread is to showcase the impact to our escalations team of the ongoing strike,
Will keep you all posted,
Daryl
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.
