Orders stuck due to Canada Post strike, what should I do?
I have since shut down all my Amazon stores, but I have a few orders that are caught in the Canada Post strike. Canada Post lied when they said they would only go on strike for 24 hours per region as they shut down a main distribution area in Toronto for 2 days, causing longer delays than that.
Amazon said they will not be protecting sellers whatsoever due to late deliveries due to the strike, so what should I do about the several orders currently stuck? I would expect them to start moving again today but you never know which such an incompetent company as Canada Post.
Even though it’s just a day of sale, it’s enough that a defect on each of them would have me well above the 1% defect rate, even though I’m at 0.00% defects now.
What should I do to avoid being suspended for life over something that is out of my control?
Should I reship each order in a different way, I’d lose a lot of money and several customers would end up getting their order in double, but at least my business won’t get shut down.
28 replies
Seller_X9AxWaXfNnGAl
If the items are with Canada Post, there is really not much you can do. Hopefully, the resulting delays will just be a couple days. Customers should be aware of the job action, but you should advise them that their orders are in transit with Canada Post and will likely be delayed.
Your best mitigation, aside from suspending your storefront is to check into other carriers and set your pricing accordingly.
Fedex, UPS, DHL, Loomis, Purolator, and others may be able to offer your some options to get you past this.
Amazon is also aware of the job action and will likely allow for some leeway regarding metrics. The best way around that is to continue to operate your business with other carriers. Shutting down and getting the metrics hits will have a worse ratio than the addition of more orders and shipments without negative metrics.
Dave
Seller_Mzbg56z7Yxcd7
Get in your car and start delivering them yourself. Canada is a mess because of the PM. Their strike is affecting your business. Not sure if you have UPS or Fedex up there, but you will have to use them if anything.
Seller_MGDk6qQuyZlLm
Amazon warned sellers about the Canadian postal strike in advance – advising everyone to look for alternate carriers. Arguing that you are not to blame because believed a union representative’s statements is only going to make you look worse (foolish and gullible).
You’re just going to have to hope that your overall seller metrics remain good enough so that Amazon.com will not take any actions.
Seller_cj0Hbt4oA33im
It is hard to say, Amazon clearly warned people and no strike ever has a set start and end date.
Customers should be notified right away and they must know about the strike so should be understanding to some extent-- double-shipping is a very plausible option. I have lost money on multiple orders over the years and have always valued the customer and my account over a profit on any order. If selling in Canada causes stress and it did for me, you should measure the profit from Canadian sales versus the stress, we ended sales to Canada on amazon because of shipping times, since I could not guarantee the shipping times and the cost for shipping was also very high versus what we charged for it.
Seller_GyY8kLnCdVxVn
I only had 3 orders and I cancelled them after I send an email to the customer telling them about the strike. Rather have a ding on cancelled orders than AZ claim
Seller_UXwgqHxRYG0zx
There is nothing you can do, the packages are already in their hands. You are at the mercy of Canada Post. At best you can alert the customers to the situation and politely and courteously apologize for the delay, perhaps refunding the shipping cost as a proactive good faith measure to placate them.
Prior to Amazon changing how they track and evaluate metrics I have at lease once exceeded ODR by a few percent (shipping issues) and they did not automatically take punitive action, i was able to continue selling through it and recover. Presumable my prior good performance influenced that i would think. Who knows… YMMV
Seller_AzQWWiLSSAUWj
I removed Canada as a place I shipped to so , I won’t get stuck with issues… I hope it works out for you.
Seller_R8ki3KTqShEFj
I was wondering, a few months ago Amazon accidentally sent my payment twice and they never noticed so I went out of my way to tell them they paid me twice (at first they insisted they didn’t pay me twice).
When they finally realized what I was saying was true they started a long process to deduct the overpaid amount from one of my next payments.
I very well could have not told them and it doesn’t look like they would have ever realized it.
If I were to end up with a lifetime suspension for a single day’s worth of orders that may arrive late, would my honesty in the above situation (and the fact my defect rate has been 0.00% for the vast majority of the many years I’ve been selling on Amazon) help avoid or reverse lifetime suspension?
Seller_2nbatedv2Ci8x
Amazon sent out a warning telling sellers not to use them .So if late expect your metrics to be hit
Seller_UXUu796ZDBJWZ
Make sure you do not use Global Post as they work with Canada Post. Use Priority Mail
