Canada Post Shipping - Challenge!!

Hello
I am back from my travels!  Even though I had my vacation settings on my eBay store "Mandicrafts Bears and Collectibles", I found myself replying to many buyer's questions, offers, and even had quite a few sales!!  I did personally contact each and every buyer to advise them I would be unable to ship until my return and all but one was okay with that!

Now I am busy gathering the items and putting the shipments together.  Canada Post is a challenge at the best of times with no mail on weekends and having many stat holidays!  Their deadlines are tight too.  I tried to ship some of the parcels I had ready on Friday, but missed the 4:30 pm drop off deadline so those parcels sit till Monday! 

I get many shipping questions from buyers located in the USA.  USPS has vastly better postal rates than Canada Post so buyers are confused at the calculated postage they see on my listings!  Unfortunately the rates are beyond my control and I do my best to choose the most economical method that still has a fair transit time.  Canada Post rates are based not only on weight but the size of the parcel.  I avoid really heavy items or large items knowing the shipping charge will be too scary for most buyers, unless the item it is very rare or sought after.

Canada Post does not provide free boxes or envelopes.  I must purchase all of my supplies including bubble wrap, foam wrap, packing peanuts (I only purchase biodegradeable peanuts to help preserve our environment!!), packing tape, paper for labels, ink for the printer, boxes, envelopes etc etc.  These costs are impossible to recover with a reasonable shipping & handling charge, so it becomes another expense of doing business.

Couriers are VERY expensive, even domestically!  While I was away, I needed to ship some items across the country and had to use UPS.  It was daunting!  As the items were family heirlooms I paid the exhorbitant fees but learned I could not hope to use UPS as an alternative option to Canada Post!

.....I must get back to packing and processing labels!  I will blog again!

Bear Hugs
Mandy