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Hi There,
With the looming strike / lockout by Canada Post and its Postal Workers Union, (the date has been pushed back a few times, but currently expected to start on July 9th, 2016), I'm wondering what Paizo's plans are for redirecting lettermail (which would likely be USPS from your perspective) to other providers, or freezing the mailouts from the warehouse so mail doesn't get frozen at the border as we wait for CanadaPost to get back to work?
I recognize that other shipping/postal providers have different costs, so I'm curious what the next cheapest provider is that you work with, so that I can determine if I want to eat that cost during the postal event so I can get my subscriptions and other orders, or just freeze the outbound shipping of my orders (including my subs) until the event has ended.
Hi There,
With the looming strike / lockout by Canada Post and its Postal Workers Union, (the date has been pushed back a few times, but currently expected to start on July 9th, 2016), I'm wondering what Paizo's plans are for redirecting lettermail (which would likely be USPS from your perspective) to other providers, or freezing the mailouts from the warehouse so mail doesn't get frozen at the border as we wait for CanadaPost to get back to work?
I recognize that other shipping/postal providers have different costs, so I'm curious what the next cheapest provider is that you work with, so that I can determine if I want to eat that cost during the postal event so I can get my subscriptions and other orders, or just freeze the outbound shipping of my orders (including my subs) until the event has ended.
Curious about this myself, should I just have my subscriptions held while waiting for Canada Post to go back to work?
My plan is to let it ride for now. There's a possibility - to be decided between now and Monday noon - that a 30-day delay will be applied to the lockout. Currently, a condition of that is the union agreeing to binding arbitration if the 30 days isn't enough to come to agreement. And if that happens, there likely won't be a strike or a lockout.
So anyway, my point is Monday we'll know if anything is happening at all. If there is a lockout, fine. I'll still wait it out a few weeks to see if they settle. Having one monthly shipment "stuck" is no big deal.
If it goes on for months, THEN I'll do something.
Chief Technical Officer
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All of the shipping methods we currently offer to Canada have final delivery by Canada Post at this time. (If this were to drag on, we would look into offering UPS international package service again; we briefly offered it years ago, but it's generally expensive enough that few customers chose it.)
Our shipping partners have been very good at keeping us abreast of the situation. At this time, they are planning on continuing to pick up parcels destined to Canada for at least a week after any service interruption. As long as they are doing so, continuing to ship as usual should result in the fastest delivery times. Should they advise us that they are planning to stop accepting parcels, they will likely offer some recommendations, which we will evaluate at that time.
Canada Post has retracted their lockout threat. They and the union are back at the table, negotiating. Of course, they've been at it for 7 months so who knows what'll happen.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Canada Post's official statement about the withdrawal of the lockout notice.
Since they have to give 72 hours notice prior to a stroke or lockout, we're good for a minimum of 3 days.
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Chief Technical Officer
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(If this were to drag on, we would look into offering UPS international package service again; we briefly offered it years ago, but it's generally expensive enough that few customers chose it.)
Sorry—I had forgotten that we added back UPS International last year; that *is* an option that would not be directly affected by any Canada Post lockout or strike. (There would be an indirect effect: they would get a huge volume increase that could cause delays.)
Customer Service Manager
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We (operations at Paizo) are carefully monitoring the developing situation of the potential Canadian Post Strike.
In the event of a strike or lockout, UPS International should still be making deliveries, however, please note, this shipping method may be significantly more expensive than other shipping options. Customers have also reported UPS International has a higher tendency to collect customs charges on packages shipped via this method.
Should a strike or lockout begin, I will sticky a thread in the Customer Service forum with updates and how Paizo will be handling orders to Canada.
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Thank you to both.
And yes Sara Marie, I agree, UPS seems to have a tendency to attempt to nickel and dime at every opportunity when doing parcels. it's why I've preferred USPS shipping, as most of my packages coming from the states are well below the limit that even CBSA will look at for customs charges, but UPS will charge their ridiculous fees, sometimes more than the item itself.