Mail services suspended in Canada

Industrial action by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers has been affecting various parts of Canada since early June. It has not been resolved and Canada Post has decided to cease all operations across the country with immediate effect.

This affects all mail services within the country. Items posted with Royal Mail on Friday 10th June and since then may not have been delivered and will be held in Canada awaiting a change to the situation. This also means that mail handled by Canada Post bound for the UK will not be despatched at present.

Mail not yet despatched to Canada will be held in Royal Mail’s network until such time as Canada Post start to accept mail into the country and can deliver mail again.

Royal Mail will cease accepting mail for Canada from tomorrow, Thursday 16th June. As an alternative, customers can be advised that Parcelforce Worldwide services are unaffected and can be used for urgent despatches. These are available from Post Offices, through the Parcelforce Worldwide website and of course through PayPal postage.

If you have items potentially held during the strike you should step up communications with your buyers. eBay say that they are adding messaging in purchase flows to alert buyers to the situation, and have also included a message in the feedback process to remind buyers that shipping delays due to labour disputes are not within a seller’s control.

eBay.ca say that will work closely with the Seller Standards team to protect sellers from lower performance ratings received due to Canada Post disruption-related issues, however whether that applies just to Canadian sellers or to international sellers shipping to Canada hasn’t been confirmed.