Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
When I pulled it out of my mailbox and turned it over to open it, this is what I saw:
Clearly, it had already been opened. Only few square mm of adhesive was still working — the rest had paper and cardboard that had been torn away from the envelope stuck to it . As you can see, the envelope hadn't been subjected to a customs inspection. Fortunately, the contents — an expensive wartime cover and the letter it enclosed — were still there, but they weren't in the glassine envelope that was still in the envelope as well.
I can only assume that a postal worker somewhere between Nottingham and Vancouver had opened it, been disappointed that it contained nothing of value (or so he or she thought), and sent it on its way, barely secure. I probably should have requested, and paid for, registered mail service. I'll certainly give that serious thought next time around.
Bob
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08:03:00pm
For what it's worth, I have been informed by a Canadian Post Office Inspector that Registered Mail no longer receives special handling along the route. It goes in the regular mail bags. The "Registered" is only an instruction to the receiving station to separate it and require a signature upon pickup or delivery. Seems like a high price to pay for the "service".
The issue came up because a particular office in Alberta was "hit or miss" in requiring the signature. Two out of three letters arrived and were delivered, but tracking never showed receipt. Only contacting the recipient confirmed that he got them. A third (apparently) never materialized and the Post Office promptly paid the insurance.
Roy
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I wonder if the UPU has international rules (it probably does) regarding the handling of registered mail. How would the UPU respond to the manner in which Canada Post handles registered mail?
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12:29:07pm
It is even worse in the USA. So much so, that since last year Canada no longer accepts mail with "Registered" service to the USA. It now has to go as a "Tracked package".
Roy
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I have received four letter this year that were opened prior to my receiving them. What is worse is that I have lost 6 letter in the last three months. I have lived in Gibraltar for the last five and a half years and never had a problem until three months ago. Now I loose more letters than I receive.
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I don't what there situation is in the U.S. and elsewhere, but in Canada we have long been served — or "served" — by postal substations owned not by Canada Post but by retail companies, usually drugstores. The service ranges from excellent and professional to mediocre in all respects to indifferent and uninformed. I once prepared a mailing for my stamp club and was appalled when the clerk in a substation I didn't usually go to that the postage would be twice what I normally paid for the exact same type of mailing — #10 envelope enclosing a four-sheet newsletter. I questioned the clerk about what I thought was an absurd doubling of the cost, but she insisted she was right, and I left with my newsletters. I then went to my regular substation and was charged the same amount that had been charged for the previous dozen or so mailings that I handled.
While Canada Post is now clearly a profit-oriented business, with good service running a distant second to profit , the postal substations value profit even more but often seem indifferent about service. The problem is exacerbated by the hiring of young workers who clearly have had little training and are recent immigrants, usually from China, who speak English poorly. If problems develop, as they did with a recent mailing to me from Europe, the standard suggestion from substation employees is to go the Canada Post web site, which usually puts you into a trackless digital wilderness.
I well remember my frequent trips to the post office in Silver City, New Mexico, when I was in my teens. Here's a postcard picturing it (it is now someone's home):
The post office not only looked official, but it was operated along what seemed to almost quasi-military lines. The staff all wore blue uniforms, and worked behind iron grills, just like the Grant County Bank a couple blocks down the street. They always had the latest stamps in stock. A clerk named "Toad" Wilson — yep, that's what everyone called him! — knew that I was a stamp collector and clearly understand what stamp collecting was all about. I have the sense that the post office was a very secure, safe, and professional environment that you could count on to both send and receive your mail in a timely manner. The thought never crossed my mind that someone might open one of my letters, or be unable to answer any of my many questions.
Bob
P.S. Once the postmaster himself broke a post office regulation. My wife-to-be had mailed a card of condolence to a fellow student college student whose parents had been murdered the day before. Later on the day she mailed the card, the news broke that the student had been charged with his parents murder. Susan went back to the post office and begged the postmaster to retrieve the card from the mail stream and return it to her, which he did.
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I, too have experienced mail that was opened but not officially noted. I have a long-running battle with the USPS whereby I call and complain about the registered mail service for which I spend a premium and placement of the registered mail in my box without obtaining a signature nor any scanning.
At first, I was told that not all registered mail requires a signature but I pointed out that the item was being tracked online from the mailing country, tracked by the USPS right up until it should have been scanned and signed for by the recipient--me. The merry-go-round of postal management assures me that they will talk to their people. This has been going on for years during which each of the postal managers (last count 9) are transferred to another department and the debacle begins anew.
Bruce
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Bob:
I agree! I never go to a Retail Postal Outlet in a drugstore or corner store. The staff can barely speak English. The last time I checked, Canada's two official languages are English and French. I can curse at them equally well in English et Francais... Mon Dieu!
I always go to a REAL Canada Post outlet. At least I can speak to the postal clerk.
David
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David has the option of avoiding postal sub-stations in Ottawa, lucky him! There is only one Canada Post Office in Vancouver proper (as opposed to Metro Vancouver), "serving" a population of 603,000. It's not all that far from our apartment (on the same street even), but it's about a 40-minute walk which can certainly cut into your day, especially if you have other errands in other parts of the city. Sure, I could take a bus, but I've often walked that same route on other errands and never even seen a bus — their schedules aren't exactly precise. Once, after surgery on my right foot, I was on crutches, and both my wife and I needed to go an appointment downtown. I needed to take a bus, but my wife wanted to walk. She waited with me until the bus came. I got on, and she started walking. When the bus got to my stop, there was my wife.
So, sub-stations are my "post office" whether I like it or not. In fairness, most of the clerks are helpful and reasonably knowledgeable. But they aren't postal clerks, and they don't work in post offices!
Bob
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Bob:
I went into an RPO in a Shopper's Drug Mart to post a packet to Phil B. I asked the lady to hand cancel the stamps for me. She told me that they don't do that as they are not Canada Post. I said to her "Mary Mother of God and all the Saints, you've a sign the size of a postal van above your head that says "Canada Post / Poste Canada"! What are you then?"
Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh!
David
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We Canucks could probably relate Canada Post/Canada Post Sub-station anecdotes until the end of time! A few years ago I received a letter franked with a recent Canadian commemorative which was — of course! — uncancelled. I took it to a postal sub-station in a Shopper's Drug Mart and asked if they could please cancel it for me. The clerk's response: "We can't do that. It's illegal."
Bob
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" She told me that they don't do that as they are not Canada Post. I said to her "Mary Mother of God and all the Saints, you've a sign the size of a postal van above your head that says "Canada Post / Poste Canada"! What are you then?""
I found the same thing with UPS. In the USA they have these little neighborhood shops called UPS Stores. They do UPS services, have mail boxes, do minor printing etc., basic business services. So I go into the local one on two occasions:
I bring in a package that's been prepaid by the receiver's UPS account. Nope, can't accept that. We can't get paid anything to handle that so take it to a real UPS center (20 miles away!)
I bring in a large / heavy package that I need to pay for.... nope can't take a box that big and heavy, bring it to UPS.
I had also noticed one time I used one of those centers that it seemed to be rather expensive. When I got to the real UPS I asked about that center, and they told me that they're just franchises and can do anything they want... refuse packages, charge whatever they want etc. Amazing. And with BIG UPS signs all over them!
Last time I drove past that UPS Store, it was gone. Good riddance, serves them right!
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Brechinite said,
"They hired that w---- that had been in charge of Canada Post!!"
And who was that?
Bob
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"I had also noticed one time I used one of those centers that it seemed to be rather expensive. When I got to the real UPS I asked about that center, and they told me that they're just franchises and can do anything they want... refuse packages, charge whatever they want etc. Amazing. And with BIG UPS signs all over them!"
Wow. We have a UPS Store here, and they gladly took what I needed to send back to a company that also paid the return shipping. The UPS Store even packaged everything in a box for me at no charge.
We have a private "shipping" store nearby. It does USPS, UPS and FedEx. They take anything that's ready to go, even if it's pre-paid like US Mail with stamps on it.
Too many business owners never took customer service in business classes. I guess that is why those places go out of business while the two that I mentioned have been around for many years.
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Don't recall Moya. I thought it might be André Oulette who had crawled out from under a rock. From Wikipedia, which needs to be updated as the scandal wasn't "recently":
"As cabinet minister, Ouellet had served as Postmaster General. As Chairman of Canada Post, he implemented reform that led to record profits in the corporation. Recently, controversy surrounded Ouellet as Canada Post was one of the organizations embroiled in the Sponsorship Scandal. As a result, Ouellet was suspended from his position at Canada Post in February 2004 by Prime Minister Paul Martin. He resigned as Chairman of Canada Post on August 12, 2004, after it was revealed that he failed to provide invoices for hundreds of thousands of dollars of personal expenses, and that he handed out untendered contracts."
Under Outlette, Canada Post issued some really embarrassing stamps which were nothing but advertisements for Petro Canada & Home Hardware (both private corporations) and possibly others that I've forgotten, and don't really care about!
Bob
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Bob, you do realize that the Petro-Canada stamp you have is not the stamp that was regularly issued. The one in your image was the one included in Canada Post collector packs. The regularly issued stamp has the perfs reversed.
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Those advertising stamps are just plain sad. Hope we don't ever see stamps "commemorating" the extra value menu at Mickey D's.
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Yesterday I received a cover from Great Britain that I had won in an eBay auction. I received it here in Vancouver three days after it was posted in Nottingham Mail Centre, which is pretty impressive. However…
When I pulled it out of my mailbox and turned it over to open it, this is what I saw:
Clearly, it had already been opened. Only few square mm of adhesive was still working — the rest had paper and cardboard that had been torn away from the envelope stuck to it . As you can see, the envelope hadn't been subjected to a customs inspection. Fortunately, the contents — an expensive wartime cover and the letter it enclosed — were still there, but they weren't in the glassine envelope that was still in the envelope as well.
I can only assume that a postal worker somewhere between Nottingham and Vancouver had opened it, been disappointed that it contained nothing of value (or so he or she thought), and sent it on its way, barely secure. I probably should have requested, and paid for, registered mail service. I'll certainly give that serious thought next time around.
Bob
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BuckaCover.com - 80,000 covers priced 60c to $1.50 - Easy browsing 500 categories
10 Jul 2015
08:03:00pm
re: Compromised mail from Great Britain
For what it's worth, I have been informed by a Canadian Post Office Inspector that Registered Mail no longer receives special handling along the route. It goes in the regular mail bags. The "Registered" is only an instruction to the receiving station to separate it and require a signature upon pickup or delivery. Seems like a high price to pay for the "service".
The issue came up because a particular office in Alberta was "hit or miss" in requiring the signature. Two out of three letters arrived and were delivered, but tracking never showed receipt. Only contacting the recipient confirmed that he got them. A third (apparently) never materialized and the Post Office promptly paid the insurance.
Roy
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02:47:55am
re: Compromised mail from Great Britain
I wonder if the UPU has international rules (it probably does) regarding the handling of registered mail. How would the UPU respond to the manner in which Canada Post handles registered mail?
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11 Jul 2015
12:29:07pm
re: Compromised mail from Great Britain
It is even worse in the USA. So much so, that since last year Canada no longer accepts mail with "Registered" service to the USA. It now has to go as a "Tracked package".
Roy
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06:43:35am
re: Compromised mail from Great Britain
I have received four letter this year that were opened prior to my receiving them. What is worse is that I have lost 6 letter in the last three months. I have lived in Gibraltar for the last five and a half years and never had a problem until three months ago. Now I loose more letters than I receive.
Login to Like
this post
re: Compromised mail from Great Britain
I don't what there situation is in the U.S. and elsewhere, but in Canada we have long been served — or "served" — by postal substations owned not by Canada Post but by retail companies, usually drugstores. The service ranges from excellent and professional to mediocre in all respects to indifferent and uninformed. I once prepared a mailing for my stamp club and was appalled when the clerk in a substation I didn't usually go to that the postage would be twice what I normally paid for the exact same type of mailing — #10 envelope enclosing a four-sheet newsletter. I questioned the clerk about what I thought was an absurd doubling of the cost, but she insisted she was right, and I left with my newsletters. I then went to my regular substation and was charged the same amount that had been charged for the previous dozen or so mailings that I handled.
While Canada Post is now clearly a profit-oriented business, with good service running a distant second to profit , the postal substations value profit even more but often seem indifferent about service. The problem is exacerbated by the hiring of young workers who clearly have had little training and are recent immigrants, usually from China, who speak English poorly. If problems develop, as they did with a recent mailing to me from Europe, the standard suggestion from substation employees is to go the Canada Post web site, which usually puts you into a trackless digital wilderness.
I well remember my frequent trips to the post office in Silver City, New Mexico, when I was in my teens. Here's a postcard picturing it (it is now someone's home):
The post office not only looked official, but it was operated along what seemed to almost quasi-military lines. The staff all wore blue uniforms, and worked behind iron grills, just like the Grant County Bank a couple blocks down the street. They always had the latest stamps in stock. A clerk named "Toad" Wilson — yep, that's what everyone called him! — knew that I was a stamp collector and clearly understand what stamp collecting was all about. I have the sense that the post office was a very secure, safe, and professional environment that you could count on to both send and receive your mail in a timely manner. The thought never crossed my mind that someone might open one of my letters, or be unable to answer any of my many questions.
Bob
P.S. Once the postmaster himself broke a post office regulation. My wife-to-be had mailed a card of condolence to a fellow student college student whose parents had been murdered the day before. Later on the day she mailed the card, the news broke that the student had been charged with his parents murder. Susan went back to the post office and begged the postmaster to retrieve the card from the mail stream and return it to her, which he did.
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07:04:01pm
re: Compromised mail from Great Britain
I, too have experienced mail that was opened but not officially noted. I have a long-running battle with the USPS whereby I call and complain about the registered mail service for which I spend a premium and placement of the registered mail in my box without obtaining a signature nor any scanning.
At first, I was told that not all registered mail requires a signature but I pointed out that the item was being tracked online from the mailing country, tracked by the USPS right up until it should have been scanned and signed for by the recipient--me. The merry-go-round of postal management assures me that they will talk to their people. This has been going on for years during which each of the postal managers (last count 9) are transferred to another department and the debacle begins anew.
Bruce
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re: Compromised mail from Great Britain
Bob:
I agree! I never go to a Retail Postal Outlet in a drugstore or corner store. The staff can barely speak English. The last time I checked, Canada's two official languages are English and French. I can curse at them equally well in English et Francais... Mon Dieu!
I always go to a REAL Canada Post outlet. At least I can speak to the postal clerk.
David
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re: Compromised mail from Great Britain
David has the option of avoiding postal sub-stations in Ottawa, lucky him! There is only one Canada Post Office in Vancouver proper (as opposed to Metro Vancouver), "serving" a population of 603,000. It's not all that far from our apartment (on the same street even), but it's about a 40-minute walk which can certainly cut into your day, especially if you have other errands in other parts of the city. Sure, I could take a bus, but I've often walked that same route on other errands and never even seen a bus — their schedules aren't exactly precise. Once, after surgery on my right foot, I was on crutches, and both my wife and I needed to go an appointment downtown. I needed to take a bus, but my wife wanted to walk. She waited with me until the bus came. I got on, and she started walking. When the bus got to my stop, there was my wife.
So, sub-stations are my "post office" whether I like it or not. In fairness, most of the clerks are helpful and reasonably knowledgeable. But they aren't postal clerks, and they don't work in post offices!
Bob
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re: Compromised mail from Great Britain
Bob:
I went into an RPO in a Shopper's Drug Mart to post a packet to Phil B. I asked the lady to hand cancel the stamps for me. She told me that they don't do that as they are not Canada Post. I said to her "Mary Mother of God and all the Saints, you've a sign the size of a postal van above your head that says "Canada Post / Poste Canada"! What are you then?"
Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh!
David
Login to Like
this post
re: Compromised mail from Great Britain
We Canucks could probably relate Canada Post/Canada Post Sub-station anecdotes until the end of time! A few years ago I received a letter franked with a recent Canadian commemorative which was — of course! — uncancelled. I took it to a postal sub-station in a Shopper's Drug Mart and asked if they could please cancel it for me. The clerk's response: "We can't do that. It's illegal."
Bob
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re: Compromised mail from Great Britain
" She told me that they don't do that as they are not Canada Post. I said to her "Mary Mother of God and all the Saints, you've a sign the size of a postal van above your head that says "Canada Post / Poste Canada"! What are you then?""
I found the same thing with UPS. In the USA they have these little neighborhood shops called UPS Stores. They do UPS services, have mail boxes, do minor printing etc., basic business services. So I go into the local one on two occasions:
I bring in a package that's been prepaid by the receiver's UPS account. Nope, can't accept that. We can't get paid anything to handle that so take it to a real UPS center (20 miles away!)
I bring in a large / heavy package that I need to pay for.... nope can't take a box that big and heavy, bring it to UPS.
I had also noticed one time I used one of those centers that it seemed to be rather expensive. When I got to the real UPS I asked about that center, and they told me that they're just franchises and can do anything they want... refuse packages, charge whatever they want etc. Amazing. And with BIG UPS signs all over them!
Last time I drove past that UPS Store, it was gone. Good riddance, serves them right!
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re: Compromised mail from Great Britain
Brechinite said,
"They hired that w---- that had been in charge of Canada Post!!"
And who was that?
Bob
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09:42:07pm
re: Compromised mail from Great Britain
"I had also noticed one time I used one of those centers that it seemed to be rather expensive. When I got to the real UPS I asked about that center, and they told me that they're just franchises and can do anything they want... refuse packages, charge whatever they want etc. Amazing. And with BIG UPS signs all over them!"
Wow. We have a UPS Store here, and they gladly took what I needed to send back to a company that also paid the return shipping. The UPS Store even packaged everything in a box for me at no charge.
We have a private "shipping" store nearby. It does USPS, UPS and FedEx. They take anything that's ready to go, even if it's pre-paid like US Mail with stamps on it.
Too many business owners never took customer service in business classes. I guess that is why those places go out of business while the two that I mentioned have been around for many years.
Login to Like
this post
re: Compromised mail from Great Britain
Don't recall Moya. I thought it might be André Oulette who had crawled out from under a rock. From Wikipedia, which needs to be updated as the scandal wasn't "recently":
"As cabinet minister, Ouellet had served as Postmaster General. As Chairman of Canada Post, he implemented reform that led to record profits in the corporation. Recently, controversy surrounded Ouellet as Canada Post was one of the organizations embroiled in the Sponsorship Scandal. As a result, Ouellet was suspended from his position at Canada Post in February 2004 by Prime Minister Paul Martin. He resigned as Chairman of Canada Post on August 12, 2004, after it was revealed that he failed to provide invoices for hundreds of thousands of dollars of personal expenses, and that he handed out untendered contracts."
Under Outlette, Canada Post issued some really embarrassing stamps which were nothing but advertisements for Petro Canada & Home Hardware (both private corporations) and possibly others that I've forgotten, and don't really care about!
Bob
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01:30:12am
re: Compromised mail from Great Britain
Bob, you do realize that the Petro-Canada stamp you have is not the stamp that was regularly issued. The one in your image was the one included in Canada Post collector packs. The regularly issued stamp has the perfs reversed.
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08:50:56am
re: Compromised mail from Great Britain
Those advertising stamps are just plain sad. Hope we don't ever see stamps "commemorating" the extra value menu at Mickey D's.
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