Canada Post shipping experience.

[jimmy]

Why? Lee Valley won't use them.

[Mark & Juanita]

On Fri, 07 Apr 2006 20:58:48 GMT, "Leon" wrote:

We have one of those cluster boxes in my neighborhood (and we aren't a typical suburban subdivision). For parcels, there are several boxes that can hold parcels. Postman puts parcel for you in one of the boxes and leaves the key for you in your regular small box. You get the key, attempt to determine just which box it goes to (did I mention they don't have labels on the key?) and remove your parcel, the parcel door captures the key when you open the door and the postman retreives it the next time somebody has a package and they need that box. Your guess is correct, if the box is too big, you have to go to the post office to pick it up.

A couple of problems with this setup. 1) the front of the box has a lip around it (the door frame). The back of the box that is used by the mailman opens up in a single fell swoop allowing the postman access to all the mail slots at once, thus all boxes have the full dimension of the box available to the mailman. The mailman does *not* like taking parcels back to the post office, so he (or she) is motivated to make sure that the parcel *will* fit into one of those parcel boxes. It may take a bit of squeezing on his part, but you'd be surprised how much you can squeeze a parcel to fit into a more confined space. Postman grunts, squeezes and gets the large package into the parcel box and leaves the key for the postal customer. Postal customer picks up his mail, discovers the key, fiddles around with all the parcel doors until he finds the one that the key opens, opens the door and attempts to retrieve his package. I did mention that the customer end of the box has a lip around the door, didn't I? i.e., the customer does *not* have access to the full width nor height of the the parcel box. For really large parcels inserted by really motivated mail carriers, the customer doesn't even have any place to get his fingers around the package either. I have literally had to cut boxes apart in the parcel box in order to get my delivery out. Second problem 2) Those boxes and keys get a *lot* of use over the years. Keys wear out, but the postman doesn't realize that. I got a package last week; after spending about 5 minutes trying to figure out which box the key went to because it did not work in any of the key holes, I could not get the key to open any of the locks. I wound up having to drive home, get a pair of pliers, and drive back (it's about a 1 mile drive to our cluster ... box) and was finally able to use the pliers to turn the key and retrieve my package from HMS products with my 320 grit Shapton stone, stone flattening jig and powders. The key was so worn, it barely worked.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Oleg Lego]

The D Smith entity posted thusly:

Almost true. UPS (to cite just one example, will indeed deliver to a rural area. In my case, I have a PO box number, which they will not deliver to, but they will deliver to a land location.

Personally, I prefer the PO box delivery, so I don't have to be there, and I often just give the address of the post office (which is the same as the cafe, pub, and hotel), and the owner/bartender/postmaster just signs for it and I pick it up when I get the mail.

[Upscale]

So when I called LV on phone yesterday for you and they told me they can ship by UPS, they were lying?

[henry]

I just placed an order from Lee Valley When asked how it would ship she said. Fed Ex to a home, UPS to a business. If I request it I could get either UPS, postal servive or fed Ex. What great service and product from Lee valley.

[jimmy]

They were confused.

[Dave Balderstone]

Wow. Everyone in the world is confused 'cept you.

Must be confusing for you.

[jimmy]

That certainly does seem to be the case. At least as far as Lee Valley shipping practices. It does make sense. No one ever accused the average woodworker of being very smart. You being a perfect example.

[RicodJour]

He's not confused or confusing, he's simply trolling. If Robin Lee answered him directly and corrected his muddled beliefs, he'd tell Robin he was confused.

Methinks it's time to let the troll go back under the bridge...

R

[jimmy]

Robin Lee has not responded because I'm right. Even customer service admitted I wasn't the only customer unhappy with Lee Valley using Canada Post.

No one has produced a single bit of evidence that Lee Valley uses any other courier in BC than Canada Post.

[Doug Brown]

[Robatoy]

Why don't you have Purolator deliver to you door next time?

btw... Canada Post OWNS (94%) Purolator.

You read that right... OWNS..Purolator.

[D Smith]

I hope it doesn't bother you that Purolator is owned by the Post Office. :-)

Oddly, you can buy Purolator service from the Post Office nearest to where I work, but you can't get them to deliver to a PO Box in the same building....

[Lee Michaels]

"D Smith" wrote

Would that be because they would then be competing with themselves??

[D Smith]

Let's make sure we have the same definition of "rural area". I'm excluding towns (which could be only a few hundred people where I am) if it's on the courier's route. By rural, I mean places that have directions that begin "at the end of the paved road..."

I haven't tried UPS, but Purolator, DHL, FedEx all will not deliver to my work location, in spite of us knowing the land location, having a street address, a sign with the street name on the nearest major road (gravel!), and a honkin' huge sign with the business name on it. We're five miles from pavement, and it's just too far out of their way. There are small, local couriers who will do it (and at least one large transport company), but the costs escalates rapidly.

The postmaster where my work mail address is (a PO box) has also suggested giving couriers the street address. And that's for an Offical, Canada Post, Post Office building. She also signs passport applications...

...and I agree: courier delivery when you're not home ends up being "hold for pickup". Some couriers (FedEX, Purolator) seem to have no problem if you tell them you want all deiveries to your address "held for pickup", but your mileage may differ.

[Upscale]

By now, everybody here knows that you can get your orders by UPS, but you're just too damned inept to place an order properly and specify a suitable shipper. It appears your whole life is now dedicated to being a troll. It baffles me how you get satisfaction out of being an ignorant wonder, but there it is.

[jimmy]

[John]

Damn, Jimmy, if you think you have problems now, wait until you grow up.

[jimmy]

I'm certainly not looking forward to it.

[Robatoy]

Hahahahaha *coughs* hahahahaha