Canada Post irritation!

[Powerforward]

I've always been charged $1.34 to send a single card in top loader and #000 envelope (4in X 8in). Having said that, I've received a few with just a 63 cent stamp.

[icefields]

i still can use the 63 cent stamps.
what i do is go to a postal outlet and ask the lady behind the desk to date stamp the envelope. that seems to work for me never had one come back since i started doing this.

[chakhae1]

I think you have been extremely lucky up until now to get away with just putting 1 stamp on a single card transaction. I always go to the post office and have them weigh and measure everything I send out and I always pay over $2 if I am sending in Canada and this has been the case since a few years ago when the price of postage went up.

[xahax]

I got a card ready to ship yesterday. I used the 4 x 8 post office bubble mailer (I think thats the size,it is$1.49 at the PO. Just a single card in a top loader. Put 2 63 cent stamps on it and away i went. I asked her to weigh it, it was fine and ok for the "slot". I asked if i overdid it with the 2 stamps, she said yes 1 would do.

[joshpackham]

I could be wrong but I also think it makes a difference, in whether you are sending "paper" documents or not, one post office employee told me if it's just paper you can get away with the cheaper shipping, but because a top loader is a little more rigid it can't go as letter or something like that

[kylemclaren7]

Okay, so I actually WORK for CP; let's correct everyone here. If you are sending anything with value, by CP standards it CANNOT go regular letter mail... but nobody ever enforces that unless they're very anal and bitter lol.

The mail slot (the smaller of the two slots) is 63cents domestically, but the envelope is supposed to easily get through. A single non-jersey card in a bubble mailer needs a litte bit of force to get it through that slot, hence why most ppl charge the oversized price (1.34)

BUT THERE IS A TRICK. If you get the person working to print off a label, and get them to date stamp it, IT WILL GO THROUGH FOR 63 CENTS. I have printed off labels for myself for the regular letter rate for both Canada and the US, and have a card sent to Germany that I am waiting on it getting there for 2.10 as opposed to almost $5. I will let you know it that one gets there or returned to me.

What happens is basically even if it's a little too thick, the fact that its printed and stamped means that it won't be returned because "a post office made the mistake"... so they push it through knowing it was on their end, not on the consumers end.

In conclusion, get the postal clerk to print a metered label and stamp it for you. This will only work for regular sized cards in a top loader, nothing thicker at ALL, but will save you lots of money in the long term :)

[kylemclaren7]

As I wrote this, got positive eBay feedback for the card sent to Germany, cost me 2.10 instead of 4.96 (tax included in prices).... over 50% savings in shipping because I printed the labels myself!

[AndrewZachary]

Okay, so I actually WORK for CP; let's correct everyone here. If you are sending anything with value, by CP standards it CANNOT go regular letter mail... but nobody ever enforces that unless they're very anal and bitter lol.

The mail slot (the smaller of the two slots) is 63cents domestically, but the envelope is supposed to easily get through. A single non-jersey card in a bubble mailer needs a litte bit of force to get it through that slot, hence why most ppl charge the oversized price (1.34)

BUT THERE IS A TRICK. If you get the person working to print off a label, and get them to date stamp it, IT WILL GO THROUGH FOR 63 CENTS. I have printed off labels for myself for the regular letter rate for both Canada and the US, and have a card sent to Germany that I am waiting on it getting there for 2.10 as opposed to almost $5. I will let you know it that one gets there or returned to me.

What happens is basically even if it's a little too thick, the fact that its printed and stamped means that it won't be returned because "a post office made the mistake"... so they push it through knowing it was on their end, not on the consumers end.

In conclusion, get the postal clerk to print a metered label and stamp it for you. This will only work for regular sized cards in a top loader, nothing thicker at ALL, but will save you lots of money in the long term :)

That's what I had been doing and what prompted my original post. I used to just go to the post office with a 63 cent stamp and they would stamp it and off the cards went. Based on that, I assumed everything was aokay with the postage so I just started putting the mailers in the mailbox, I didn't know I was doing a trick at the post office prior haha.