The Canada Post in London Drugs threatened to call the police on me...

[Reinhart]

So this just happened, and the title is not clickbait but intended as one because I have some questions I'm really hoping people can answer. (PLEASE LOOK AT THE TLDR: AT THE END OF THE POST)


Background:
For as long as I can remember I've used the US Letter Mail Non-standard and Oversize without any issue. It's $2.95 up to 100g and looks like this:


Never an issue until the one near my home (in London Drugs) got a new employee. She usually works nights and everytime I want to send this out she feels up the mailer and says I can only ship via light packet USA ($6.84).
I tell her it's just a card, cardboard and the plastic is protection so the card/photo does not crease to no avail.
I decided to call CP's CS # right there (1-866-607-6301). Person on the phone just read out what was on the site (asks for the size, weight, dimension) and I told her what was in it and she says it's fine to ship as oversized lettermail 2.95 and does not know why this particular worker won't. Upon hearing that the employee says she'll ship it but I bare all responsibility if something happens.
This was what was on the site, I see nothing stating that I can't use this method to ship.



source: https://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/m...-e.asp#1392028

I thought this was resolved but when I went again she says the same thing (she remembers who I am so it's not like she forgot our last conversation and phone call).
This time she phones a CP employee that works at the store (that I've never had an issue with) and after the call she lets me mail it.

Again, I thought this was over. I go today and she does the same thing. This time she calls the London Drugs employee supervisor (no Canada Post employee) who doesn't know anything about mailing. Not having worked at Canada Post he agrees with her.
It's 7PM pacific and closing time. She can't call another CP employee and it's too late for me to call and wait 25min with CP customer service. I'm too confused (based on past dealings) to even be mad or frustrated.
I tell the LD supervisor that I'm trying to understand why I can't mail it out this way, and I want to know because this place is close to my home and it's never happened.

This is where it gets awkward. So before the LD supervisor was called I've had my phone out recording my pre-stamped packages from eBay.
In the past I'd just take picture of the mailers on the Canada Post desk but I find it faster to just record it. I do this with eBay orders for documentation and keeping a track of things. Canada Post employees are all aware of this (I don't hide it).
He notices and immediately tells me to stop recording and says it's illegal. I stop, he then tells me he needs to see me delete the recording or he will call the police. Before I can even comprehend the situation he has his phone out and has entered 911 hovering his thumb over the dial button.

I'm thinking in my head.. I just went to Canada Post to ship out my eBay and trade stuff and this is surreal. Anyways I deleted it, I had no issues with the LD supervisor after that. He told me if I can get Canada Post to email me in writing something can be done.

So with this particular Canada Post employee I got
-confirmation from Canada Post over the phone
-confirmation from her employee (who has let me ship this way numerous time)
now I need a confirmation via email (gee, I hope this one lasts longer than 1 visit)

TLDR: Can I use US Letter Mail Non-standard and Oversize ($2.95) instead of light packet ($6.84) for:
A young guns with toploader, 2-4 base cards as cardboard protection and a team bag.


If anyone has any suggestion or clarification (perhaps I'm wrong and been mislead) on the rules of Canada Post, or even some #s or email I can call other than the CS line, that would greatly be appreciated.

[cardboardkid]

There is a place called “London Drugs”? My Canada Post will let me mail around 7 cards in top loaders in a bubble mailer.. as long as the weight and thickness are within spec... the thickness is 20 cms... for the $1.80 +tax oversized letter.... anywheres in Canada..... Anytime I send to US because of the top loader it is $6.84 due to the top loader being plastic..it automatically becomes a parcel! if it’s just the cardboard card.. then it would be an oversized letter... that’s what they told me.

[10-4 collector]

Why do you have to go there for? Buy some stamps, (I buy the 1.80$ and 1.20$ stamps and I ask for the green customs stickers) and ship from your house, you probably have a mailbox near your house right? You will never have to deal with incompetent CP workers! ;)

[doniceage]

Sorry to hear this. It amazing how things can differ from one person to another. It would be so simple if a machine made the decision and not a human.

DON

[gfel2795]

That's crazy!! I can't stand the lack of accountability on the postal service....you should be able to record and call attention to the discrepancies. My post offices here in the states are the same...I have a lucky mailbox at the top of my hill that I drop things in to avoid interactions with my post office and possible "arrests" lol. I write Do Not Bend, Fragile, and Non-Machineable all over my stuff and it finds it's destination mostly without incident.

About a month ago, I mailed one of these and they mailed it but some postal employee decided it needed more postage and actually charged the recipient of the mailer the extra postage and held the mailer ransom at the post office.

[Reinhart]

Anytime I send to US because of the top loader it is $6.84 due to the top loader being plastic..it automatically becomes a parcel! if it’s just the cardboard card.. then it would be an oversized letter... that’s what they told me.

They might be right. I wish they mention this on the website (plastic) because it's not there. It just mentions cards are okay (but how can we ship cards without plastic). To add to this confusion is that many of us have been shipping this way without problem and some post office let you do this and some do not. Just want to get to the bottom of this, the last thing I want to do is ship it the wrong way.

Why do you have to go there for? Buy some stamps, (I buy the 1.80$ and 1.20$ stamps and I ask for the green customs stickers) and ship from your house, you probably have a mailbox near your house right? You will never have to deal with incompetent CP workers! ;)

To answer why I made this post: It's 3min walk from home and the other nearest one is 10min + downtown parking. If it was not so convenient I would just give up and not try to find out why there's a discrepancy.

But your suggestion is very helpful, I hadn't even thought about that until making this post. Do you have a link for the customs sticker? Not sure what that is and how it differs from the small packet custom forms.

Right on about the bliss of not dealing with workers or waiting in line. Do you know if the mailers in the PO box are handled by the local post office? I'm hoping only the driver picks them up and it's gone to the big sorting/dispatch facility. That would save me from worrying that the same employee is going to raise an issue.

[Reinhart]

That's crazy!! I can't stand the lack of accountability on the postal service....you should be able to record and call attention to the discrepancies. My post offices here in the states are the same...I have a lucky mailbox at the top of my hill that I drop things in to avoid interactions with my post office and possible "arrests" lol. I write Do Not Bend, Fragile, and Non-Machineable all over my stuff and it finds it's destination mostly without incident.

About a month ago, I mailed one of these and they mailed it but some postal employee decided it needed more postage and actually charged the recipient of the mailer the extra postage and held the mailer ransom at the post office.

Yeah the last thing I expected was being threatened with the police whilst being non confrontational. I'm just trying to quickly ship stuff out and leave.

I've always acknowledged the possibility that she might be right. Hence, I'm trying to figure out the discrepancies and why she's the only one enforcing this "rule". The site doesn't suggest anything is wrong, and the customer service rep sided with me (I think that's meaningless)

[apod417]

About a month ago, I mailed one of these and they mailed it but some postal employee decided it needed more postage and actually charged the recipient of the mailer the extra postage and held the mailer ransom at the post office.

This happens quite often to myself, at least 5-6 times a year I have to pay USPS a ransom and go pick up my card due to not enough postage.

[rydlar99]

It's $2.95 to send an oversized bubble mailer under 100g from Canada to the USA containing cards in top loaders. I've sent probably 10,000+ this way.

I deal with a similar situation, where my CP outlet is inside a Shoppers Drug Mart. I've gotten pretty friendly with the lady working the counter there (pseudo-manager) and she's explained to me that it's just the $2.95 as well as why some employees push for the $6+ tracked packet. I'll get more into that in a second. As far as I can tell, the CP outlet is franchised to the store. In my case, Shoppers owns the franchise rights to the CP desk in their store and the employees of that CP desk are actually Shoppers Drug Mart employees with some additional training. Again, from what I've ascertained, the Shoppers Drug Mart location receives anywhere from 1%-2% of total sales from CP in exchange for operating the desk. This is why they push for the more expensive options when shipping, management at the location has instructed them to do so. Conveniently, this is sometimes why they're understaffed so often (store trying to squeeze every dime). This is also why you should NOT take the London Drugs manager's word as gospel on what you can and cannot ship in the oversized bubble mailer.

I'm fortunate to have a good / honest person working at my location who advised me of this stuff (in her words: "not like I get paid more if you ship it that way, but the store makes a lot more") as she's close to retirement lol.

Hope it helps!

[mingus_md]

It's $2.95 to send an oversized bubble mailer under 100g from Canada to the USA containing cards in top loaders. I've sent probably 10,000+ this way.

I deal with a similar situation, where my CP outlet is inside a Shoppers Drug Mart. I've gotten pretty friendly with the lady working the counter there (pseudo-manager) and she's explained to me that it's just the $2.95 as well as why some employees push for the $6+ tracked packet. I'll get more into that in a second. As far as I can tell, the CP outlet is franchised to the store. In my case, Shoppers owns the franchise rights to the CP desk in their store and the employees of that CP desk are actually Shoppers Drug Mart employees with some additional training. Again, from what I've ascertained, the Shoppers Drug Mart location receives anywhere from 1%-2% of total sales from CP in exchange for operating the desk. This is why they push for the more expensive options when shipping, management at the location has instructed them to do so. Conveniently, this is sometimes why they're understaffed so often (store trying to squeeze every dime). This is also why you should NOT take the London Drugs manager's word as gospel on what you can and cannot ship in the oversized bubble mailer.

I'm fortunate to have a good / honest person working at my location who advised me of this stuff (in her words: "not like I get paid more if you ship it that way, but the store makes a lot more") as she's close to retirement lol.

Hope it helps!

This is good to know. The same thing happened to me when the Canada Post outlet I used to go to closed and I started going to Shoppers. All of a sudden the same mail (couple of cards in a bubble mailer) started costing more to send to the US. I tried explaining that I sent it as a letter last week so why is it a package now, but it didn't work. I gave up going to that location to mail anything.