A text byIsabelle Roberge
Last August, Danny Rossy let himself be tempted by a small monocular telescope. Perfect for birding from a distance, he told himself.
Danny clicked to confirm his transaction online through PayPal. Total: almost $ 90, including delivery in a luxury package. It only remained to wait for the delivery from China.
For weeks, the La Prairie resident watched with growing impatience the comings and goings of another bird: his Canada Post mailman.
Wasted effort. Some three months later, he still hadn’t received anything.
In November, dissatisfied, Danny Rossy contacted Paypal to obtain a refund, as allowed by Quebec law.
However, his request was refused.
They explained to me that the supplier had provided proof of delivery, a Canada Post tracking number. (The package) would have arrived at our place on October 8th.
Danny Rossy never got the telescope he ordered from the internet
Photo: Radio-Canada
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Like Danny Rossy, about fifteen viewers contacted The bill in recent months, dissatisfied with Canada Post services. They claim they were never able to get their hands on their package – either stolen, lost, or delivered to the wrong address.
However, when they entered the tracking number associated with the package into the verification system on the Canada Post website, the package was considered delivered.
It is this box that the postman checks on his terminal once he has left the parcel at a doorstep or in a locker of a community box.
Under the Quebec law on consumer protection, a consumer must contact the merchant who wants to be reimbursed for not having received a good ordered online or by telephone.
But several of the people we spoke to encountered a refusal from the merchant, who pointed out to them that the mention delivered
of Canada Post had indeed been checked, that the contract had therefore been respected.
Some therefore gave up and took responsibility for the loss.
No signature to cross-check
In Danny Rossy’s case, the telescope supplier specifically required the postman to sign the receipt upon delivery, but this was not done.
This is because, since the start of the pandemic, the mail carriers at Canada Post have applied the new policy: ring, drop, quit
.
Delivery employees will knock or ring the doorbell, choose the safest place to drop off the item, then go to the following address, the company explains in a press release, citing health reasons. This change eliminates signatures at the door and significantly reduces the number of packages sent to our post offices for pickup.
.
A Canada Post delivery vehicle
Photo: Radio-Canada / MARC GODBOUT
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Fedex and UPS have also suspended signature on delivery. However, they require their delivery people to contact the recipient and ask for their verbal consent or name.
Even Purolator, the private branch of Canada Post Corporation, is taking this precaution.
But in the case of Canada Post, without a signature or verbal verification of the recipient associated with the tracking number, how can the consumer then prove that he has not received his package?
Accountable traders, but without means
Under these conditions, the jeweler of Trois-Rivières, Krystel Levasseur, finds it absurd that she is held responsible for a situation beyond her control.
I gave my package to Canada Post. I am unable to track my package until final delivery. However, it is I who am responsible for ensuring that my client, who lives in Sherbrooke or Montreal or Laval, for example, receives his package.
Krystel Levasseur is the owner of the rare La Perle jewelry store in the Trois-Rivières region.
Photo: Radio-Canada
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With the lockdown, the owner of La Perle Rare has seen her in-store sales plummet and her online sales increase. And with that, the number of complaints from customers who, despite a mention delivered
Canada Post, said they had not received their order.
Worried about her reputation, the jeweler decided to send them another package or refund them. It estimates its losses at between 10% and 15% of its sales because of these inconveniences.
More packages… more errors?
For small and medium-sized businesses like Krystel’s, Canada Post is the only affordable way to make the transition to e-commerce, as private competitors deliver small packages for two to three times the price.
Due to the pandemic, Canada Post has seen the number of parcels sent by SMEs increase by 50% in 2020.
Small traders are already struggling to compete with Amazon. These delivery problems are a second thorn in the side for them
, remarks Jean-François Ouellet, expert in online commerce.
The Associate Professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at HEC Montréal has long been interested in the business model of Crown corporations.
A delivery made by Canada Post.
Photo : Radio-Canada / Guy LeBlanc
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Since the start of the pandemic, Canada Post has delivered at least 30% more parcels than usual. During the holidays, it even saw its daily record double: 2.4 million packages delivered on December 21 alone.
For broker Buster Fetcher, this has translated into a significant increase in delays at Canada Post.
Buster Fetcher director and founder Matt Lessard compiles delivery statistics. During the first wave, he notes, the crown corporation delivered up to 40% of its late packages, a rate on average twice that of Purolator. In the second wave, that figure was 20%.
Buster Fetcher helps customers claim refunds when shipping companies deliver late.
By email, Canada Post deplores the situation regrettable
raised by Danny Rossy.
She suggests that Canadians subscribe to her FlexDelivery service, a free service that allows customers to have their packages shipped directly to the post office of their choice
, indicates its spokesperson, Sylvie Lapointe.
The Crown corporation ensures otherwise improve continuously the experience of its customers in terms of parcel tracking.
We offer faster updates and capture more data, which makes the flow of packages through our network more visible.
, she argues.
But for Jean-François Ouellet, the FlexiDelivery solution is only one cosmetic arrangement
: in a way, it is a certain disempowerment of the crown corporation.
Canada Post missed a good opportunity to show that they were capable of increasing their level of service.
Jean-François Ouellet, associate professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at HEC Montréal
Photo: Radio-Canada
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Canada Post’s tracking system is its major weakness compared to other competitors
, explains the professor.
UPS and other FedEx, particularly in Canada, he said, have invested heavily in their tracking system in recent years. They have real-time technology that, once again, Canada Post cannot really compete with.
Her Majesty the Queen is not responsible
The HEC Montreal professor agrees that the explosion in online commerce has put pressure on all delivery companies. But in the case of private companies, they have a financial interest in fixing the problem.
, he argues.
In addition, the Crown Corporation benefits from a legal exception. Section 40 of the Canada Post Corporation Act states that neither Her Majesty, the Minister, nor the Company shall be liable for any loss, delay or processing error suffered by anything that has been posted
.
This exception has been the rule since the 1960s and is invoked in almost all cases in which Canada Post is accused of a breach.
Without recourse, the jeweler Krystel Levasseur had had enough. She decided to make the deliveries herself in the Trois-Rivières region. Her extended family was even involved.
As for Danny Rossy, he finally managed to get a refund from his credit card issuer, asking for a chargeback, not without having had a long debate with him.
He still had to challenge the challenges of his bank twice.
And seven months later, he has finally received a telescope, ordered a second time, but delivered this time by another shipping company.
The report by journalist François Sanche, research journalist Isabelle Roberge and director Stéphanie Desforges of the show The bill airs Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
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