** UPDATE - December 9, 2024 **
Sad to say but there has been zero progress as far as we can tell on this dispute. We feel so bad for customers who have their orders being held 'hostage' by both parties. We are unable to retrieve them from the Canada Post network and we cannot cancel their delivery since the delivery will complete when they finally return to work. This does not allow us to send out replacement orders, if that is even possible with seasonal products running out already.
We are using couriers at the moment, but they are a little more expensive. We definitely will continue to offer courier service going forward because we will never trust Canada Post again.
** UPDATED - November 26, 2024 **
Reports are that both sides in this strike are still "far apart" on a settlement. This is a major disappointment to small businesses like ourselves and to the many customers who rely on the services of Canada Post. Our goal now is to salvage what we can of the holiday season for our customers and our business.
As of this morning, we have disabled ALL Canada Post shipping options for our store. We no longer feel they can get any new orders delivered by Christmas. We will now only offer Ground Courier for delivery. This has been done a day earlier than planned but, there seems little point in waiting with no good news from Canada Post and the CUPW.
Unfortunately, we will also be suspending shipments to the USA until we find an affordable alternative.
We will be going through the orders we already have packed and ready for Canada Post. We will locate the ones that contain seasonal products (selection boxes, boxes of biscuits, Christmas puddings and cakes, ornaments, etc) and we will be upgrading them to courier service at our expense. Hopefully we will get that backlog cleared by this week and get the packages to their destinations well in time for Christmas.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
** UPDATED - November 20,2024 **
There has been little progress towards resolving this strike and the shopping window for the holidays is going to start closing soon.
As of this morning, we are adding a Ground Courier shipping option to our store. While a bit more than Canada Post, the couriers are shipping and you can be assured you will get your order before the holidays.
We are still leaving the Canada Post options active on our site if you still want to use them as an option. Who knows, saner heads may finally prevail.
** UPDATED - November 15, 2024 **
At 12:01am this morning, CUPW announced that their members are on strike, effective immediately and as a result, Canada Post announced its operations will shut down.
As of today, packages will not be picked up at our location. Orders that are already in transit will stop moving until the strike is settled.
Now that the strike is official, we are confident that a resolution will not be far away.
As stated below, we will continue to accept and pack orders for shipment. The backlog will begin building today and we want our customers to be as close to the front of the queue as possible.
** Important ** If you are ordering crisps (potato chips), we advise you only to order those that are designated as 'festive' products. Regular crisps have dates that could run out before you receive your package. We will not be responsible for the Best Before dates of regular crisps ordered during this labour disruption.
We also strongly encourage customers who can to use our Free Click & Collect Pickup service.
Please check back for regular updates and thank you for your understanding.
For the past month we have been looking at alternatives for shipping but have not found any affordable carriers that go everywhere in the country. Most of the brand name couriers will charge 3 to 4 times the price of Canada Post, charge extra for residential deliveries and do not deliver to PO Boxes. If you live in a remote area of the country, most of these couriers do not even go there.
If there is a strike, we are confident it will not be a long one considering how important this time of year is to both Canada Post and its workers. The last time there was a labour disruption close to Christmas, Canada Post lost a number of customers that did come not back.
For now, we will continue to accept and pack orders as usual. This will ensure your orders will already be in the queue when the strike ends. This is very important as any labour disruption will create a backlog. You are better off being in the backlog as opposed to waiting for it to clear.
We will constantly monitor the strike process and if there appears that there will not be a resolution in time for guaranteed Christmas delivery, we will stop accepting orders for shipping and find some way to deliver the orders we have packed or, issue refunds where necessary.
If it is at all possible, we strongly encourage you to use our FREE Click & Collect Pickup option. Save yourself a bit of money and guarantee you will have your items in time for the holidays!