Gripe about Canada Post - collection from my project logs

Projects / Project Swiftlet  

And I thought Canada Post is bad, but there seems to be some China Post delays... Shipment hasn't even showed up at Canada Post's hand yet. Pretty scary stuff at the forum. Might have to open dispute for my motors as I don't see being able to get them before my buyer protection runs out.

Okay. I changed my mind Canada Post is also bad! They are running late. I don't think they have a working time machine either.

It is finally on out for delivery status too. It sure takes a very long time for the package to arrive from Toronto to Ottawa. Hint: It is only a 1 hour flight. I had packages from Canada Post that turns up in 1 business day before.

So far, I have seen 1 of my regular shipment from Banggood late for 1 week and another is 2 weeks past due based on their history. These all seem to happen since last month. The 2 weeks past due shipment is plastic washers, so it is not a safety/prohibited item issue.

Editorial note:

This is foreshadowing for the norm these days.

When it come to bad service, Canada Post is constantly reaching for the bottom.  How I wish they still have tracking or these type of delivery time.  They have moved up the date unit to the next and multiplied the numbers too.  

Saw this - order not received

Saw this - new policy
China Post announced a new policy since November 2014 that parcels with magnetic items, including headphone, radio, scanner ... will cause safety problem to airline and therefore not allowed to be shipped by airmail.

Motors, speakers and my neo magnets are magnetic. :(

Appendix: China Post Forbidden Item List

• Battery item such as Mobile Phone, Walkie Talkie,Laptop, tablet,iPad etc.

That could explain why my camera battery order went to Sweden and got mailed from there. Round trip around the world took 8 weeks while the replacement for the late package sneaked pass the postal system and arrived in 5 weeks.

Might have to rethink my ordering and project strategy. I can certainly drop the motor for prototype and use dollar store head phones speakers for now. I have a provision for Alkaline/NiMH AA cell and have a few LiFePO battery as well as some LiPo (non 14500) on hand, so no major changes there.

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They bulk shipped the speaker package with the airline. Their bulk package arrived in Vancouver 20 days ago, but have no further activities. May be I would see the speakers eventually. Still no updates on the motor packages. These Chinese sellers do not reply to email inquiries. The package did arrived today (a month later).

Meanwhile the motor packages is in limbo.

How I missed tracking.  :(  Probably they removed it to hide embarrism.

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Original post date: 08/13/2015

The bare PCB is still in limbo somewhere in Vancouver between some dark corners of a warehouse, Canada Post. There might be also be a case that Canada Post forgot to put on the bar code so it disappeared off their radar. My other PCB order that was shipped 2 days earlier has been sitting in Customs limbo since 4th Aug. There seems to be a common theme here.

The wait time at Vancouver customs can easily be 3 weeks or more. Even though this package has $12 US value and should be duty free, it still have to wait it out in the bench as the Customs people answered to no one. See this thread at Red Flag Deals for horror stories of our overly paid civil servants - some waited 6 weeks for that.

In either case, it is not showing up any time soon. So I am going to have to make some alternate plans.

What I am going to do is continue the firmware development on a different platform. If I plan my code carefully, I can still do some code development. ChibiOS has hard abstraction layer and basic hardware drivers. Even then some of the low level stuff are quite different. The application level code should be the same.

1. The closest target: Teensy LC is bricked due to ChibiOS bug.
2. I managed to get ChibiOS 3.0.0 demo code running on my STM32F103 based Canadian Maid project.
3. I also have a STM32F0 Discovery board.
4. I could order a Freescale Freedom FRDM-KL26Z. This also uses the same MEMS sensor. Cost $28 + $8 shipping from digikey
5. I could order a new batch of PCB and use DHL. That should take ~ 1 week, Cost $12 US + $20 US shipping. Cost some extra coins if I also need another set of board for my other project.

Options 2-3 are short term solutions as they cost $0 and I can start right now. I am proceeding with the STM32F103 option. Due to the tight space, I don't have much luck (yet) with a toner transfer for the MEMS sensor. Might have to do a dead bug for it at some point if I need it bad enough. Option 4 is the alternative to that.

By the end of the month, I'll talk to the supplier again and might be able to get a refund if the PCB is still MIA and no tracking. There is also a case if my other PCB hasn't arrive and the supplier is nice enough to get me a refund. I might just combine both design on the same PCB and cut it manually. I had a lot of issues with DHL and the supplier customs declaration paper works, but at least I know that they'll get here in about a week and I can sort out a refund later. I may even try out that new place that spammed me.