Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Oddly, another member (who I sent some free stamps to at the same time) emailed me yesterday that the envelope arrived with significant damage to the stamps (and yet none of them were actually cancelled). The damage is a new development but reports of non-cancellation seems to be consistent!
We have had problems with our local (privatized) postal outlet in the past year - and there has been the usual ongoing minor vandalism to our neighborhood post box as well, so I am going to lodge a complaint, for whatever it is worth.
But wondering...is this a local problem or are we (especially Canadians) finding this to be an issue?
Thanks, Dave.
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Interesting. I myself have stopped using a "Soundcrest House" rubber stamp for my return address on anything shipped outside the US. I'm using personal return address labels, and when I run out of those, then I will use my wifes! I have heard of no problems from anyone I have sent since this new customs think went into effect.
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Over the last year or so Canadian mail that I receive that does carry an actual postage stamp at least half the time arrives uncancalled.Also over the same time period registered mail from outside Canada simply is treated as regular mail and placed in my community mail box without signature.I collect Sir Winston churchill and the most inexpensive dealer that I have found resides in Latvia and originally he sent material by registered mail.When I pointed out to him his registered packages were being delivered without signature and he was an easy mark for a PayPal clawback,he began to send material regular mail without any problems whatsoever.While we are ragging on Canada Post,a significant number of them are numerically challenged.I sell some weighty items for delivery to the USA which require a few dollars of postage so I try to assemble a group of commemoratives and this might mean 8 to 10 stamps on a package........several times I have had the package returned with an insufficient postage note when in fact the amount was accurate. Jim
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Most of the mentioned shortfalls can be observed here as well. As mentioned about half of the domestic mail with stamps on it will arrive with the stamps uncancelled. However, if I mail letters, this almost never happens, because our guys in town know what they are doing.
I also had some registered mail get delivered as regular mail. The most disturbing case was when birth certificates coming from Europe were delivered this way, about 3 months after they were mailed.
But I managed to put myself in a goofy situation this year after complaining to one PO outlet about my registered mail from Poland being delivered without a signature from me, only to find out that my wife had signed for all those packages that I found at home. From a sender's point of view, it might be still beneficial to use registered mail, as this has coverage no matter how the letter is delivered or not delivered at all.
Opened letters? Yes, I had a number of letters being inspected by Canada Customs. All of them from just one particular seller in the Netherlands. (Looking for drugs?) The strange procedure they had was, they would mail me a declaration that they had detained one of my letters, and would ask my permission to open it (can't remember what the alternatives were). Once I had agreed, they inspected the contents and finally delivered the letter to me with a month or two of delays.
But the biggest issue I had with Canada Post was over their terrible, supersized self adhesive stickers that they affixed on top of the nice stamps on all my registered mail, thus destroying the stamps. This resulted in quite a fight and they improved dramatically after that.
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The last two envelopes I received from Canada arrived intact - the contents were in perfect condition.
The stamps on the outside were another story - on one envelope, they were torn, and the other had no cancellation anywhere.
This doesn't seem to be much different than items mailed in the US though.
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08:14:58pm
I have dealt with friends north of the border,
buying and trading stamps and sometimes
just corresponding for 40 or 50 years.
Possibly one or two envelopes may have been
opened by customs on one side of the border
or another, but I really do not recall
seeing any notice ( An event ) that
would/might stick in my mind.
There was pilferage of a $10.00 bill
sent north to pay an invoice
a year or two ago but I have no idea
which side of the border that occurred.
I have noticed that envelopes from various
Canadian friends are seldom cancelled,
and when they are, usually the cancel is light
and sometimes reasonably applied. Not so
with US mail that quite often bears
the professionally designed smeared image
or ish ga bibbleish verbiage.
I have no recollection of any envelopes
coming south that were damaged by being
torn open or scribbled on, prior to getting here.
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The second envelope Dave mentions was sent to me;
It arrived with no cancels at all on the cover anywhere and two of the stamps were damaged - one torn beyond half.
Contents were fine.
Here is the (edited) image;
And as Sally mentioned, we seem to have those same issues here in the states quite often.
Damaged stamps on covers or damaged covers themselves and either no machine cancel or black marker obliteration (spelled 'destroyed')
A final thought -
no way to know just when the damage occurred along the way...either end could be responsible.
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Ahhh..."cancel by mutilation", there's a new tactic.
Just wondering, do you folks in Canada(and other countries for that matter) have the option of taking mail to your local P.O. and requesting it be hand cancelled?
WB
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Can't say I have seen some of the lack of cancellations problems or receiving registered mail without a signature, but I have received a number of letters over the last year or so that have been cancelled with a ballpoint pen which irritated me a lot.
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I have noticed that most of the mail I receive from Canada is uncancelled. Other countries are either nicely cancelled or have the sharpie treatment.
Sometimes you have to shake your head. I do some business with a seller in Fargo which is about a one hour drive. Mail takes 2 or 3 days to arrive. I just recently bought some stamps from a dealer in France that arrived in 5 days and it was nicely cancelled.
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I too have gotten an envelope from Dave uncanceled. I have to remember to return the stamp to him. It does not look like it will peel off easily as ours do, the stamp may soak off
Greg
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After reading this post I went and looked at some of the envelopes that I have received from Canada, and sure enough, no cancel.
Guess I'm lucky. For over 20 years I have sent and received stamps in the mail and have never had them lost. (knock on wood)
My only complaint is why does it take so long for mail from Canada to reach me? (Atlanta, GA. USA)
Most of the time it's over 2 weeks to get to me, and sometimes longer. I get mail from Australia faster then that. Just wondering why, no big deal it always gets here.
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"Just wondering, do you folks in Canada(and other countries for that matter) have the option of taking mail to your local P.O. and requesting it be hand cancelled?"
Yep,
But my PO is 20 km away so it does not always happen and also I get "BIRO" cancels often.
Cheers
Steve.
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I'm wondering about date ranges. For example, before August 10, 1974, I rare saw envelopes that were uncanceled or canceled with a black pen, etc.
When did this start?
Bruce
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In Canada it started after high speed facer canceler were installed. These machine if they detect the tagging on the stamp then it gets cancelled, but sometime it misses a stamp and the cost of hand cancel does not make it cost efficient.
Doug
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Re cancels - I also find that stamps are uncancelled (or pen cancelled) on a lot of the mail I receive in country.
For that reason, I always walk my letters to the main PO here and specifically request the clerks "hand cancel" my philatelic mail. Fortunately, I live near enough the PO to be able to do that. (And the I have established a good relationship with all the clerks - so sometimes they ask "hand cancel?" before I open my mouth). Sadly, the special cancel that they did have here has been decommissioned, so the best they can do is the local rubber "box" canceller.
However, in my lifetime I think we are at a historic low point as far as Canada Post servicing collectors of used stamps. Sad, but everything is based on economics these days, and there is no payback to the PO for putting nice cancels on the mail.
Eric
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I will say, though, that there is a thriving market in uncancelled postage in Canada. I wonder if Canada Post figures that into their economic calculations?
Eric
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"I always walk my letters to the main PO here and specifically request the clerks "hand cancel" my philatelic mail."
I wish I were able to always do that!
I live in a small town so it isn't far to the local P.O., but still being in the full-time work force, I am seldom able get to the P.O. and never regularly....one of the benefits of retirement, I'm thinking!
Also, as far as getting mail hand-cancelled - that is "like pulling teeth" to coin a phrase.
All too often I have to explain the postal procedures and regs TO THE CLERK just to get a hand cancel on something, which often doesn't happen because they think I am wrong and refuse to do so.
Sometimes I think pulling teeth would even be easier....
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In today's mail I received an envelope sent to another member a couple weeks ago. It had been opened and re-sealed with tape, but there was no notation from Customs or any official "Return to Sender" stamp. It also appears that some stamps may have been removed. Since this was a trade, and not a sale, it is a PITA but at least I can replicate it without too much fuss (other than the time factor).
Oddly, another member (who I sent some free stamps to at the same time) emailed me yesterday that the envelope arrived with significant damage to the stamps (and yet none of them were actually cancelled). The damage is a new development but reports of non-cancellation seems to be consistent!
We have had problems with our local (privatized) postal outlet in the past year - and there has been the usual ongoing minor vandalism to our neighborhood post box as well, so I am going to lodge a complaint, for whatever it is worth.
But wondering...is this a local problem or are we (especially Canadians) finding this to be an issue?
Thanks, Dave.
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re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
Interesting. I myself have stopped using a "Soundcrest House" rubber stamp for my return address on anything shipped outside the US. I'm using personal return address labels, and when I run out of those, then I will use my wifes! I have heard of no problems from anyone I have sent since this new customs think went into effect.
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03:05:49pm
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re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
Over the last year or so Canadian mail that I receive that does carry an actual postage stamp at least half the time arrives uncancalled.Also over the same time period registered mail from outside Canada simply is treated as regular mail and placed in my community mail box without signature.I collect Sir Winston churchill and the most inexpensive dealer that I have found resides in Latvia and originally he sent material by registered mail.When I pointed out to him his registered packages were being delivered without signature and he was an easy mark for a PayPal clawback,he began to send material regular mail without any problems whatsoever.While we are ragging on Canada Post,a significant number of them are numerically challenged.I sell some weighty items for delivery to the USA which require a few dollars of postage so I try to assemble a group of commemoratives and this might mean 8 to 10 stamps on a package........several times I have had the package returned with an insufficient postage note when in fact the amount was accurate. Jim
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this post
Approvals
re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
Most of the mentioned shortfalls can be observed here as well. As mentioned about half of the domestic mail with stamps on it will arrive with the stamps uncancelled. However, if I mail letters, this almost never happens, because our guys in town know what they are doing.
I also had some registered mail get delivered as regular mail. The most disturbing case was when birth certificates coming from Europe were delivered this way, about 3 months after they were mailed.
But I managed to put myself in a goofy situation this year after complaining to one PO outlet about my registered mail from Poland being delivered without a signature from me, only to find out that my wife had signed for all those packages that I found at home. From a sender's point of view, it might be still beneficial to use registered mail, as this has coverage no matter how the letter is delivered or not delivered at all.
Opened letters? Yes, I had a number of letters being inspected by Canada Customs. All of them from just one particular seller in the Netherlands. (Looking for drugs?) The strange procedure they had was, they would mail me a declaration that they had detained one of my letters, and would ask my permission to open it (can't remember what the alternatives were). Once I had agreed, they inspected the contents and finally delivered the letter to me with a month or two of delays.
But the biggest issue I had with Canada Post was over their terrible, supersized self adhesive stickers that they affixed on top of the nice stamps on all my registered mail, thus destroying the stamps. This resulted in quite a fight and they improved dramatically after that.
Login to Like
this post
re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
The last two envelopes I received from Canada arrived intact - the contents were in perfect condition.
The stamps on the outside were another story - on one envelope, they were torn, and the other had no cancellation anywhere.
This doesn't seem to be much different than items mailed in the US though.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
16 Apr 2018
08:14:58pm
re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
I have dealt with friends north of the border,
buying and trading stamps and sometimes
just corresponding for 40 or 50 years.
Possibly one or two envelopes may have been
opened by customs on one side of the border
or another, but I really do not recall
seeing any notice ( An event ) that
would/might stick in my mind.
There was pilferage of a $10.00 bill
sent north to pay an invoice
a year or two ago but I have no idea
which side of the border that occurred.
I have noticed that envelopes from various
Canadian friends are seldom cancelled,
and when they are, usually the cancel is light
and sometimes reasonably applied. Not so
with US mail that quite often bears
the professionally designed smeared image
or ish ga bibbleish verbiage.
I have no recollection of any envelopes
coming south that were damaged by being
torn open or scribbled on, prior to getting here.
Login to Like
this post
re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
The second envelope Dave mentions was sent to me;
It arrived with no cancels at all on the cover anywhere and two of the stamps were damaged - one torn beyond half.
Contents were fine.
Here is the (edited) image;
And as Sally mentioned, we seem to have those same issues here in the states quite often.
Damaged stamps on covers or damaged covers themselves and either no machine cancel or black marker obliteration (spelled 'destroyed')
A final thought -
no way to know just when the damage occurred along the way...either end could be responsible.
Login to Like
this post
re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
Ahhh..."cancel by mutilation", there's a new tactic.
Just wondering, do you folks in Canada(and other countries for that matter) have the option of taking mail to your local P.O. and requesting it be hand cancelled?
WB
Login to Like
this post
re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
Can't say I have seen some of the lack of cancellations problems or receiving registered mail without a signature, but I have received a number of letters over the last year or so that have been cancelled with a ballpoint pen which irritated me a lot.
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re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
I have noticed that most of the mail I receive from Canada is uncancelled. Other countries are either nicely cancelled or have the sharpie treatment.
Sometimes you have to shake your head. I do some business with a seller in Fargo which is about a one hour drive. Mail takes 2 or 3 days to arrive. I just recently bought some stamps from a dealer in France that arrived in 5 days and it was nicely cancelled.
Login to Like
this post
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re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
I too have gotten an envelope from Dave uncanceled. I have to remember to return the stamp to him. It does not look like it will peel off easily as ours do, the stamp may soak off
Greg
Login to Like
this post
re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
After reading this post I went and looked at some of the envelopes that I have received from Canada, and sure enough, no cancel.
Guess I'm lucky. For over 20 years I have sent and received stamps in the mail and have never had them lost. (knock on wood)
My only complaint is why does it take so long for mail from Canada to reach me? (Atlanta, GA. USA)
Most of the time it's over 2 weeks to get to me, and sometimes longer. I get mail from Australia faster then that. Just wondering why, no big deal it always gets here.
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Approvals
re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
"Just wondering, do you folks in Canada(and other countries for that matter) have the option of taking mail to your local P.O. and requesting it be hand cancelled?"
Yep,
But my PO is 20 km away so it does not always happen and also I get "BIRO" cancels often.
Cheers
Steve.
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this post
05:51:06pm
re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
I'm wondering about date ranges. For example, before August 10, 1974, I rare saw envelopes that were uncanceled or canceled with a black pen, etc.
When did this start?
Bruce
Login to Like
this post
Auctions
re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
In Canada it started after high speed facer canceler were installed. These machine if they detect the tagging on the stamp then it gets cancelled, but sometime it misses a stamp and the cost of hand cancel does not make it cost efficient.
Doug
Login to Like
this post
08:56:28am
Approvals
re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
Re cancels - I also find that stamps are uncancelled (or pen cancelled) on a lot of the mail I receive in country.
For that reason, I always walk my letters to the main PO here and specifically request the clerks "hand cancel" my philatelic mail. Fortunately, I live near enough the PO to be able to do that. (And the I have established a good relationship with all the clerks - so sometimes they ask "hand cancel?" before I open my mouth). Sadly, the special cancel that they did have here has been decommissioned, so the best they can do is the local rubber "box" canceller.
However, in my lifetime I think we are at a historic low point as far as Canada Post servicing collectors of used stamps. Sad, but everything is based on economics these days, and there is no payback to the PO for putting nice cancels on the mail.
Eric
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this post
08:58:12am
Approvals
re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
I will say, though, that there is a thriving market in uncancelled postage in Canada. I wonder if Canada Post figures that into their economic calculations?
Eric
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this post
re: Fellow Canadians: Have you noticed any recent service shortfalls?
"I always walk my letters to the main PO here and specifically request the clerks "hand cancel" my philatelic mail."
I wish I were able to always do that!
I live in a small town so it isn't far to the local P.O., but still being in the full-time work force, I am seldom able get to the P.O. and never regularly....one of the benefits of retirement, I'm thinking!
Also, as far as getting mail hand-cancelled - that is "like pulling teeth" to coin a phrase.
All too often I have to explain the postal procedures and regs TO THE CLERK just to get a hand cancel on something, which often doesn't happen because they think I am wrong and refuse to do so.
Sometimes I think pulling teeth would even be easier....
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