Buy/Sell/Trade Forum

After mailing numerous bubble envelopes to the USA from Canada, I have recently had two packages returned , requiring additional postage. When I inquired at my post office , they explained that the mailer would have to be sent out as a package ($9) .....  The envelope clearly fell within the parameters of an oversized standard letter , and only weighed .043 Kg .

Using the shipping rates form that I have printed from the Canada post website , the proper postage should be $3.19 + tax ...... which what I have always paid . When I contacted the Canada Post customer service 800 number . the clerk clearly indicated that it does qualify as oversized letter mail and to try shipping it a second time !!!!   You guessed it .  It came back to me again.  I will now try removing it from the bubble mailer , and send the 7 cards in a Birthday type envelope . (as suggested by my customer service rep).

Clearly a case of  Canada Post not following their own website posted mailing criteria and requirements . 

Has anyone else encountered this .... and is there a way to avoid these envelopes being treated as packages  ??

I had that happen a couple of years ago. The clerk where I mailed it could not understand why it had come back. So I removed teh return address and put it back in the mail. It was delivered in normal time. The problem lies in the Missassauga warehouse. Some say it is a customs requirement; that is a b.s. line.

Postage went up in May, are you putting enough postage to meet the new rates? The CPC site is currently down for maintenance, so I'll point you to this post

https://www.tcdb.com/Forum.cfm/Page/G/ID/0/?MODE=VIEW&ThreadID=48026

I basically can't mail an envelope at my local outlet in person without being told it's a package. 

As soon as it has the slightest rigidness to it, they refuse it as a standard mail.

I won't go the counter anymore, just drop in a box and hope. For a while about 6 months ago or so I got a string of return to sender but haven't lately.

I'm at the point where I will even overpay on postage with the stamps that can be bought (1.15 + a P which is now 0.99 = 2.14 to cover the new 2.09 rate in Canada etc) rather than get a label done for the exact amount 

The Canada Post clerk told my sister & I that this year, the USA are now more strict about incoming mail,

there was a lot of mail that you could send as regular lettermail which now has to be called a parcel/package,

& Canada Post was getting a lot of mail returned from the USA.

This is the very reason that I stopped trading with US collectors. The cost and hassle of dealing with the postal systems is not worth it. I have made a couple of trades to the US lately, but only if I am sending 1-3 cards there. Otherwise I risk the worry of them coming back. I wish it wasn't this way, as I have made many great trades with US collectors, but I just can't do it anymore.

I am mailing it directly at my Canada Post office.  It isn't so much a matter of proper postage , as it is about whether the bubble mailer is considered letter or parcel . Obviously others are having no problem sending as a standard oversized letter . And as I previously stated or 100 such mailers have gone out the same way in the past year without having any returned .

'Obviously others are having no problem sending as a standard oversized letter'.

all of mine that were returned were standard envelopes, not bubble mailers. I got returns for stuff sent to Canada, the US and internationally. I checked and double checked, the envelopes I use are smaller than the maximum permitted size listed on the Canada Post website.

They constantly came back with stickers saying something like invalid mail format. I finally went into the counter and asked what was up, and was told as soon as there is anything other than paper in the envelope, it becomes a package.

Yes, but now the US is getting more strict. 

It happened to me too, several times about 6-8 months ago, both for PWE sent to the US or oversea. 

So now for trade outside of Canada, it's either larger trade (to make it worth the "parcel" cost) or no more than 15 cards per PWE (protected in 9-pockets wrapped in a sheet of paper -no cardboard-. For trade of 6 cards of less, they are inserted in a greeting cards. 

I didn't have any problem... yet.