Online shoppers irked by delivery delays caused by backlog at postal processing centre

Online shoppers discouraged by delivery delays Some online shoppers are waiting a long time for their packages to arrive from overseas because of backlogs at the border. Lea Williams-Doherty explains…

People who purchase products online have likely experienced long shipping delays on packages from overseas and for many it can be frustrating trying to track down the merchandise.

CTV Calgary’s Consumer Specialist Lea Williams-Doherty looked into the delivery delays and found out that the holdup is here in Canada.

Jurgen Kraus has ordered electronics from Asia for years and says that since last fall, packages that used to take one month now take up to five.

Kraus learned of a Russian website that somehow accesses Canada Post’s international tracking numbers, which customers aren't given, and managed to trace several parcels.

He says in every case, his packages arrived in Canada within two weeks and then sat at either Canada Post or Canada Border Services Agency for months.

“It’s the current practice, there's discussion groups on the internet.  As I said, the longest shipment somebody reported was last Friday, it took half a year and one day,” said Kraus. “I talked to middle management, the problem is they don't really know what's going on.”

Online forums are full of irate Canadian shoppers with the same problem.

Lea asked Canada Post about the holdup and in an email the postal agency said...

"Canada Post prioritizes those items that are time sensitive based on the shipping selected by the purchaser.  International items that do not have specific delivery expectations are processed each day."

Canada Post has been more candid with angry customers and in an email, a senior executive confirms that processing backlogs at Canada Post's new Vancouver Pacific Processing Centre are causing ongoing delivery delays on parcels coming from Asia.

A postal union VP quantified that delay in a January 2017 webpost stating that 76 trailers of overseas packets were sitting untouched at the processing centre.

The postal union's spokesperson confirmed to CTV News that backlogs are routine and says there's now 30 to 40 unprocessed trailers.

The union blames the CBSA for taking too long to clear international shipments.

“We cannot process the mail unless CBSA releases for us. So it all depends on how fast they work,” said Anju Parmar.

Parmar says e-commerce with china is exploding yet CBSA inspectors' work hours seem to be decreasing.

“It used to be seven days a week, now it's six days, I guess, yeah, I don't see them on Saturdays much,” she said, “ We are ready to work extra but the mail is not presented to us right? So it has to be released, then we can process, we are here.”

Lea also put these same questions to the CBSA and the federal government and will have both responses on Tuesday.  Canada Post has also agreed to provide a more in-depth response about shipping delays.