Last Friday night, after a particularly long day and a *ahem* few glasses of wine, I had a flash of brilliance. While mindlessly scrolling through Amazon, I noticed they have a nifty new delivery service called Subscribe & Save. In a nutshell, you subscribe to the delivery of products you routinely use and the more you subscribe to, the more you save. It may have been the wine, but honestly, I was pretty turned on.
My goal right now is to reduce my mental load, because I am telling you, I am effin’ exhausted. From the time I get up, until the time I fall asleep my head is in a loop. Have all parties I care for been fed, watered and taken care of? Is the laundry done? Did I miss a deadline? What’s for dinner? Do we have what we need for dinner? Oh crap, I need to pay those bills. When was our last dentist appointment? And on and on and on it goes. If you don’t know what the mental load is then you’re a man, and you should head on over and read this. If you’re a woman, then you are nodding your head in complete agreement here.
So all of this is to say, by subscribing to the delivery of toilet paper, detergent, feminine hygiene products, dishwasher tabs and smelly washer stuff, I was effectively reducing my mental load. Five less things I had to worry about ever again. Hooray for me and hooray for Amazon. I revelled in this small victory until I got a notice on my phone from Amazon that read.
“We attempted to deliver your product.” And this is where I snapped.
Total bullshit. No one attempted to deliver anything to my home and the reason I know this is that I work from home; my office overlooks my front walkway. The reality is that I’ve been ordering from Amazon Prime for well over a year now and Canada Post has never delivered a package to my door. If it’s small enough it hits the superbox a block away, and if it’s a bigger box, I get the attempted delivery notice every single time. Until now, I’ve looked the other way, but not anymore.
Now Canada Post has ripped my joy from my hands and handed that mental load right back to me. By having to make time in my day to go pick up what I’ve ordered, and making sure I get there while it’s open (our local post office even closes at lunch for an hour – so must remember that!), they’ve simply replaced one task with another. So where do you go when you’re hopping mad and need to vent? Why Facebook, of course.
In under an hour I had 19 people confirm my suspicions. Canada Post is making fake “attempted” deliveries across the country and people are pissed. That’s bad for business—Amazon’s business. If that many people just on my Facebook page are having the same problem, then I can only imagine the problem is much, much worse.
Today I went into my local post office to complain. The lady there told me that their delivery guy is out on delivery until 8pm every day delivering packages and that they were just trying to help him out. Um, what? For over a year?
I told her that if I have to come in and pick up the package it completely defeats the purpose of doing this, so that I would like my packages delivered to my door from now on. “All of your packages?”, she asked.
While I can absolutely empathize with this person’s plight, I am not a Canada Post employee, and it is not my job to help reduce the burden. That’s a employee/employer dilemma that needs to be solved within Canada Post. Sorry guys, but my mental load is at full capacity here, you’re going to have to work this one out on your own. I’d suggest you get on it straight away though because….
EDITED JANUARY 17TH, 2019.
The plot thickens. Check out this video of a Canada Post employee caught on video not even knocking, just leaving a notice.
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VINDICATION! At least, I now know I was NOT crazy all those times when I swear I never heard a doorbell ring and I got one of those awful notices. And the worst thing of all is that I have to go for pick up the next day after a certain time. It’s like scheduling an appointment to buy dish soap. The entire point of ordering household supplies is that it takes one more task off my list. You know what’s easier than going to the post office at a predetermined time with a notice slip and identification – just going to a store, any store, any time, any day, and just slapping down some cash. I feel your pain on this so much.
This has happened a time or two with me as well. I work from home, like you, so I’m here. However in my case, we have community boxes (which isn’t anywhere near my house). They told me that if it doesn’t have a request for a signature, it goes to the post office. It’s an inconvenience for sure.
However in your case, they deliberately said they were trying to help him out. Then Canada post should help them out by adding someone else on the delivery team for Q4. It is the busy time of year after all…
So freakin’ annoying for sure. My UPS driver knows us by name .. and I know his .. he always leaves a package safely if we aren’t here . It is such a great service. BUT the Canada Post thing .. when I go to my mailbox and see the “attempted” delivery notice and know that I now have to schlepp into town, or wait until the next day or the day after .. and then I forget to bring the notice .. it’s just so infuriating.
I too work from home and can confirm there was no attempted deliver.
I am glad you wrote about this. Unfortunately .. CP is a bloated bureaucracy .. and nothing will change …
I’m with you on this. SOOOO FRUSTRATING.
I am also home all the time and when I get a notice to say attempted delivery from Canada Post is a joke. I also use to send packages to customers when they order online. But can’t do that anymore as now I can only do shows and customers can only pick up the products at shows. As Canada Post lost packages or they get stolen and broken when they throw packages on the front door of a customer. Canada Post have made my business go down. A shame on Canada Post. I am sure so many other business people have had to change due to them.
This literally JUST happened to me a half hour ago. I’m working from home. my husband is sitting in the living room 5 feet from the door, my driveway can fit twelve cars easily and there are three currently parked by the garage as an obvious sign that people are home. I can almost spit on the community mailbox from my front lawn and I could walk to the post office in under 5 minutes yet STILL somehow, the delivery guy managed to miss us completely and i get an email notification that a delivery was attempted but could not be completed. No notice on my door, nothing. I’m pretty sure the guy never even drove down the street or he would know how obvious of a lie it would be to say they couldn’t deliver. Canada Post has been struggling for decades because of lost revenue, expenses and loss of market share to other delivery companies and couriers, and THIS IS WHY. Even getting a package late is a bit frustrating, but not half as insulting as plain out lying about doing your job for a company that is funded by tax dollars. Go to work or get the f out of the way so someone else can do the job instead. Don’t lie. It just makes it insulting on top of frustrating.
Identical situation, just today here in Abbotsford, B.C.. Except I’m sitting out front, watching a Canada Post contractor do a slow drive by, then minutes later comes the attempted delivery notification on my phone. He could have thrown the package to me, he was that close! Oh well, i’ll have my purchase now on Friday….maybe.
Happened to me more than 7 times with CP and happened today too. I am home all day and they never ring, even with “ring with parcel” right on the door. Now they don’t even put clock time on the sheet. I hate CP and will never use them.
This just happened to me. I’m so done with canpost.
Same here. We’re on parental leave and have to go to the community mail boxes (2km from our house) to pickup the pamphlet and then drive another 12 min the next day after 1pm to get the package… Just chatted with Amazon about that and they will change the carrier or make sure they deliver to our front door for now on… Really good client services.
Hope to see if it will be fixes for real 🙂
I feel like I’m the only one that DOESN’T have massive problems with Canada Post. The only real issue I have with them is that usually whenever a package reaches my city before the estimated arrival date, they’ll hold on to it until it’s the same day as the arrival date. I have no idea why, but it is pretty annoying.
The last time I had a false “delivery attempted” notice was with Purolator, and they (reluctantly) admitted to Amazon that it was their fault. They still listed it as mine, though, of course.
In fact, Amazon mainly only uses Purolator for my deliveries. I can’t even remember the last time that I received an Amazon package from Canada Post.
Also, what’s with that random comment about men? My girlfriend barely stresses about any of those things. I do (with the exception of parties, because we’re introverted). Not every man is a carefree, couldn’t-care-less douche, you know.
Then again, you ARE a feminist, so I guess it’s only natural that you feel that way.
I came to the internet just HOPING I could find someone who shares my pain. I ordered a FOOD item, and after checking the tracking, I find it’s been sitting in some CP office with nonsense “attempted delivery” and “carrier rescheduled delivery” time stamps all over the tracking log! This is a product that actually needs climate control, and I seriously doubt the CP mailroom is adequate for 4 days of storage. I wish I could order from amazon with some guarantee they wouldn’t use Canada Post. This is actually the second time in a month that this has happened.
The same thing just happened to me TWICE IN THE SAME DAY. I was at home all day and my room is right next to the entrance, i cannot miss anything walking up the front door.
1rst parcel
8:15 AM Delivery attempted, notice left
No one rang the bell and nobody walked in front of my house. The status says notice left at the door but there is none. 1 hour later, it says it is available at the pickup location.
2nd parcel
12:10 PM Delivery attempted, notice left
Again nobody rang and no notice left even tho it says they did. A few minutes later, it says my parcel is available at the pickup location.
What bullshit is that. Not only one but two times in the same day.
Its like the delivery guy did not want to deliver my box, punched ”delivery attempted” in his system and fucked off.
Now I have to wait one more day and go get them by myself. So stupid. Are those guys actually doing their job lol.
Thank you for writing this. Soooooo many times this has happened to me. More people need to pay attention to this as it happens all of the time. You make a good point that Amazon should take notice as it is bad business for them. I wish there was a ‘do not use Canada Post to deliver’ button/option on Amazon.
Natalie
This is the third time I have had an item show out for delivery with Canada Post but it doesn’t arrive. I deliberately have it shipped to my work to make sure I am available to receive the order. Our business is open later than Canada Post and I was in the office waiting for the delivery which means the courier did not attempt to deliver the package. After staying late at work for an hour, I check the tracking online and see that they claim to have attempted delivery business closed which is a lie. I agree, Amazon should not use Canada Post. I will be filing a complaint with them about Canada Post. I hope they are keeping a record of complaints from people who are not receiving their packages especially when paying for next day delivery.
This happens to me a lot too, as I work from home and use Amazon a lot.
One time I went to the local post office to complain… I told the manager “You know the guy just runs to the door with the ‘you weren’t here’ card’ and doesn’t ring my bell nor try to deliver the package?”
She just laughed and said “Yeah, they all do that.”
Literally happened to me for a 3rd time today in the past week, Today I said screw it i’m gonna hangout in my apartment lobby so that I could meet the guy there so that he’d have no choice but to deliver it, waited an hour and a half and he finally showed up but low and behold, he showed up and already had the delivery slips in his hand filled out, no taking any packages off his truck, no attempting to buzz anyone down to the lobby to even attempt a delivery, just slipped into the mail slot room and started putting them in as quickly as possible, when I asked him where’s my package, he just brushed me off and said it was on another truck then bee-lined it out of there so he didn’t have to deal with me or do his job. What’s the point of paying extra for amazon prime to get that 2 day shipping when I’ve gotta wait an extra day and spend more time and money on gas just to get my package. Amazon needs to really develop their own delivery service or stop using Canada Post cause honestly I’m over it at this point. they pull stunts like this yet you know we should have sympathy for them when they go on strike every couple years.
I’ve had this happen many times. Just recently had 2 boxes delivered from Amazon the other day. Amazon’s delivery service rang the doorbell to drop off my first box. Canada Post dropped off a notice to pickup myself in place of ringing the doorbell. There was 2 people home at the time.
Just happened…and definitely not the first time! Has occurred so many times I can’t count them…It’s obviously a rampant issue that most, if not all, addresses have experienced. Perhaps changing the wording on the card would be a good idea. Something like: “Delivery Attempt Was Not Possible” or “We apologize that Canada Post was unable to deliver your package.”
Thank you for writing this. Sadly-nothing has changed since you wrote this. I’m also near Ottawa and contact amazon regularly to “deprioritize” Canada post – though they admit now that it might not do anything.
Only once in 6 years have they actually delivered something to my door….and that’s because our carrier was on vacation.
I can depend on purolator to deliver by 2pm and I can depend that the folks with intelcom will hussle to get my package on my door step. High fives to those guys.
I am on hold with Canada Post right now to complain. I have my parcels sent to work because I am always at work. So here I am working away when I am notified of a Delivery Attempt. No attempt was made. So I went down to the mailroom to see if a notice was left. No notice either. Spoke to my Concierge and he says ya this happens all the time. Canada Post you do not deserve to deliver packages for Amazon or anyone else if you dont even attempt. Wow!!!
I was literally sitting in the lobby of my building AS THE MAIL LADY was filling the mail slots. I had previously come downstairs and taped a large paper to the glass door of my building saying CANADA POST ANY DELIVERIES FOR APT.406 PLEASE BUZZ #… (I had even gone on the tracking page days before to request they leave my package with the Conceirge.) I patiently waited and did not disturb or crowd her as she worked. As she was leaving I unlocked my mailbox and found the attempted delivery notice. There was absolutely zero frigging attempt. I ran to see if she was still close by and of course she was not. I had already waited a month for my package which was supposed to arrive 5 days later.so understandably I was furious.
Oh did I mention this was the Friday of a long weekend? That’s right I now had to wait til Tuesday to pick up my package. So now it’s Tuesday. I am about to leave to go pick it up and I received another email from Canada post. Now it says my package was picked up again and will be delivered tomorrow. Like what the hell is going on. No other business would get away with this crap
I have had Canada Post say they did a ‘Delivery Attempt’ twice so far for deliveries from Amazon. Not true. We are both working from home during this Covid crisis, and the cars are sitting right in the driveway. On the other hand, we have had online Costco orders delivered by Purolator in a timely fashion right to our doorstep. (Purolator is 91% owned by Canada Post.)
It is getting worse. Amazon orders are shipped via Canada Post and it disappears in a black hole. When you call CP, they tell you it is in a container somewhere and won’t know where until somebody touches it. Amazon says its not their problem. My last order of 4 items (all stock and fulfilled by Amazon) was split into 2 shipments. One was sent to Canada Post and took over 2 weeks to ship. The other part (less than 10$) was delivered by Amazon couriers. What a waste of time and money
This drives me insane! For the past year my lobby door rings my cellphone, I’ve let deliveries in from work. Just today, according to Canada Post tracking site a “failed attempt “ notice was left at 6:22 AM, yep, not a peep from my phone.
This also just happened to me. I have been checking the delivery app all day so I don’t miss it. Yet voila 5-10 minutes earlier I get a delivery confirmation email, so I run out to the street to see if truck is still there, nothing. Check postbox querulously- a fing notice. Yesterday I had the foresight to tape up a notice so courier could bypass looking up our name in the dial pad. Obviously it was ignored since it automatically calls cellular.
Yes this happened to me today. I called they say nobody home.. check your mailbox.. I do which is a km a way.. yep the paper says nothing.. I call again and explain nothing is ticked off on this notice? So where is my parcel? Oh its still in the truck until she brings it back after her shift.. you can pick it up here tomorrow.. well isnt that great… post office is a 15 min drive to get there. Can’t you deliver again tomorrow? Sorry no we only do 1 attempt. I was in a car accident therefore I’m using Amazon. Luckily my friend will bring me tomorrow to get my parcel. I live in the country so nobody can see a parcel on my doorstep. Is there anyway I can tell them to leave my parcels on my doorstep? I’m so mad right now!!
Ok, I read all the comments and I’m really jealous. You all have been very lucky with CP compared to me. Fake attempted delivery is very common in my case that I can count the number of times they have actually attempted to deliver my item. And to add insult to injury, In a several instances, they forgot to leave a notice card for me.
I too work from home. I too get “Delivery Attemps” by Canada post when there is no attempt. I include my buzzer number. I can prove they don’t even bother to buzz as it’s hooked up to my phone. I believe if you live in a building they do this to save themselves time if they’re lazy or running behind. To make things worse they always mix my card number up with another person AND incorrectly spell my name… even though it’s written on the package. My name is 5 letters…. not hard. I used to have an amazing Canada Post delivery driver and she was amazing… after they changed her routes, all the people play games.
I live in a small town and we have no Canada Post home delivery at all. Everyone has to go to the post office to collect their mail. The post office keeps parcels for 15/16 days then returns to sender if not picked up.
The first item ordered from Amazon a few years ago was delivered to my door by Canada Post. After that I only received a notice of attempted delivery online. Asked why the parcel tracking states attempted delivery yet no one attempted to deliver, I was told they don’t deliver Amazon parcels. Then why was the first item delivered? Well because it was a laptop and contained a lithium battery and they can’t store hazardous goods in the post office.
With this virus going around and people being asked to stay home as much as possible one would think that Canada Post would at least hire a driver to deliver the parcels. Nope…you go to pick up your parcel and find yourself in a lineup with others picking up their Amazon parcels.
Perhaps Amazon should mark all parcels as electronics that contain lithium batteries.
Happy Holidays!
I’m a senior, I walk with a walker, I don’t drive. I order things from Amazon . I ordered a grasper and it was going to come with Canada Post. I got this notice in my mail slot in the lobby saying they attempted delivery I’m home all the time. No one buzzed my apartment. I went with the notice today took a cab to Shoppers only to be told it wasn’t there it was at a different post office even though it said Shoppers at Quinte Mall. I can’t afford to travel all over in a cab. All Canada Post had to do was buzz me and I would’ve gone down to the lobby to get it. We’re ordering stuff so we don’t have to go out and you have to go to the post office to get it. We also have parcel boxes downstairs. How big can a grasper be. Canada Post people are mean. ????
Not only does Canada Post NEVER attempt delivery to my residential address and just leave a notice (my buzzer is connected to my phone so I know they’re lying), I used to work for a wholesale distributor and Canada Post was BY FAR the worst courier we used. Fedex, UPS, Purolator, Canpar and one other local service were much better. Canada Post sucks!!!!!
2021 and it’s still happening all the freaking time. I clear my schedule to wait at home for a package that never comes. I always get the freakin’ attempted delivery notification. Canada Post are liars! I’m home all day with a door camera and they never came. I then have to walk to my community mailbox to pick up the stupid attempted delivery notice. But wait, the package won’t be available until the next business day. Beats the purpose paying more for express delivery. The nearest post office is a 15 min drive. Once I get there I have to wait in a long lineup. They are always on strike asking for raises, but are too lazy to make a delivery.
I love how they blame COVID for this. I don’t remember the last time Canada Post actually delivered something that didn’t fit in the mailbox. Are they blind to the fact parcel shipping is the future? Like, seriously. Mail was going down, they thought they would go out of business, and now Woosh! Everyone shops online. But instead of using this opportunity to better itself, Canada Post just sinks in some kind of judgmental mediocrity. Do your job. Management and employees alike.
Show me a single perdon who jas not fced this in canada this shit needs to be stopped, i saw the delivery guy pulling up near the frount of my house and i was expecting him to walk out with my big order but he looked outside at my door and left the place. It is completely wrong, i didn’t even receive a notice nor a single email with the proper pickup location while i jave 3 in my town so its crzy….!
This just happened to me. Only as he came up to stick the notice on my door, I answered the door. I noticed he had my package in hand (Nintendo switch game) with my name on it, I say thanks for the delivery, he hands me the notice and turns around and walks away.
Baffled, I call him out and ask why he can’t just hand me the package now. He replies with “ it’s against policy to hand over a package without proof that i am who the package is meant to be delivered to.”
I pull out my drivers license and he won’t even look at it to verify.
So this guy physically carried my package to the door, notice pre-written, I answer the door, he hands me the notice and carries the package back to his truck for me to pickup tomorrow at a location that’s quite far.
He has ONE job!!! Deliver mail! Like, none of what just happened makes any logical sense to me. Why even make the effort to carry the package if you aren’t even going to deliver it? Might as well just deliver it to the pickup location right off the bat.
Needless to say my brain is glitching out just trying to understand what just transpired.
Last few years since the union made a stink about super mailboxes most of my preorder coming from bestbuy were late since they were deciding it would be funny to send it to the other side of the municipality I live in.
Another thing ive noticed is they dont do c.o.d(duties/taxes) at the door anymore unless its dhl last km
Also the dreaded need for proper id wtf
Exact same experience. Total BS. I wish Amazon just stopped using Canada Post. I love the idea of a nationalized postal service, but they have to at least be remotely competitive with private industry like UPS, etc.
Same thing today. Delivery attempted when no attempt was made they put a prefilled out parcel slip in the community mailbox even though I was offered delivery options so I picked front door. Looked at tracking and I got a come pick up your own stuff notice that was put in before the phoney delivery attempt so they know what they are pulling. Canada Post doesn’t deliver anything other than bills yet they are still in business. I cantacted Amazon and asked all parcels to be sent intelcom so I actually receive them, way more professional than these lazy liars. As others have stated I have also caught them with slips and no parcels because they dumped them all at the depo because I guess the abused parcel slips are lighter to carry in the truck. Disgusting. The head office will only BS you if contacted and say they will deal with it and it just keeps happening with every fake delivery. An External audit should be done and the parcel slips be proven valid before they can use them, body cams or something.
Bravo thank you for sharing. I have health issues and I’m in pain most of the time and walking the few blocks to my post offices isn’t always possible and sometimes I can’t leave the house for a week or two at a time. I’ve noticed that delivery stickers were being left and I was confused because I too was home…I’m always home. I used to give the carriers a 20.00 tip at Xmas time but I’m not doing it anymore. Innate people who lie. Post Canada lies.it also seems to be the norm for Amazon.ca that they no longer ring buzzers which happened twice today. Even though I’ve asked them to get a signature, which means they have to rouse me from my lair by ringing my buzzer, they no longer do that. So how are they supposed to get signatures? They are not and they don’t care: they are liars, too. I don’t want to rag about things in Canada. Like how it cost 8.00 and 10.00 for a gallon of milk (3.00 in the states) but I never dealt with these kinds of issues in the states.
So, someone, a few months ago, stole the stuff from my Amazon delivery, right out of the box, so this is why I’m worried and request signatures, but I no longer care. If Amazon doesn’t care, I don’t care.
They don’t buzz you because they don’t have the package. They don’t even attempt to deliver the package, they just fill out the card and leave the responsibility to you to do your own “delivery”. It’s complete BS and NOT the service you pay for. Canada Post are lazy liars. I received notice on my tracker that a paper notice was left in my mailbox after an attempted delivery today. I was home all day, I have security cameras. No mail person came to my house. Hours later, I watched them walk up to my house and leave the notice, which informed me I have to go to the PO the next day to pick up my parcel. NO, you bring it to me, that’s what you were paid for!!! Lying scum. This infuriates me. Not to mention the package is 4 days late. Delivery was promised Jul 4, tomorrow will be Jul 8.
Amazon doesn’t give a damn, because 3 years later, this is still happening. It just happened to me today (not the first time). Canada Post are outright liars. With the rates they charge, they have a lot of nerve making the customer do the work they should be doing. I wrote CP a complaint note, called them liars, and I will be writing Amazon as well. i literally watched the letter carrier put the notice in my mailbox. She did not even have the package with her. Absolute BS.
This happened to me as well. They need to re-word the notice because it’s a lie and they do not attempt to deliver and many times it goes straight to an alternative drop off location (i.e. post office or other business) and you are forced to travel there to pick it up. I always give Amazon sellers a negative review when this happens so that future potential customers are aware of this silliness.
Yo Canada post has been screwing me around from getting my medication on time . I tried to confornt the mail guy he just pretend he was deaf and gave me a thumbs up. The postal women are really mean at the shoppers drug mart where i have to go to pick up meds now and always a day later and after 1pm.
Also its never a 2 day shipment always a few days late , Canada post is inept.