The Fixer,
Canada Post’s abrupt halt to the rollout of its community mailbox program is likely to cause more cheers than tears.
We’ve gotten many complaints — as did Canada Post — from customers who not only objected to their loss of home delivery, but to sloppiness in the way that new boxes were positioned in their neighbourhoods.
The postal service announced Monday that it is temporarily suspending the unpopular switchover and would consult with the newly elected federal government on the future of the initiative.
Prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau promised to restore doorto-door delivery during the election, so it is no coincidence that Canada Post quickly pulled the plug.
As the rollout went on, readers told us about new boxes that were plunked down on a boulevard or even on bare ground, forcing them to tiptoe through mud to get their mail on rainy days. A common theme in notes from readers is objections with Canada Post’s complaints process, whereby customers must send an email or leave a message after calling a 1-800 number.
Richard Tan said residents of his Markham neighbourhood tried to contact Canada Post for more than a month “to no avail” about mailboxes plunked down on a boulevard a few metres away from a concrete base built for them.
His story is typical of complaints about communicating with Canada Post about new mailbox issues or other problems that preceded the rollout. Readers say it’s nearly impossible to get a reply or know if a complaint will be addressed.
The process appears to have been set up to ensure communication goes only one way, and that Canada Post is insulated from acknowledging or acting promptly on customer complaints.
For a Crown agency whose service has been overtaken by technology and alternative parcel delivery services, it’s a self-destructive way of doing business. The fatal flaw in the community mailbox business model is an implicit contract with the public; Canada Post delivers the mail and its customers go out of their way to pick it up.
Since most of its deliveries is stuff that many people see as junk mail, a lot of people who pay bills online and communicate by email no longer have much use for the service.
And when Canada Post is perceived as ignoring or failing to act promptly on legitimate complaints, its value to the public is further diminished.
What if even half the people whose mail is delivered to a community box decided to collect it only once every two weeks or so? Their box would be crammed with flyers for pizza, real estate agents and fitness centres.
In a week, there’d be no room to stuff anything else in, and Canada Post would soon be out of business. What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. To contact us, go to thestar.com/yourtoronto/the_fixer, call us at 416-869-4823 or email jlakey@thestar.ca. To read our blog, go to thestar.com/news/the_fixer. Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.