Comments on: How Do You Mail Letters That You Need To Arrive?

By: Mr. Cheap

Mr. Cheap — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:46:04 +0000

Rosalie: I actually wish I’d pushed harder on this. I’d talk to Canada Post, calmly explain what you want, and if they refuse tell them you’ll be filing a small claims court case. If they still refuse, do it! Imagine how cool it’d be to brag to your friends that you single-handedly won a court case against Canada Post!

By: Mike Holman

Mike Holman — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 01:22:07 +0000

@Rosalie – Go for it!

By: Rosalie

Rosalie — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 01:14:50 +0000

On August 22/11′ I mailed an Expost letter to my daughter. I have been using Expresspost for many years, however, our postoffice on my small hometown lost it. In fact, they accused me of lying, saying I hand.t mailed it there. Which is totally ridiculous. I file a complaint, the letter has not been found. I believe that it wad stolen from the postoffice, what should I do? Take Canada Post to Small Claims Court or what?

By: Monica

Monica — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:48:17 +0000

I have always given my landlords 12 postdated cheques. They have never required it (as mentioned, that would be illegal), but I think it’s tons easier for both parties. Saves a lot of hassle. I have a nice landlord who even told me if I ever don’t have the money on the 1st just let her know and she’ll wait a few days to cash the cheque. This is not necessary because I do not live paycheque to paycheque anymore, but I appreciated the thought.

By: Mr. Cheap

Mr. Cheap — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:09:58 +0000

TMW: That’s a good idea! Not sure if she’d want to give me her banking info, but if she did that’d save me a bit of cash…

By: Thicken My Wallet

Thicken My Wallet — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 18:13:30 +0000

Can’t you just direct deposit the rent into the landlord’s bank account on the 1st of every month?

By: Gates VP

Gates VP — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:28:10 +0000

Patrick: I don�t know how it is in Canada, but in the US it doesn�t matter if a check is postdated or not – it can be cashed immediately.

Just ran into this when I moved to the US. One of my co-workers gives his landlord a post-dated check for the first of the month for rent (i.e.: the usual). Like most normal professionals, we’re paid on the last day of the month, so the money comes in on the 30th/31st and check goes out on the 1st.

The landlord went and cashed the check on the 29th! So my buddy gets hit with over-draft charges and the landlord gets hit with charges, etc. All par for the course right? Here’s the kicker… the landlord got pissed off at my buddy for giving him a check he couldn’t cash. What do you expect when you cash the check 3 days early?

Good thing we canucks are thick-skinned

By: Mr. Cheap

Mr. Cheap — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:49:58 +0000

Shevy: Sounds like you’ve had worse experiences than me!

Patrick: Its actually the same here (you have to use an atm, but you can cash check regardless of the date – postdated or stale).

What would happen if she tried to cash them all at once is that they’d start bouncing after the first two, then she’d have a very annoyed tenant to talk to .

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:45:36 +0000

I don’t know how it is in Canada, but in the US it doesn’t matter if a check is postdated or not – it can be cashed immediately. I would NEVER send 12 months of postdated checks to anyone because they could be cashed immediately and you would be on the hook for the balance right away – probably causing overdrafts and other fees. Then if the landlord decided she didn’t want to pay the mortgage she would have your rent money through the remainder of the year and the bank could repossess the house and evict you. This is all worst case scenario, of course. But when it comes to such a sizable sum of money, I wouldn’t take the chance.

By: Shevy

Shevy — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 07:02:26 +0000

I’ve had a few experiences with Canada Post over the years.

Many years ago (about 25 years) my friend bought my young son a whole box of He Man action figures/creatures and shipped them via Canada Post from Vancouver to Calgary. They never arrived and were never found.

About 10 years ago I sent out a mailing for a youth group from my office and about 10 days later received the one addressed to my teenage daughter back with a label “Moved, Address Unknown”. Uh, hello, she lived at home with me at the address on the envelope and the letter was never delivered to us. Canada Post had no answer as to how that could happen.

About 5 years ago we lived at a particular address on a major street in Vancouver. We used to regularly receive mail addressed to a family who lived at the same house number on the next major street to the west (about 10 blocks over). They used to regularly receive *our* mail.

And, today, the letter carrier walked into our office with a package that he wanted us to pay for. What was it? Dated, important material we had mailed out to an organization in the Lower Mainland, now unusable as the date of the event had passed. And why did he want money for it? As it clearly stated in bold on the form, postage only covers delivery *to* the addressee. It doesn’t cover return postage of said material to the original sender!

We refused the package.