Lens Rentals Canada closes its doors

Very Sad but not as sad at that Lion they shot

Price yes, it is high, then again the workers are paid a living wage. I don't want to debate whether they deserve it or not, that's another issue.

I've shipped many items with Canada Post, regular mail, regular Parcel, Express Post etc (both to me and by me) and never lost or had a package damaged. Other than UPS I haven't had an issue with any of the major shipping companies in North America. Am I lucky? I doubt it, I suspect 96% of delivers are fine, for the 4% that sucks, but things do happen.

I've used Canada Post for 40+ years and have NEVER had one parcel go missing or arrive late! Maybe I'm the only lucky one in Canada BUT I sure as heck can't say the same thing about UPS or FedEx which I absolutely refuse to use after their cock-ups and exorbitant prices!

apparently 2nd largest in size on earth1, just a rumour mind you...

Canada is on the top side of Obamaland :)

Much better country than the place you live in.

Canada is that country above you that supplies much of your water. Just give me the word and I'll turn of the tap ( or reroute our toilet water into the supply).

Oh wait, I forgot y'all can't leave home without yer guns.

Canada is a place that has some of the most scenic areas on earth and most of it can be viewed and photographed for FREE.

@ Vanitas Photo … but, luckily, no Trumps …… although, we did have Rob Ford :o

Phasing out home delivery is about reducing the number of employees and associated overheads. That's all well and good, except they still have to cover the generous pensions of any people they let go.

Canada Post lost the plot a long time ago when they failed to adjust to new competition, both online and off. Powerful trade unions also didn't help. Don't get me wrong, unions are a good thing, in principle. They prevent the exploitation of workers who otherwise wouldn't have a voice. But, far too often, those same unions lose sight of their ultimate goal of protecting their members' livelihoods. They need to make concessions when business is not good so that the employer remains competitive and stays afloat.

All national postal services seem to want to dispense with their obligations and to be able to focus only on the lucrative services (commerce and spam). In privatisation-happy countries like the UK, there's the idea that a liberalised postal (and every other kind of) market will have lots of companies desperate to compete on those mundane tasks of actually offering a universal service, but as I understand it (and as one would expect) no-one is seriously able to make a go of it.

One has to wonder how much of the obligations are ultimately met using taxpayer money, just to allow some of these companies to cherry-pick the best opportunities.

The bandits at the helm in UK are hell-bent on dismantling anything publicly owned and will create situations where this looks like a sensible decision. The Post Office has for decades provided an incredibly important social function, enabling older and less than wealthy citizens to access their pensions, social security payments, pay bills, TV licenses etc - whilst providing a generally very reliable and reasonably priced postal service. There's a Post Office in every sizeable town and village. Had the PO been able to actually operate as a retail bank (not just as an outlet for another bank) dedicated to the routine, basic, requirements of working people (mortgage payments, wages deposits etc) it could easily have managed to operate profitably. Of course this is the last thing the public schoolboy cabinet wants. There's a huge property asset waiting to be stripped by their chums. As happened with the Trustee Savings Bank - illegally.

Privatizing public services doesn't work. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Public services often have little or no competition. Without competition there is no price pressure, just cost reductions through service cuts to maximize the new owners' profits.

2. Private purchasers are not stupid, they will only buy the most lucrative services leaving the guaranteed loss-makers for the government. End result, money is still being wasted.

3. Public services are also often necessities rather than luxuries. i.e. more often than not, you cannot afford to opt out if you are dissatisfied with a public service. Like the lack of competition, this makes it easy for privateers to gouge the hell out of Joe public.

Besides, I don't understand why a public service can't be run like a private corporation - aggressively seeking efficiencies, qualified CEOs, performance based compensation, etc... - without actually selling them?

Unions remove personal responsibility from the worker, are in it only for their own profit, and have mob ties. I've seen it first hand. If you want a lazy, overpaid employee that can't be fired, find a union outfit. I hate unions.

There are some real dickheads spouting their nonsense here. Unfortunately these attitudes are the consequence of a combination of gullibility cunningly addressed by Big Capital's propaganda.
No sane person would claim that unions always act sensibly or even in their own best interests - just like governments, banks, and corporations large and small. Just wait and see what sort of society is going to result from the total victory of capital over labour. It's not going to be nice.
I live in the UK so I have no idea what Canada Post's like - it sounds pretty bad - however to extrapolate from a single organisation and make a general case is plain stupid.

Countries without unions tend to have higher economic growth all else being equal. So you are trading growth and overall prosperity for security which is not necessarily a bad thing. Most of Africa is experiencing enormous growth at the moment with the lives of everyone slowly improving however the richest most developed country in Africa is not experiencing the same growth (some would say its getting worse) and it just so happens to be the one with the most union power.

I blame the government, who are adhering to the plans mandated by the latest international TPP agreements. The government intentionally fails to provide a well-run, safe and efficient workplace because they need an excuse. An excuse to collapse Canada Post and sell off the assets for privatization. After the election in October.

Then Obama might do the same.

No, it's much better in my experience.

Not for me, and especially not when buying from eBay. A lot of US sellers are using the Global Shipping Program now, and it's an utter ripoff. Items selling for $10 cost another $20 to ship. Even big retailers like Amazon, B&H and Adorama can charge $40-$60 in shipping for quite cheap items.

Just hypothetically speaking, still paying the restocking fee. Personally, I haven't done that. But I buy and sell lenses (keep it for a few months). It is lot cheaper than rental even after paying Amazon and Ebay selling fees.

Very anti-social behaviour.

The reseller can't sell it for new.
And people who buy your 'free rental' actually buy a 2nd hand product.

The reseller doesn't care actually. In fact, the 15% or so restocking fee is considerably higher than the 3-5% profit that most online retailers have, although they do have some costs associated with managing the return. Returned items are the manufacturers problem. Depending on their contacts with the manufacturers, they may service them (to be resold as refurbished items, even if nothing was wrong with them), return them to the manufacturer (for a refund), or, in many cases, they just get returned to a "service center" that just throws them away, and they get a refund from the manufacturers. (This is because returning it to the factory and servicing them item is cost prohibitive, but since they don't trust the retailers, they collect the "broken items" from them anyway. If the retailer doesn't have a servicing contract with the manufacturer, all returns are presumed faulty)

Side note: For small retailers the conditions are different; Were this to be excessively abused the conditions would change; and, I sincerely doubt it's cheaper than just renting the products, unless perhaps your intention was to rent it for the absolute maximum allotted return time (30 days?)

He's not talking about an RMA for a defective item. He's talking about returning a used item to the store to get a free "rental", at the expense of other consumers.

It doesn't matter who ultimately picks up the cost of this kind of d**chebaggery. The reseller, the manufacturer. Eventually, other consumers (i.e. you) are picking up the cost.

Maybe your postman was using lenses to pay for his Porsche...and not his union negotiated salary

@AbrasivReducer:

Yeah. Got a real culture shock I had to mail something when I was in the USA for business. The whole experience felt like straight out of eastern germany.

This is garbage, i sell a ton of stuff on ebay. The USPS has done a more than adequate job at shipping everything. I've never had a problem with them in the hundreds of items i've shipped. Tracking numbers always work well, and the items are on time except during christmas season.

I don't care if someone is union, as long as they do their job.

Neez,
I agree. I am Canadian and up until the recent exchange rate drop I bought a lot of stuff from the US. I always look for sellers that will ship USPS as UPS rip you off with outrageous broker fees which USPS doesn't. I've never had an item go missing or damaged and delivery times have always been reasonable. Most items are delivered to my door by Canada Post. I have no complaints.

"In Canada people with University education often earn less money than people with Union jobs." - I am guessing you're one of them.

Having a university degree should in no way guarantee you of any kind of living let alone higher than another - especially if it's only an undergraduate degree. It's this type of unfounded entitlement that skews social perception as to who should and should not make a decent 'working wage'.

The average Canada Post letter carrier about $24/hr or about $48,000 /yr which is above the poverty line - but not by a hell of a lot. I would say this is more of a lifestyle decision to work at this wage level.

I work in mining so the wages are typically higher due to remote locations (no Starbucks, lol) and brutal hours. Union (and non-union) wages are $32-40/hr for Canadian positions. More if you work up in Fort McSchithole.

The point is, Canada Post workers make crap wages compared to virtually any other career you can think of other than perhaps retail.

@ Neez - First of all, a college degree doesn't necessary guarantee riches. Prime examples are Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, both college dropouts, and yet they are the wealthiest people on earth.

"union factory jobs have excessive wages from bullying corporations" No one can bully the big corps; a propaganda used by the big corps to create conflicts among the working class. The bubble bust in 2008 was the handy work of the big corps. The US government, especially the congress, work for the big corps.... Outsourcing is the results of this thing called global economy, which means use unfair labor practices outside ones' country and pollute other countries' environment but your own. Why do you think some of the Japanese photo equipment are made in China/Thailand? So get your facts straight!

@Joed700

The financial crisis in 2008 wasn't caused by corporations, it was caused by banks that were selling off underfunded high liability mortgages to other banks.

I never said college degrees guarantee anything, it's all up to the individual. What i said is people that people that do little to better themselves can walk into a union job and get paid obscene wages that rival people that work hard to become better.

Alot of people blame nafta for the downfall of detroit, but it was the unions that made cars uncompetitive. Now so many companies have moved to southern right to work states.

Also, only the lower priced japanese photo equipment is made in china/thailand, that's due to lower labor prices just to stay competitive as i said.

And yes, unions do bully corporations by threatening strikes and shutdowns over "unfair wages and benefits", are you serious $30 an hour is unfair for people that barely graduated high school?

@ Neez - Yes, the unions concept is far from being perfect. However, if it wasn't for the unions, some of us would still be working 12 hours a day and child labor practices would still be the norm. Talk about who deserves the most pay. CEOs from big corps get pay 200 times more than the people that work under them, but do they always do a good job? The CEOs of the banks that are responsible for the burst in 2008 never went to jail and they still received their bonuses back then...how come no one blame them or have forgotten about their good deeds? On the hand, unions always get blame for everything. BTW, did you ever complain when they raise the oil prices?

The average Canada Post letter carrier about $24/hr or about $48,000 /yr which is above the poverty line - but not by a hell of a lot.
What? $48,000 /yr+many benefits ?
Average person income in Canada is $27,600 .
People with master degree often earn here less than average
income.

"If you don't like the way how you are being treated by your employer, go join the unions!"
Really? How self employed people and people working for small
companies, who don't have money can get bigger salary.
Did you invented Perpetuum mobile?
When Union mafia get more money for Postal workers or car makers companies and they have twice the salary over market prices, somebody ELSE HAS TO PAY FOR IT !!!!!!!!

No, they really said, "Steal me."

You can still spot a Nikon box from a 100 feet away, they've never changed the tape they use.

We started to change our security tape scheme after Purolator told us to.

In general, no, but I expect lensrentals to honor their warranty.

We'll be around for the full 90 days and keep a phone active as well as email. All receipts will have Canon Rumors contact information as well. I can't hide and have no plan to do so... we'll honour everything.

Actually, if you are stupid enough to ship via USPS using their "designated" boxes and sizes, it is twice as expensive as Canada Post. Example; two products shipped from USPS, same size. Official box/rate, $35.00. Use your own box, ship by TRUE weight cost, $12.00. Canada Post rate for the same thing would be about $18.00. But, shipping overseas, either by Canada Post or a Courier like UPS/Fedex is insanely expensive. I use a private courier and it costs me 1/3.

Kelowna is the city and "truth" versus perception is really the issue; I actually have your emails as proof so we can go there if you want. Nothing wrong with your product, I would aggravated if it was my businesses suffering the loss, and not to impune but this isn't an issue at this point since you are closing. I can send our correspondence back to you if you are interested.

I would absolutely love to see the emails, as I must claim ignorance on this issue.

Please forward them to canonrumorsguy [at] gmail [dot] com

@Leonard Callow

If you live near the border or transfer hub from U.S. to Canada it would arrive quicker.

I think the OP is talking about shipping from somehwere else in canada to his address in canada being slow. But shipping from say Florida to his address in canada is quicker.