The owners of a Richmond restaurant say they are out $25,000 due to the Canada Post strike.
Shane Dagan, owner of the Steveston Seafood House in Richmond, said they wanted to reach out to the community with a mail campaign.
They spent $15,000 on flyers and $10,000 on pre-paid postage and delivered the material to Canada Post on Sept. 11.
Job action began at Canada Post on Sept. 12.
“We paid $10,000 in postage, prepaid postage, a further $15,000 in printing costs,” Dagan told Global News.
“So it was $25,000 in total. We hired eight new front staff, a couple of cooks. We were anticipating thousands of people to come for this campaign, and it just didn’t materialize. At the time when they announced they were suspending flyer delivery, we requested could we please take them back.
“We would have been happy just to take our promotion back, expecting that it could have dragged on and the answer was no.”
Dagan said they also tried to get their money back and they weren’t able to.
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Seven weeks later, the first flyers are starting to be delivered but the promotion only runs until the end of November.
“It’s been devastating for the staff,” Dagan said. “Like I said, we hired people specifically for this. We ramped up our kitchen for it. We, you know, all sorts of costs went into it. And we’re simply asking for a refund on the postage.”
He said that Canada Post is citing the terms and conditions of its customer guide, which states that there could be delays in delivery due to causes such as acts of God, epidemics and labour disruptions.
Dagan said the customer guide is 110 pages long and it’s a big document to go through.
He added that the Air Canada strike and the B.C. General Employees Union strikes have also impacted business.
“We had a group of 80 cancel in September due to the Air Canada strike. So that wiped out an entire Saturday night for us,” he said.
“We are dealing with a BCGEU strike. We can’t get any liquor. Our wine list is 98 per cent B.C. wine, so we’re OK there, but there’s no liquor coming in.”
In a statement, Canada Post says that while postal services have resumed, “uncertainty and instability in the postal service will continue with the union’s decision to conduct rotating strikes.
“Shutting down and restarting parts of our integrated national network with rotating strikes has always challenged our ability to provide reliable service to customers. As a result, on-time service guarantees for parcel delivery services and date-specific Neighbourhood Mail remain suspended.”
Canada Post said all domestic parcels that were trapped in the network have been processed and they are progressing well with Neighbourhood Mail items left to deliver.
Dagan said they just want a refund of the money they spent.
“We just want the people in charge to be doing their job,” he said. “You know, we’re on the ground here doing our job. Constantly, you hear from Ottawa and from Victoria how, you know, they have small businesses’ backs and we’re here for the people and we’re here for you and it doesn’t feel that way.”
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