Boomerang Christmas cards frustrate Canada Post user
'I was sad because I'm not at home for the holidays,' says Port Moody card sender
Every Christmas, Sacha Davenport relies on Canada Post to reconnect with family and friends back in the U.K.
This year, Davenport took a pile of Christmas cards to the post office and made sure that all of the letters had the proper postage for their weight.
She mailed the letters from a local letter box.
Davenport was especially concerned about the U.K.-bound card to her parents, with pictures of her two young children enclosed.
About a week after she mailed them, half the letters were returned to her in the mail.
"I was frustrated and I was disappointed and I was sad, because I'm not at home for the holidays it's important that at least my friends and family get some cards," said Davenport, who is originally from the U.K, but now lives in Port Moody, B.C.
Now the cards will not make it overseas in time for Christmas.
"Christmas has a feel about it that no other time of the year has. And you miss your family at Christmas more than you do any other time.
"I would love to be there. I wish I was there," she said.
Davenport has no idea why the letters came back.
The returned cards were not marked and didn't provide any indication why they were returned, such as insufficient postage.
They did have some coding on them, indicating they had been processed by Canada Post.
Their return is an expensive mistake. The international stamps cost $2.50 each.
"[Canada Post] should be sending these priority post for me so they get there on time. I don't think my cards should get there late because of them," said Davenport.
A priority post letter to the U.K. costs about $66.
More and more Canadians are forgoing holiday card mailing due to the cost, and the option of email.
Davenport says despite her fondness for giving cards, she thinks experiences like this give people a bad impression of the postal service.
"People are going to give up," she said.
"I'm never going to post anything in my community box again. I'm going to go down to the post office and do it in person."
A neighbour on the same block also received a returned Christmas card from Australia, according to a social media post from Julie Clement.
"That is so bad, I got one of mine back, for Australia, too, so also pushing it to get there. And I know it had adequate postage on it. Grrr!" Clement wrote on social media.
Canada Post responded on Sunday within minutes to a query about the boomeranged mail. An official said the post office is investigating.
"We are clearly disappointed, but want to get to the bottom of this," said Jon Hamilton, a Canada Post spokesman.
