Hello I am from Metro Mississauga Courier. Many clients have contacted me to clearify a lot of information floating around. Perhaps I can clear a few things up and and give you advice you can use.
Firstly Happy Road, Metro Mississauga, and VW were the three couriers that began the line up in the morning of January 23, 2016 with a combined approximate total of 1000 applications
Between just us we had a approximately 1000 applications. We were served by 3 tables stations each manned by 2 CPC staff members. If people were wondering about duplication of the time reported by different couriers well logically of course. We were served by 3 tables at the same time.
some of you reported that some of their reporting times of were earlier than 8:00 AM. Well they are wrong. CPC opens only at 8:00 AM. No Larger courier were there before us and were not there well after we were gone so I suggest you find out why for your own sake. By the time they came the line up was already 50 to 70 people deep at 8:00 AM so all your packages went after that. So definitely there were already 3000 applications submitted before they even started. No larger courier has any advantage as you may believe in the queue because of their name as I have seen some peoples opinions here. You line up whether when you come 1 package or a 1000 package in order.
Non couriers started to line up pretending they were couriers were asked to leave so those thinking they would just come and pretend with a fake way bill
were asked to leave by us of the business or were asked to be removed by security. so think twice if that is your strategy in the future. and then they do a final check in the final line up and will randomly verify when you go up to submit at the table
They use couriers not to make money for us or make things different difficult or expensive for you. It is done for 2 reason:
1. that CIC wants complete anonimity between the mail room staff and the public to ensure there is no behind the scenes favouritism because someone may happen to be friends with a mail room staff who could take it from them and put in a favourable position for them. Its for the fairness and security for applicants.
2. You think the process is a mess now. Try taking packages from the public where many cant speak English have paperwork that is incomprehensible and paperwork that is untraceable. The line up would be unmanageable and a graver issue would arise. Its a government office, therefore security is of utmost importance. to allow that many people would be against anything safe. They don't know who you are but they can easily find out who we are.
Metro Mississauga, Happy and VW are all good reliable delivery solutions and after meeting with their principles I can say that I have a lot of respect for the way they handle their business and clients and we have enjoyed the heart felt and sincere gratitude from our clients who appreciated our efforts for them.
I read some complaining about the high charges. and other about poor people not being able to sponsor.
Sirs, you better understand one thing, this is a serious and very responsible area of business with a lot of stress that you as a client will have to pay for. its not cheap and its not free. unlike other deliveries. We are constantly contacted many times at odd times through out the season answering clients giving up our holiday times and spending a couple of days to rest from the PGP day. We choose to do it at a price. If you don't like it or appreciate what it takes. please go and use the big companies and enjoy biting your nails. Its not a matter of what we charge its a matter of what it is worth to you. Its a good way to eliminate the serious applicant from the not so serious. And yes, I do believe if you can't afford to sponsor your family you shouldn't. Please don't characterize us directly or indirectly as robber barons milking people of their money.
If you cannot pay between 100 and 250 dollars for a once in a year opportunity plus the necessary fees to CPC I think you should consider your financial state more closely to whether you can afford to bring someone over in the first place and take care of them in the long run because its a drop in the bucket to what your real cost will be over time.
Is it a lottery? No, but because the availability is far smaller than than the interest. It becomes a large and difficult task to manage. Its like trying to pass a tennis ball through a funnel Its not going to be easy and perfect. Despite it all. its run quite well even though from your perspective as an applicant its difficult and inefficient but over all it works well and gets the job done. This year they have done a much better job than last year and I commend them for the improvement. But yes there is a margin of randomness in the system that's why you can increase your chances but you cant guarantee it. How they store, sort and process are big variables out of our hands as couriers.
I am not going to insult or critique the larger companies Purolator Fed Ex UPS etc.. that have been mentioned negatively in some instances. they are good companies. But only good for what they are designed to do. General purpose delivery. Many clients have used them in conjunction with us in order to send it to us and 98 percent they all arrived. Their system is not designed to accommodate the specific realities of this delivery and people tend to take their frustration of their choice on them. If you don't use the correct tool for the right task then your obvious going to fail. Not them but you, they are happy to take your money if you want to give it to them. When they say 9 AM or 10 AM guaranteed delivery they in most cases do it but it means when they show up it has to be deliverable at that time not an hour later or 2 hour s later after they arrive. Why do you think its 30 dollars. Use your own common sense. they have done what they were suppose to. They aren't going to stick around for 30 dollars its a business they have to go on to the next delivery. Yours is not the only one. They have done nothing wrong and have technically provided the service you paid them for. If people want to hammer a nail with a screw driver well that's their choice.
Local couriers know their area because its their area. they deal with less packages and therefore can make less errors, gain more information regarding deliveries in the area they are focused in. they are also more flexible and approachable to fix things or make changes. Of course your documents are secure and personal information is protected. We would be out of business if we gave people reason not to trust us. to be straight, we are not interested in what in peoples packages and what they ship. We just want to make sure whatever it is, it is delivered and move on to the next package.
As far as cheaper couriers, the 65 dollars or lower club as I call it. One person who pretended to be a courier to try and hold the line for his courier went there earlier than him. We, of course got him removed and his name stricken from the line up list. at the end he was trying to get one of us to take his package because his courier didn't show up until much later. He wanted to go home and get a duplicate of his application to give instead. So once again its your sponsorship, your money, your choice. He was advised by us that he better wait for his courier at this stage because he might deliver it also and his application would be rejected for multiple submission. That man aged five years and lost 10 lbs that night to save 50 to a hundred dollars. He was willing to pay it that night that for sure. Plus forfeit the 65 dollars. Pretty economical in the end wasn't it for him?
Hope some of this helped. All this has stemmed from comments I have read from people here. We hope that your applications are successful.
Chris
Metro Mississauga Courier