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Products returned to Amazon found at Toronto liquidation stores — along with buyers’ personal info

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Ottawa resident Arthur Stewart said he was “surprised” and “concerned” to learn a package he returned to Amazon’s fulfilment centre in Mississauga, Ont., was recently being sold at a liquidation store in Toronto — with the shipping label showing his full name, home address and phone number clearly visible.

“I have no issue with the fact that Amazon or any other retailer would be able to resell things that are returned or things that don’t get sold,” Stewart said in an interview.

“My issue is that they aren’t taking adequate steps to protect the privacy of people.”

He’s one of several Amazon shoppers CBC identified whose returned items were being sold at Toronto liquidation stores with their personal information still clearly visible on the packaging — putting them at risk of identity theft, a prominent privacy expert says.

A CBC Toronto investigation found the personal information of three dozen people on display at two locations of liquidation retailer Top Binz.

Top Binz, which has two stores in Scarborough and another in Thornhill, buys truckloads of returned and overstocked items from Amazon and other online retailers through a distributor, reselling them to the public at low prices.

 

Returned Amazon products found at liquidation stores with buyers’ personal information visible

 

A CBC Toronto investigation found dozens of returned products for sale at two locations of a Toronto discount store with shipping labels containing personal information. Ryan Patrick Jones explains how Amazon is hoping to put an end to it.

Top Binz says, going forward, it will check to ensure all personal information is removed from the products it sells.

But a former provincial privacy commissioner says the situation raises concerns about how online retailers like Amazon — as well as the other companies involved in the liquidation of returned items — are handling personal data.

The current federal privacy commissioner’s office says it will look into the issue, while Amazon says it’s launching an internal investigation of its own.

36 names, addresses on display

CBC Toronto visited two Top Binz locations in November after a customer raised privacy concerns.

Inside the stores, customers sift through bins filled with all kinds of consumer products, from children’s toys to household goods to electronics. Products are displayed out of the box, in original product packaging or in delivery boxes, some with shipping labels still intact, and are sold at flat-rate prices.

Of the 36 items labelled with personal information that CBC Toronto found inside Top Binz stores, two-thirds were linked to Amazon. The remaining third had shipping labels with personal information visible, but it was unclear to which retailer the item was returned.

CBC Toronto reached out to several shoppers whose contact information was visible.

“I’ve got a lot of privacy concerns,” said Ken Bachmeier, a Kingsville, Ont., resident who recently returned a TV stand purchased through Amazon.

“I don’t like it … having the information out there for anybody to access,” Bachmeier said.

“These people that are out there, they can find out a lot of things with a little bit of information.”

Top Binz is a liquidation store that sells returned and overstock items from Amazon and other retailers. CBC found it selling dozens of items in boxes with shipping labels displaying the original buyers’ names, addresses and, in some cases, phone numbers. (Spencer Gallichan-Lowe/CBC)

It’s not just Amazon products ending up at liquidation stores.

Teresa Coppens’ name, address and phone number were visible on a box bearing the name of a company that sells Dutch plants and flower bulbs.

“I’ve heard lots of horror stories about your personal identity being abducted … and that kind of stuff always worried me,” said Coppens, who lives in Millbrook, Ont. “It just never dawned on me that resellers would be keeping that information for everyone to see.”

In general, federal privacy legislation requires organizations to get consent before collecting personal information and disclosing it to third parties, and to dispose of it when it’s no longer needed.

Exposing personal identifiers such as home addresses is a privacy breach that can leave customers open to identity theft, said Ann Cavoukian, who served three terms as Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner.

“Anyone should know in this day and age that personal identifiers linked with anything without their consent, which is obviously the case here, can cause, at times, unbelievable harm to those individuals, beyond just the invasion of privacy,” said Cavoukian, who is now executive director of the Global Privacy and Security by Design Centre.

“Don’t do it, especially if you’re a big company like Amazon. You should know better.”

 

More Canadian retailers caught sharing customer data to Meta

 

A CBC News investigation has found the practice of sharing customer data to Facebook’s parent company, Meta, without their consent is more widespread than previously thought. The list of Canadian retailers doing so includes Lululemon, Hudson’s Bay and Best Buy.

Amazon launching internal investigation

Top Binz owner Amjad Atieh said he buys 60,000 to 80,000 returned and overstock products per week from two suppliers that get their stock directly from retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Costco.

The industry has grown alongside the rise of online shopping.

While there’s not much Canadian data available, and Amazon declined to share its return numbers, online shoppers in the U.S. returned more than $212 billion worth of goods in 2022, representing approximately 16.5 per cent of all online sales that year, according to the National Retail Federation.

Items whose value decreases once they’re returned can be expensive for Amazon and its third-party sellers to manage, according to Omar Fares, a lecturer in the retail management department at Toronto Metropolitan University.

“Every hand that touches the product is a financial loss,” Fares said. It can also be logistically challenging to manage returned inventory, he said, and “in some cases, you’re better off getting rid of it, even at a potential loss.”

Atieh said Top Binz receives items from its suppliers on skids and re-sells them “as is.” He wouldn’t disclose the suppliers’ names.

“Usually if we find something [with a shipping label], we take it and we throw it out,” Atieh said.

“You can’t check every single box.”

Amazon says its contracts with liquidators require them to remove customers’ personal information before they resell the packages to third parties. Amazon says it has no direct relationship with liquidation outlets like Top Binz. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

Following inquiries from CBC Toronto, Atieh said going forward, he planned to hire more staff to ensure personal information is removed from items before they are sold.

Amazon sells returned merchandise on its website via a platform called Amazon Warehouse. It also sells large pallets of returned items to liquidators.

Spokesperson Barbara Agrait said Amazon doesn’t provide packages directly to resellers like Top Binz, but has contracts with “reputable liquidators” that require them to remove customers’ personal information before re-selling.

Agrait said Amazon has “robust processes” and conducts regular audits to ensure compliance.

“Our expectation is that our partners remove customer personal information before any resell, and we’re disappointed to learn that may not be happening,” Agrait said. “We’ve launched an internal investigation into this matter and will take appropriate actions based on our findings.”

Vito Pilieci, a spokesperson for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, said the federal watchdog hasn’t received any complaints about the personal information of online shoppers being on display at liquidation stores. However, Pilieci said the office would be reaching out to Amazon for more information.

 

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Telus prioritizing ‘most important customers,’ avoiding ‘unprofitable’ offers: CFO

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Telus Corp. says it is avoiding offering “unprofitable” discounts as fierce competition in the Canadian telecommunications sector shows no sign of slowing down.

The company said Friday it had fewer net new customers during its third quarter compared with the same time last year, as it copes with increasingly “aggressive marketing and promotional pricing” that is prompting more customers to switch providers.

Telus said it added 347,000 net new customers, down around 14.5 per cent compared with last year. The figure includes 130,000 mobile phone subscribers and 34,000 internet customers, down 30,000 and 3,000, respectively, year-over-year.

The company reported its mobile phone churn rate — a metric measuring subscribers who cancelled their services — was 1.09 per cent in the third quarter, up from 1.03 per cent in the third quarter of 2023. That included a postpaid mobile phone churn rate of 0.90 per cent in its latest quarter.

Telus said its focus is on customer retention through its “industry-leading service and network quality, along with successful promotions and bundled offerings.”

“The customers we have are the most important customers we can get,” said chief financial officer Doug French in an interview.

“We’ve, again, just continued to focus on what matters most to our customers, from a product and customer service perspective, while not loading unprofitable customers.”

Meanwhile, Telus reported its net income attributable to common shares more than doubled during its third quarter.

The telecommunications company said it earned $280 million, up 105.9 per cent from the same three-month period in 2023. Earnings per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was 19 cents compared with nine cents a year earlier.

It reported adjusted net income was $413 million, up 10.7 per cent year-over-year from $373 million in the same quarter last year. Operating revenue and other income for the quarter was $5.1 billion, up 1.8 per cent from the previous year.

Mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.85 in the third quarter, a decrease of $2.09 or 3.4 per cent from a year ago. Telus said the drop was attributable to customers signing up for base rate plans with lower prices, along with a decline in overage and roaming revenues.

It said customers are increasingly adopting unlimited data and Canada-U.S. plans which provide higher and more stable ARPU on a monthly basis.

“In a tough operating environment and relative to peers, we view Q3 results that were in line to slightly better than forecast as the best of the bunch,” said RBC analyst Drew McReynolds in a note.

Scotiabank analyst Maher Yaghi added that “the telecom industry in Canada remains very challenging for all players, however, Telus has been able to face these pressures” and still deliver growth.

The Big 3 telecom providers — which also include Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. — have frequently stressed that the market has grown more competitive in recent years, especially after the closing of Quebecor Inc.’s purchase of Freedom Mobile in April 2023.

Hailed as a fourth national carrier, Quebecor has invested in enhancements to Freedom’s network while offering more affordable plans as part of a set of commitments it was mandated by Ottawa to agree to.

The cost of telephone services in September was down eight per cent compared with a year earlier, according to Statistics Canada’s most recent inflation report last month.

“I think competition has been and continues to be, I’d say, quite intense in Canada, and we’ve obviously had to just manage our business the way we see fit,” said French.

Asked how long that environment could last, he said that’s out of Telus’ hands.

“What I can control, though, is how we go to market and how we lead with our products,” he said.

“I think the conditions within the market will have to adjust accordingly over time. We’ve continued to focus on digitization, continued to bring our cost structure down to compete, irrespective of the price and the current market conditions.”

Still, Canada’s telecom regulator continues to warn providers about customers facing more charges on their cellphone and internet bills.

On Tuesday, CRTC vice-president of consumer, analytics and strategy Scott Hutton called on providers to ensure they clearly inform their customers of charges such as early cancellation fees.

That followed statements from the regulator in recent weeks cautioning against rising international roaming fees and “surprise” price increases being found on their bills.

Hutton said the CRTC plans to launch public consultations in the coming weeks that will focus “on ensuring that information is clear and consistent, making it easier to compare offers and switch services or providers.”

“The CRTC is concerned with recent trends, which suggest that Canadians may not be benefiting from the full protections of our codes,” he said.

“We will continue to monitor developments and will take further action if our codes are not being followed.”

French said any initiative to boost transparency is a step in the right direction.

“I can’t say we are perfect across the board, but what I can say is we are absolutely taking it under consideration and trying to be the best at communicating with our customers,” he said.

“I think everyone looking in the mirror would say there’s room for improvement.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:T)

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TC Energy cuts cost estimate for Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico

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CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.

It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.

The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.

TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.

The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:TRP)

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BCE reports Q3 loss on asset impairment charge, cuts revenue guidance

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BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.

The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.

“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”

Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.

BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.

The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.

BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.

It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.

The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”

Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BCE)

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