Canada Post is actually very good, going out on a limb here to defend them.
The message you see "Item was received by Canada Post after cut-off time." is a result of us preparing your shipment electronically the night before shipping started on the 29th.
"2012/02/28 23:23 Order information received by Canada Post"
Since it was before midnight, Canada Posts system is expecting to receive the physical package that same day, the 28th, eventhough we are only shipping physically on the 29th.
2012/02/29 16:43 Item accepted at the Post Office
This shows when the physical package got scanned in by the driver, so long as it gets scanned before 17:00, it is considered a same day shipment and is not late.
Product Type: Xpresspost
Expected Delivery : 2012/03/02
Updated Delivery : 2012/03/05
Your Xpresspost service was 3 business days to your location, when we entered the package electronically to print the label, it was 40 minutes before midnight on Tuesday 28th even though it wasn't shipping until the next day, so Expected Delivery at that point was Friday 2012/03/02, Canada Posts system can only assume that since we are entering the package on the 28th, that it would ship that day and does the delivery calculations accordingly.
When the package wasn't received until the 29th, Canada Posts system now recalculates the delivery time to be Monday, Updated Delivery : 2012/03/05 since Saturday and Sunday are not business days, 3 days delivery from Wednesday is and always was Monday, the confusion was caused by us printing the label before midnight to ensure that all the pre-orders would get shipped on the 29th.
P.V.