Friday 27 August 2010

Getting the mail

Oh my goodness, I don't know why I'm even still up... I worked all day and am going back tomorrow and all I want to do right now is curl up and go to sleep.  But I have a story to tell and if I don't type it out soon, I just won't bother!

So here goes... Most of you know that I'm not generally a complainer.  I may have times when I grumble for a while about something, but in general I'd rather not rock the boat about issues.  And knowing the way things run on a different schedule up here, I tend to give things a lot of extra time to happen before I say anything.  In fact, I've never put in a formal complaint... until now.

I was shopping online (hey, when there are limited stores, you find ways to buy things you want/need in other creative ways), and found a battery charger I really wanted.  I actually wanted it specifically considering all the time I expect to spend on planes in the next year or so.  Unfortunately, when I thought of buying it, it was only about 5 or 6 weeks before I wanted to go on holidays to Winnipeg.  When I paid for the item, I paid a little bit extra to have it shipped here in 3 working days.  In my mind, that meant I should see it in a week... two at the very most.  When I put in the order, I used my post-office box number (disguised as a street number   xxxx box)  because they asked for a home address, even though there is no such thing as home deliveries here, and if you write your home address, the person with that box number generally ends up with your item.  Almost 4 weeks after ordering, there was still no sign of it, and the tracking feature said it was still sitting in Ottawa(since Aug 3).  And I wanted it before I left on vacation.  With much hesitancy(I actually hung up the phone a few times before going through with the call), I called customer service at Apple.  They looked into things and agreed with me, I should have the item by now.  They sent a message to Fed Ex, and in the assumption the item was lost in transit they started shipping a new one, they also reimbursed me for the expedited shipping.  I questioned them sending a new item, and asked what I should do if the other eventually arrived.  Keep it, but it was probably lost in the mail.  Okay.  Thank you!  I love Apple!!
Not a word of a lie... 10 minutes later I get a phonecall at home.  "Hi, this is *Charlie (name changed to protect the ?innocent?), I work for Fed Ex in Iqaluit and have a package for you, what's your home address?... okay, well, I need to eat something and then I'll bring it over, I'll call you on my cell when I get there."  Sure enough, an hour later, the package was in my hand.
Is it just me, or is there something fishy with this story???  (the "Fed Ex" truck had a very small, but official looking sign stuck on top, but the back of the truck was for a moving company... not that that surprises me in the least, there's  a lot of multi-tasking companies up here)  It almost seems as if it was sitting in some guy's apartment for the last 3 weeks, and he was waiting to see if he could get away with keeping it!
There is no experience like living here, every day there's something that makes you scratch your head and wonder!

1 comment:

Esther said...

is this why you called, so you could tell me this story? does this mean you will in fact get two of these chargers? or do you think the guy will try to get away with keeping the second one when it arrives? that is so crazy!