Postal Space
I have put off writing about this "story" for a long time. But since the stories have now doubled, I have decided the pattern is way too "good" for me not to capture here. The stories don't really have anything to do with Bulgaria. Except perhaps to reassure me that the Bulgarian post is not the only one that can't be trusted.
Story #1: Before leaving the U.S. (on 10 Sept.), I shipped a box to my parents (who live in Belgium) thinking that it is safer and more secure to ship to Belgium than to Bulgaria. Well, what ensued, convinced me otherwise. I had shipped the box airmail; more that 2 weeks passed and nothing. The box had not arrived. We were wondering what was taking so long... after about a month, a friend actually had the brilliant idea that I could track the package online... I didn't know this, since I hadn't registered it or requested a return receipt or anything. But one could do it by the number of the customs form. After tracking it, it turned out that delivery of the package had already been attempted twice. HOWEVER, both times the post people had not felt it necessary to leave a slip notifying my parents of this fact (given that this happened during the day and they were both at work). So, we didn't even think delivery had been attempted given that previously they had always left a slip. Well, my dad goes to the post office in search of the package, only to be told that the package has already been sent back to the sender in the U.S. Thank god, I had written a friend's address as the sender's address... but as of today, I am still awaiting news of the package. So, how hopeful should I be? Could it have sunk somewhere in the Atlantic during the long journey home??
Story #2: A friend of mine is coming back to Bulgaria from the U.S. for the holidays and I conveniently decided to do some internet shopping, ship items to her and have her bring them to me. All worked well, until the last package arrived last week. Turned out that it was sent via registered mail, and not only that, the merchant had written my name on the package along with my friend's address (instead of her name, as I had requested). So, the postal people refused to release the package to her. I wrote letters of authorization, sent her a copy of my ID, called the post myself, had her fight with them several times.... In the end, they agreed to deliver the package this Saturday. I breathed a sigh of relief. HOWEVER, the day before yesterday my friend e-mails me and tells me that the post people called her and told her that somehow... inadvertently... a colleague of theirs had already mailed the package back to the sender (WTF???) How that is possible is beyond me, since normally in the U.S. the postal service has to attempt delivery 3 times before sending something back to the sender. But, those are the facts. Now "all" I have to do is request a refund from the merchant. Let's see how that goes.
Anyone starting to spot that pattern between story #1 and #2?
6 comments:
An addendum from today. The package from Story #1 has arrived at my friend's place!!! Unbelievable! So, guess it did help to write this post... made good things happen :) (fingers crossed).
ohohoh - you should start this conversation with my buche...he LOVES ranting about the post over here these days. He has started a personal crusade against them too I think, has called Amazon multiple times (to get them to offer another postal service provider) and they have pulled some pretty funny stuff on me too....I am STILL waiting for a letter that was mailed in June. I am assuming it is goes, which sucks for various reasons that I don't really want to post for the whole world to read.
But I will join you in a rousing round of "Joy to the World, the post burned down.." :-)
H.
H.--Would definitely love to hear more post horror stories. It might be worth creating a separate blog about them ;)
An interesting story regarding post in Sofia. Because of the fog most flights are cancelled or delayed, so a friend tried to mail a package and they didn't take it in because they wouldn't be able to send it out of the country. So much about sending out Christmas cards and presents on time... lucky us that e-cards now exist :)
I think that beats both my stories by far! ;) but may be now that you wrote about it here your fortune will reverse (as happened to me)... perhaps we should continue the experiment with letters. Maybe postmen just get envious when they see postcards because they don't travel anywhere and steal them/throw them away on purpose just to be spiteful; possibility?
How's this one: C. ordered a new monitor, we weren't home when it was delivered so we got a little slip to come pick it up. He left work early the next day, specifically to go pick it up and the guy at the counter was like, oh, we can't find it right now, come back later. Can't FIND it? It's a monitor not a jewelry box!
Then for another package he had it sent to a Pack Station so that he wouldn't have the whole pick-up card mess. Gets an email that the package is in a branch office (!), no where near the original station. So he calls their hotline to find out why and it turns out the package ISNT actually in the branch they named in the email, but in a different one on the other side of the city. Just imagine if he had gone down to the first branch!
Hence the crusade against the so-called "logistics" company of so-called German "efficiency", which when asked for the closest mailbox with a certain pick up time names one at Jungfernstieg, a good 20 minutes subway ride away, because the guy on the phone call only see zip codes!
H.
I see the stories get better by the day! There is definitely fodder here for a separate "F$*& the Post" blog :). Anyone else feel like contributing to the postal debate?
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