The story begins a little less than a week ago, Friday night about 9 pm CST. I get a message from the buyer as part of the Request Total service after purchase that they need this item in time for Christmas, can I please quote them a postage cost that will see that happen.
Hmm. Buyer is in Florida. I'm in Winnipeg. Tracked Packet USA is no longer an option, Xpresspost USA is delivered in five business days and TIGHT with it being technically one day or two now past that by the time this starts moving on Monday so I do some research into Priority which ebay likes to pretend doesn't exist since there is no option to quote it on Calculated Shipping or even use it as a line on an invoice.
Priority USA will get it there in one to two business days and will cost $68-74 depending on what if any discount I can get when I print the label directly through Canada Post EST. I quote the buyer the delivery times and costs for Xpresspost USA and a self-subsidized rate amount and delivery standard for Priority USA. She picks and pays for Priority. We talk. This is for her son, he wants it more than anything else for Christmas, he has special needs it is very very important it arrive in time for Christmas.
I assure her I understand. I promise her I will pack it tonight and print a label tomorrow and take it directly to the postal counter as soon as it opens on Saturday morning. I do that.
It's 9:10 am on Saturday morning in Winnipeg and the temperature is minus -490 degrees Celsius with the windchill and I am at the authorized agent nearest me. The regular lady isn't working, the staff person who's manned (womanned) the counter for 20 years but it’s open so that’s all that matters.
I give the parcel to the new girl. I ask for some clarification about exactly how many business days it will take to get to Florida. She is confused, and doesn’t know. She’s holding it in her hands and says, “Where is it going?” to which I reply with concern that the label is somehow illegible to her, “You cannot tell?” because the type size is about six points and I thought it hard to read myself so I outlined the destination in yellow highlighter. Maybe no one can read it? This might pose a problem. But, no, she just hadn't attempted to read it.
She gets all huffy. “It would have told you how many business days when you bought the label.” I said, “Yes, but it didn’t make sense that it told me zero days.” “Zero days is not a thing,” she says. “I know,” I said, “that is why I’m asking you.”
Annoyed she has to weight this now to get a delivery estimate. “Did you pay $74 to buy this label?” she asks. I say, “No, I paid $68.14 because I used my Solutions for Small Business Card for the modest discount.”
She tells me the guarantee delivery is for Dec. 20. Fine. I am satisfied. As I turn to leave, I ask her if I can get the receipt to show I dropped it off. She says no, and that I already have a receipt because I bought it online. I tell her that she can print a receipt here that shows it was accepted because I get one all the time. She huffs again and does that, telling me that I don’t have to be so NASTY about everything.
At this point, I have just been accused of being NASTY because I asked this person three questions to which she didn’t know the answers. I really wasn’t being nasty. I gave her no attitude there was no tone, I just wanted to mail a package. I explained that wasn’t nastiness and I didn’t appreciate being accused of that as a customer to my embarrassment at the people standing in line behind me. She tells me that she’s unconcerned because she’s the store manager. Remember this is an authorized dealer inside a drug store. Maybe she's a manager of some aspect of the store but it's not the postal counter, I can tell you that.
I take my Acceptance Scan Receipt and seethe all the way home. Nasty. I call the 1-800-number to complain to Canada Post about how I was treated rudely when I did nothing worse than ask questions to which she had no answers and it made her feel inadequate I suppose, and that they’ve staffed their counter with someone who knows less than the people she’s attempting to serve. The Customer Service Rep is apologetic and I take an incident number for my complaint.
I watch tracking for this because, after all, it is important. Priority USA is a weird hybrid service where Canada Post outsources the parcel to FedEx for movement across the border so it shows only Electronic Information Submistted and Accepted at the Post Office until mid-afternoon on Dec. 20 at which point I decide this is not right and I call Canada Post.
Sure enough, the parcel is nowhere to be found. Not delivered, not even locatable within the postal system. Apparently, what is supposed to happen when a customer (me) brings in a Priority package is that the agent (nasty girl) calls Canada Post head office to have them schedule a pick-up with FedEx to get the ball rolling and it goes from there.
That did not happen. I speak with three people at Canada Post, initiate a high-priority trace and explain my situation with the buyer and promise and her child with special needs. “Do you have another one you can send?” is the question they all ask.
As I am opening a claim with FedEx for the lost parcel and standing at the top of a ladder with a phone in one hand and two dozen diecasts airplanes in another, I find a spare to send the lady and create an account with FedEx so I can ship it directly with them and I have a pick-up scheduled within the hour. FedEx man comes, takes my package away, it’s in Tennessee within two hours and was delivered ahead of schedule to my buyer in Florida today.
I gave my buyer an abbreviated (polite) explanation as to the reason I was sending her another and thanked her in advance for her patience.
What do you think happened to my original package? I have a sneaking suspicion the drug store employee pulled the postal equivalent of a ‘waiter spitting in your food’ and when I mentioned the trouble I had that morning on drop-off to the senior CSR at CPC, she was shocked and suggested the same thing as my worst fear: that the girl dumped it into lettermail or filed it under G because she was angry with me for asking questions that made her feel stupid.
This is the very reason I compulsively watch tracking on my outbound packages. I made a promise to my buyer and it would have been broken had I not taken matters into my own hands and fixed it before the buyer knew there had been a problem.
Gave her my word as both a mother and a toy seller that she would have this for Christmas and, come heck or high water, she now does.
The end.
I wonder if FedEx will reimburse me for the lost package. It seems odd that it becomes their responsibility to do so when it never reached them at all. We'll see.
