Ah, the mail. Slower than ever now that we're down to two ferries per week, storms permitting. But still, at least regular mail via Canada Post gets sent to my Post Office Box, so I can go collect it anytime the office is open.
Courier service--UPS, FexEx, Purolator--is capable of making my head explode. No deliveries to PO Boxes, delivered right to my door... at some time between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. within a three to five-day delivery 'window'. Oh sure, I have nothing better to do than to sit at home with my eyes and ears finely tuned so I can leap to the door when/if the parcel arrives. It's not like I have a job, or a life or anything.
I am good-natured enough to drive across town to deliver a parcel for someone else with a vaguely similar name which was left on my doorstep by mistake, but that's as close as I want to get to courier service for the most part.
One distinct annoyance is the price gouging. Order a parcel from the USA? The US Postal Service will hand off to Canada Post, and there's a $5 customs/duty/border crossing fee added to the postage. Same service via UPS? $30 fee. That's hmm, 500% more?
Ah, but Courier service is so much faster. Uh, no, not on this island. All of the couriers (finally joined 3-4 years ago by Canada Post) actually send parcels, freight, letters, whatever, on the ferry. So while it may go by air to Vancouver or Prince George, it goes by ground from there to Prince Rupert and then sits around waiting for the next ferry to the islands.
The only difference is that at least Canada Post admits they send nothing here via air anymore. The courier services, when asked, claim otherwise--it would be kinder to say that when you dial 1-800, their agents based in Calcutta or Moncton or Kansas City genuinely don't know couriers don't provide air service here, as opposed to they are deliberately lying, but the result is the same.
One company I talked to was told "Oh, (courier x) said we could have it to you in Port Clements from here in New York City by tomorrow with their next-day service." Yup, and I bet this claim comes with a nice picture of the Brooklyn Bridge they pack with it.
It doesn't matter what is said, the result is the same--takes 2-3 weeks, on average, for a parcel to get here. Every now and then the stars, fates and shipping services all line up and a parcel will arrive in less than a week, but that's rare enough to make you buy a lottery ticket before the lucky wears off.
Weird things is we still have airplanes and air freight. You just have to take your parcel to the airport, fill out the forms and fees to have it sent via the airline's freight service, then arrange to have it retrieved from the airline's freight department at the other end (Prince Rupert, Terrace, Vancouver) by a courier service who then delivers it wherever it's going to go. This involves several separate businesses--three if you hire a local freight service to take your parcel to the airport, and then they fill out the airport freight form and the second form to send it via the courier at the other end. It also costs hmm, somewhere between $60 to $80. It's fine when I have the funds and am completely determined to have a parcel delivered somewhere in Vancouver within 24-hours.
This past week UPS completely messed up a parcel delivery in Vancouver, which saw one order shipped in two parcels somehow split up and send via delivery drivers from two different UPS sub-stations. One package reached the address on the second attempt, the other half of the shipment had to be retrieved from the second sub-station. Ordered on-line November 26, shipped November 27, two missed delivery attempts December 3, one half delivered December 4, the other half collected from the UPS sub-station December 5.
Then yesterday after I requested Canada Post, a company shipped an item to me via Purolator. So I lost my temper, and sent an e-mail cancelling the order. Was amazed to receive a semi-snotty note in return explaining that while I can refuse the parcel when it arrives here, I should know that since Purolator is owned by Canada Post, their services are basically the same.
Checked with the local post office. Uh, no, not quite. Yes, Canada Post owns Purolator. Yes, there are some circumstances when parcels arrive at the post office with both Purolator and Canada Post tracking numbers on them, suggesting they potentially travelled via both services somehow. But no, Purolator explicitly states on its website it does not ship to Post Office Boxes. And my PO Box is all the address that I gave.
Amusingly enough, when I plug the tracking number into the Purolator site, it tells me my item, ordered from a store in Ontario, has left the depot in Los Angeles, California. But it doesn't recognize my postal code, so won't give me any further details.
