Let’s imagine for a moment that you ordered a cat online. Ok, we know no one ever would do that. You need the in-person cuddly experience with various cats before you can choose one, or have one choose you. Whatever. But for the sake of argument, let’s pretend that you feel confident enough to order one on the net.
(Note to all men who reading this: shaddup)
(And no, you can’t take my Man Card away. Besides, it’s locked up where you can’t get to it.)
So you go home and you wait and you wait.
Eventually you run out of patience and so you phone the store.
“Hi. I was told my cat would be delivered today.”
“And who are you sir?”
“I’m wolfshades. All one word. No last name. Like Bono.”
“Oh right. Yes. Well, let’s see – I delivered the cat myself at….um….oh right. About 2:30 this afternoon.”
“You did?”
“Yes sir.”
“But….how could you have delivered him? There was no one here to take delivery.”
“Oh I just left him at your door.”
By this point you’re starting to feel steam curling out of your ears.
“There wasn’t any container there. I don’t know why you did that. Someone probably stole him.”
“Oh there was no container.”
“WHAT??”
“I just put him down at your door, patted his head, and left for the next delivery.”
*silence*
“I guess maybe he wandered off….”
“YA THINK??”
**********************
Sounds pretty stupid, right?
About two weeks ago, I ordered something off of the net. It was a product, not an animal. Still though, it cost a fair bit of change. And it was shipped by regular mail.
I don’t know if you live in White Bread, Ontario, where everyone leaves their screen doors unlocked at night, and where you can leave your wallet on top of the car and it’ll be there the next morning. But I live in Toronto – where everyone who rides a bicycle has had their’s stolen at least once.
Specifically, I live in a high-rise apartment. You don’t leave *anything* of value around where people can see it and take off with it. You just don’t.
My expectation, when receiving a package in the mail is this: if it doesn’t fit in my mailbox, the post lady will leave a note inviting me to pick it up at the local post office. That’s how it’s been done in the past, and I don’t mind taking a few minutes out of my day to go get it. It’s in a secure location, so I have no worries.
There have been a few times though when she’s left a package belonging to me on display in the mail room. I think there has been at least one time when she’s done this, and I never got it – I didn’t know at the time that she had done so, and hadn’t put two and two together until she did it again. I complained to Canada Post, and they wanted all kinds of information: the time of day it was delivered, and whether there were any special markings on it. Through it all, I sensed a blasé attitude: a kind of “oh well” take on it all.
There’s a reason companies like UPS and Purolater are making money, and it’s the same reason that Canada Post is losing: the former companies actually care about the delivery and security of customers’ products. If they can’t deliver it directly to you, they will take it back to their warehouse. They will NOT frigging leave it at your door step or in your driveway. Only crazily stupid people do that. They appear to practice the Golden Rule.
I wonder if the Post Lady who delivers to my building ever considers what she would think if someone left something of value of hers outside her door, where anyone can pick it up? I’ll bet she wouldn’t be pleased. Not at all.
Don’t know what it’s like with the U.S. Postal Service. Maybe you can shed some light on that.
At any rate, I’m sending in yet another complaint to Canada Post and this time I’ll include the URL for this blog. I’ll let you know if anything comes of it.
P.S. I also, on occasion, send out items of value to others. In the past I’ve used Canada Post but if this isn’t resolved to my satisfaction, I will give up on Canada Post and use courier services from here on in.
View from a Wolf 