Thursday 8 December 2016

The secret life of a parcel.



One has to wonder if the inventors of 'Parcel Tracking' are now doubting its usefulness!

We recently (25th of October) sent a small parcel to Kellogg's mum in SWEDEN.

On the 4th of November we were informed that it had reached its country of destination; IRELAND.

One month later (4th of December) after considerable scratching of heads, the Irish have worked-out that the word 'SWEDEN' is not spelt the same as the word 'IRELAND', and they forwarded it to where it should have gone in the first place. 

We are now very pleased to see that it is finally near to delivery, although we are yet to receive confirmation of it actually having arrived.

I'd love to know what happened to it during its month long sejour in IRELAND. What's the betting that there's a tiny Irish village called SUEDE.




34 comments:

  1. There is one country (and Switzerland too) which includes the country into the post code (say, GB-BA2 ... if you want to send a parcel to one of the rudest people I have had the good fortune not to meet in the flesh). I won't tell you which country it is since their inhabitants are annoyingly efficient. No bull. I have had this conversation with my father - and it's not getting better.

    I don't like the saying "It could be worse" by way of making yourself feel better. But when on stand by with Royal Mail it most certainly couldn't get worser. Try sending a parcel to Iceland. You will be reunited with your missive in an unlikely place.

    U

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    Replies
    1. I'm not sure which is the most frustrating; sending parcels or buying airline tickets on line. Sadly Lady Magnon has been doing a lot of both recently, and the stress is showing!

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  2. Replies
    1. There used to be a fashion for sending whole smoked Salmons as Christmas gifts. I believe the Post office workers could spot them a mile off, and would leave them on a hot radiator for a week before sending them on. Not wise.

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  3. Santa Claus would have done better :)
    Greetings Maria x

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  4. Begorra !!! All you can say is that it was going vaguely in the right direction - sort of northwards but a tad too far west... What will it make of finding Australia I wonder ?

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    Replies
    1. Last year Wills sent a whole house-load of stuff from Oz to France. It turned up on time, and not a single piece was broken! Of course it had nothing to do with any country's Post Office.

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  5. Cro, it was the pigeon that it was attached to..... there has been an incredible influx of rare Eastern bloc birds to the UK recently.... it is being put down to birds being blown off course!

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    Replies
    1. Are those the ones that Putin contaminated with Avian Flu?

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  6. I sent postcards to myself from all my stopping points whilst in Siberia and some arrived before I got home and the last two four days after I got back. Perhaps you should have sent the parcel via Moscow the same as the Chinese who fly via Moscow wherever they are going.

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    Replies
    1. I've just been chatting with a neighbour who told me that the Chinese are buying-up all the major vineyards around Bordeaux. The world is changing fast.

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    2. The Chinese were buying property around Lake Baikal.

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  7. That's completely bonkers. But somehow not surprising.
    Jean

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  8. I hope the Chinese will not want all the Bordeaux vineyards, though that would certainly drive up the price of the non-Chinese vintages. By the way, can you tell me why the British call (or used to call) Bordeaux wines claret?

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    Replies
    1. It comes from the French word Clairet, meaning dark pink, which is how many Bordeaux wines were described.

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    2. Like the rosé? And then there's the sparkling white wine clairette. Too confusing!

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  9. I once sent an expensive glass item to Tasmania, and after 2 months it had not arrived. They sent it to Canada before realising their mistake, then when it arrived down-under, it was smashed to bits. They said I was not elligible for compensation. That was Parcel Force International, if you want to be warned.

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    Replies
    1. We deal mostly with FedEx.... I shall say no more!

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    2. I had a carpet sent from Marrakech by the dealer who had no computer, just hand written ledger and receipt book who insisted DHL would deliver and asked what day did I want delivery. I named a day and it duly arrived at my home on the due date.

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  10. We once put a 50 Euro note in a birthday card to my son in Italy. The card arrived, but the money was gone! Consideration of a sort, I suppose!

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    Replies
    1. They could have stolen the card and left the €50; that might have been even more considerate.

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    2. We experienced that too: "nicely" slit open at the side of the envelope...

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    3. A couple of years ago I received a Birthday card from a friend with a folded two page letter inside. The original envelope had been neatly slit down one side. This had then been put into transparent Spanish Post Office envelope with a note to the effect that the original envelope had been torn open in transit (it looked fine to me). It was only later that I realised the folded letter was exactly the same size as a pile 20 euro notes !

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  11. There's always sending it by owl (a la Harry Potter). How ridiculously frustrating. -Jenn

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    Replies
    1. With Email now taking most of their business, one would have thought that Postal Services would be bending over backwards to appear efficient. Alas not. Owl might be swifter.

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  12. In Germany I learned a hard lesson about sending parcels: formerly you could trust the post office, people were fully employed. Now every Hinz&Kunz is a post employee (for short times only) - thus I "lost" a valuable fountain pen with an engraved name on it(!) - "so sorry!" - then another item. They tried to find it... "so sorry". Now - advice of my son - I only send parcels by registered mail, which annoys me, because it is more expensive and more work for me...

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    Replies
    1. I think your son is very wise; anything of value should be sent 'registered'.

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  13. I was daft enough to send a small packet from here in France to the UK, instead of writing England or UK I put Royaume Unis. Apparently it went to Iran.

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    Replies
    1. An easy mistake to make. No different to Sweden and Ireland.

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  14. I must say I would rather not know what happens to my cards and parcels once I have posted them all. The actual posting is so cathartic.

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    Replies
    1. Just say 'goodbye' at the Post Office, and hope for the best. I tend to do that.

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  15. As someone living in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland (and for 10 years also in New Zealand) I send a lot of mail and 'stuff' between the two countries and elsewhere using the postal service and have to say that I cannot ever recall a problem.

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