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jacober_calc
The title is going to be a little melodramatic, but I do not care. I am upset right now and I am going to share why here.
The reality is that right now I am supposed to be tinkering with both a DM15c calculator from Swiss Micros and a Baofeng handheld radio. Both were ordered for Christmas. The calculator was ordered well before Christmas by my partner. The radio was ordered on Boxing Day with some cash that I got from a family member.
Both items originated outside of my home country of Canada; Switzerland for the calculator, mainland China for the radio. Both items snakes through their origin countries with ease. It took a day and a half for the radio to move from an in-land warehouse in China, to an airport on the coast, to Hong Kong and finally to Vancouver, Canada to meet Canadian customs. The calculator took a little longer, about five years to snake through Europe and eventually land in Toronto, Canada. And this is where the case of each item diverges.
The calculator ends up in Canada about 14 days before Christmas. I live on the west coast so not close to Toronto, items shipping from my family in Ontario typically take a week by Canada Post. The calculator however just switched to a status from in customs to in transit yesterday. Yesterday! The Europeans can get the device to move through their entire continent in a handful of days, but it takes weeks upon weeks to move within Canada.
The radio is even more egregious. It lands in Vancouver which is very close to where I live. Things typically in Vancouver take a day to ship to my home on Vancouver Island. However, the radio company uses a last-mile shipper and in my case this is a terrible company named Firefly which used to be known as Intercom. A quick search online reveals hundreds of reviews of people losing their packages, having them damaged or destroyed or in one case several customers getting the same proof of delivery imagine (indicating a potential fraud where packages are being stolen in the system). I have no control over who delivers the radio. So what happens with mine? It gets delivered in a reasonable time, according to the tracker within two days of landing in Vancouver it is in a delivery van en route to my location. SanderheepA. is the driver who leaves my package under a drain pipe during rainy season (according to the super grainy and blurred photo I was sent in my email) to a home that isn't mine. And surprise, surprise isn't any home on my short little road in my neighbourhood. I do not know where SanderheepA. has delivered by package but it is nowhere near my home.
So I call customer service. It is a three hour wait to talk to someone. When I first found out about the bunk delivery I was at work and was not finishing my shift until 8 pm (when their customer service offices are closed). Same for the next day. I try on breaks but because of the long wait time I get no further than listening to broken elevator music while being reminded every few minutes that the service representatives will not tolerate any abuse (because when you're running a theft scam, you're going to have a lot of upset people). At any rate, got in touch with them this morning. And know what I was told? Sorry nothing can be done three days have passed and because I did not call within that window it is no longer their responsibility. I now have to contact the seller (a company in China!) and try and get a refund.
So that is the state of my country. China and Europe can move items within their borders in a reasonable amount of time. A basic requirement one might assume for a developed nation. Canada on the other hand cannot. We either have to deal with inefficient government services like customers or very poor state-run postal delivery services like Canada Post. Or, and this is what really burns me, we have scam companies like Firefly starting up that are designed to fraud people. Because we do not have an efficient and effective government (slowly more and more resembling the very countries people like SanderheepA. have left) we cannot stop these things from happen or people from being scammed by them. It is a shame.
So now I do not have either Christmas present that I supposed to get. And even though the items are international and you might assume oh they must be taking a while to get here, no they are here, it is my own country, my supposed own people who cannot move small packages within our own borders. That is sad. And since I do not have the calculator or the radio I will just sit here and stew.
The reality is that right now I am supposed to be tinkering with both a DM15c calculator from Swiss Micros and a Baofeng handheld radio. Both were ordered for Christmas. The calculator was ordered well before Christmas by my partner. The radio was ordered on Boxing Day with some cash that I got from a family member.
Both items originated outside of my home country of Canada; Switzerland for the calculator, mainland China for the radio. Both items snakes through their origin countries with ease. It took a day and a half for the radio to move from an in-land warehouse in China, to an airport on the coast, to Hong Kong and finally to Vancouver, Canada to meet Canadian customs. The calculator took a little longer, about five years to snake through Europe and eventually land in Toronto, Canada. And this is where the case of each item diverges.
The calculator ends up in Canada about 14 days before Christmas. I live on the west coast so not close to Toronto, items shipping from my family in Ontario typically take a week by Canada Post. The calculator however just switched to a status from in customs to in transit yesterday. Yesterday! The Europeans can get the device to move through their entire continent in a handful of days, but it takes weeks upon weeks to move within Canada.
The radio is even more egregious. It lands in Vancouver which is very close to where I live. Things typically in Vancouver take a day to ship to my home on Vancouver Island. However, the radio company uses a last-mile shipper and in my case this is a terrible company named Firefly which used to be known as Intercom. A quick search online reveals hundreds of reviews of people losing their packages, having them damaged or destroyed or in one case several customers getting the same proof of delivery imagine (indicating a potential fraud where packages are being stolen in the system). I have no control over who delivers the radio. So what happens with mine? It gets delivered in a reasonable time, according to the tracker within two days of landing in Vancouver it is in a delivery van en route to my location. SanderheepA. is the driver who leaves my package under a drain pipe during rainy season (according to the super grainy and blurred photo I was sent in my email) to a home that isn't mine. And surprise, surprise isn't any home on my short little road in my neighbourhood. I do not know where SanderheepA. has delivered by package but it is nowhere near my home.
So I call customer service. It is a three hour wait to talk to someone. When I first found out about the bunk delivery I was at work and was not finishing my shift until 8 pm (when their customer service offices are closed). Same for the next day. I try on breaks but because of the long wait time I get no further than listening to broken elevator music while being reminded every few minutes that the service representatives will not tolerate any abuse (because when you're running a theft scam, you're going to have a lot of upset people). At any rate, got in touch with them this morning. And know what I was told? Sorry nothing can be done three days have passed and because I did not call within that window it is no longer their responsibility. I now have to contact the seller (a company in China!) and try and get a refund.
So that is the state of my country. China and Europe can move items within their borders in a reasonable amount of time. A basic requirement one might assume for a developed nation. Canada on the other hand cannot. We either have to deal with inefficient government services like customers or very poor state-run postal delivery services like Canada Post. Or, and this is what really burns me, we have scam companies like Firefly starting up that are designed to fraud people. Because we do not have an efficient and effective government (slowly more and more resembling the very countries people like SanderheepA. have left) we cannot stop these things from happen or people from being scammed by them. It is a shame.
So now I do not have either Christmas present that I supposed to get. And even though the items are international and you might assume oh they must be taking a while to get here, no they are here, it is my own country, my supposed own people who cannot move small packages within our own borders. That is sad. And since I do not have the calculator or the radio I will just sit here and stew.
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