Recently my wife posted an item that she had painted (she does folk art) to someone in Sydney. The parcel never arrived. Australia Post lost it somewhere in Sydney. After more checking they determined it was probably lost forever and would never make it to its destination.
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So my wife had to refund the money her customer had paid for the item. Australia Post refunded the cost of postage. This left the customer without the item, and my wife significantly out-of-pocket; not to mention the time it had taken her to paint the item.
If you’re in business, things like that happen, unfortunately. It reminded me of an episode I had back when I had a part-time business selling computers.
I used to buy computers from a wholesaler in Melbourne. This was usually a smooth trouble-free operation. But on one occasion a computer I bought from them had a fault that required it being returned to the wholesaler. So I packed it up and took it to a local courier company.
After about a week I called the wholesaler in Melbourne to check on its progress: they told me it hadn’t arrived. What? From here to Melbourne should be a couple of days at most! I phoned the couriers. They gave me a rather non-descript answer suggesting that it was probably delayed somewhere, but assured me that it should be there soon.
When another week went by without it arriving I began to worry! Not only was this inconveniencing my customer – who was remarkably understanding about the whole thing – but if it couldn’t be found I was going to be out-of-pocket big time! The parcel wasn’t insured. I’d never had any problems with deliveries from Melbourne, and we generally didn’t bother with the extra for insurance. This was, however, a different courier to the one the wholesaler used.
I went to see the courier company. They had a record of the package, but their records had no confirmation of delivery. Despite this seemingly obvious admission that they had lost it, they informed me that, due to it not being insured, there would be no refund or compensation for the value of the lost goods.
During the ensuing argument someone mentioned a package that had been there for a couple of weeks without any known addressee. “That’s not yours is it?” Yes, it was!
I was told that this was my fault. I had taken the package to them and filled out the delivery docket, but I hadn’t written the address on the box. I assumed they would attach their delivery docket to it, but apparently the docket and the package were separated before that happened and they’d just left the box sitting there.
A couple of days later the computer arrived at the wholesaler. They fixed the problem and returned the computer to me. I opened the box, checked that it was working okay and … then I noticed the crack! The top of the computer’s front panel was cracked.
I phoned the wholesaler, assuming something might’ve happened there. “No, it was like that when it arrived.” They told me. They said they thought it odd that a new computer was damaged, but assumed the courier must have dropped it.
Of course when I contacted the courier they denied any responsibility. “They must’ve damaged it back at the wholesaler.” They suggested. I couldn’t prove where the damage had occurred, but I had a fair idea! But nothing could be done.
I called the customer and told her the bad news. The option was to sell her the computer at a reduced price (the damage was only cosmetic), or replace the case. She, naturally enough, preferred her new computer to look new, so went with the second option. To do this the computer had to be completely dismantled and re-built in a new case. I could’ve carried out this repair, but it would take a few days to get it done. Because she had been so inconvenienced by this (although was still remarkably understanding, realising that it wasn’t my fault), that I took it to a local computer technician that I knew and had him do the work. A day or so later the computer was finally delivered to the patient customer.
This had cost me the courier’s charge to freight it back to Melbourne, the cost of a new case and the cost of the technician’s labour to perform the swap. I took a big loss on that one! But, as I said at the top, when you’re in business things like that happen, unfortunately.
I never used that courier again, and my wife now says that she will never trust another of her paintings to Australia Post!
Elwyn Jordan is a musician and full-time music teacher. Besides music, his interests include technology and motoring. He runs a motorcycling website called The Old Bloke. http://theoldbloke.homestead.com. You are welcome to get in touch with Elwyn at elwyn.jordan@yahoo.com.au