Dude, Where's My Muse?
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Why a writer NEVER wants to send a requested manuscript via CANADAPOST XPRESSPOST…
Why?
Because you get SCREWED.
I mailed a requested manuscript via Xpresspost, October 27th, 2008. I paid a total of $30.13 including fuel surcharge for a package weighing 1.743 KG. According to postal tracking this is what happened:
2008/10/27 12:36 - item accepted at post office (St. Albert, AB)
2008/10/27 18:33 - item processed at postal facility. (Edmonton, Alberta)
2008/10/28 12:52 - Item has left Canada NOTE: on all previous mailings via Xpresspost it showed the location of the departing facility. This one does not. (We can't even be sure it left Canada).
THAT WAS THE LAST TIME MY REQUESTED MANUSCRIPT WAS EVER SEEN.
According to their website, it had a guaranteed delivery date of what should have been November 3rd or 4th. They ask if the package isn’t received by then, to give them an extra five days before contacting. So we did.
The first call to Canada Post was November 7th, 2008 re: failure to deliver on time. We were told on the phone CanadaPost were experiencing labor issues internally and to give them five days.
Contacted again them again, December 15th, 2008. They wanted to send a letter to the addressee for verification.
Contacted again them on January 19th, 2009: Still no progress. They asked me to confirm or deny the addressee received package, as they had not heard back from addressee.
Received form letter dated 2009/01/23 asking for proof of value of the contents, receipt of purchase, or documents showing replacement costs) and whether I would like them to pursue this inquiry.
Phone call today after sending in complaints to the better business bureau. She left a message on the machine since quote “Someone in the call centre told (her) that we are unwilling to send in receipts” (Uhm, what?) “That’s fine, just let her know and she’ll close the investigation.”
Excuse me, what investigation????? You have not lived up to your guarantee of refunding my guaranteed to arrive postage, nor have you even bothered to try and find my package. Now I have to prove you to the value of the manuscript, instead of simply giving me the mere $10 it was insured for.
I would personally like to THANK Canada Post *dripping sarcasm* for making me look so wonderful in front of an editor and losing a requested manuscript. This entire debacle has cost me four months time of waiting time, not to mention undue stress. As I wanted to express to this woman in Customer Service, this is not some Christmas present, or piece of clothing. This is a manuscript, business and this fiasco could have cost me a lot more than the $40 combined, it may have cost me a sale.
So for ANY writer out there, do not trust your manuscript, your copyedits or anything else valuable that needs to get to NEW YORK CITY FAST and send it via what they say is “guaranteed to get there” because the only thing you are guaranteed for is to be screwed soundly by Canada Post.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Quick Update
So February hasn't exactly been the best month on record. Stress made me really really ill for most of it. (Chest pain sucks) Canadapost is still not refunding the postage for the missing manuscript and doesn't seem all that interested in tracking it (Stay tuned for a long blog on why you NEVER want to send a requested manuscript via Expresspost. Mine's been missing 4 months and they still want me to confirm or deny it was ever RECEIVED.) and just a bunch of other stuff that added to my stress level. I haven't felt this bad since November and honestly, I don't think I ever really recovered from then either.
Anyway, blogs might be sporadic (if you haven't guessed). Not much to blog about on here, still playing catch up on some things. I can't find my VW synopsis so trying to rewrite it.
