Wednesday, October 26, 2011

A Tale of Two Parcels

So back in early September I sent in a large-ish order to Irregular, mainly for some 6mm fantasy armies, assorted 6mm extras, and 2mm terrain. It was large-ish enough that even with international surface shipping (20%) I was paying $50 shipping or so.

Normally it's about a 3 week turnaround to mail in the order and get it from Irregular, but this was a large order and it was surface shipping, so I didn't fret as mid-October rolled around.

Then last Wednesday (19th) I get a parcel from Irregular with the interesting additional label supplied by somebody (Royal Post) I presume, reading "Mis-sent to Australia". Australia!?! The label rather clearly says "Canada", how'd anyone miss by two continents?

Upon opening the package, I see a note from Ian that my order was coming in two parcels. So, hmmm, this one went from the UK to Australia back to the UK then to Canada, and it's here first? The shipping stamp said it was sent Sept. 19th, so it spent on a month on its world travels, but now I'm worried about the other half of the order.

Did it go to Australia too? Did it go even further? Antarctica? Mars? Or did it just get an everyday sort of lost?

I was going to give it a few more days, probably till the end of this week, before I checked in with Irregular. Then this morning I check the front door before work, as parcels often arrive before 9, and nothing's in between the doors. I open the outer door, as sometimes in their infinite wisdom the mailmen leave the parcel sitting in the open on the porch, but there's nothing there.

Then I notice my blue recycling bin is sitting about a foot away from the wall, and somethings behind it. Lo and behold it's Parcel #2. But I just had the blue bin out Monday night for recycling, putting it back on the porch last night (Tuesday) after getting back home from work, and I swear nothing was there then. So it must have been delivered this morning and the mailman decided to really mess with me and hid it behind the blue bin.

I don't think there's a moral here, though I am happy to have my package. But 5 weeks to get here and the mailman has to hide it on me? As the kids say, "What up with that?"