Royal Fail: Snow!

Haha, so, writing this post means that "rants" will be the most used label for my blog. [EDIT: Ha, not any more! Had the brilliant idea of giving all the Royal Mail stuff its own tag so the people here just for that can easily find the posts.] I only created the tag last week! I guess I do rant an awful lot, but I hope it's funny ranting and not annoying ranting, or worse Mel Gibson ranting. I mean, I'm pretty sure it's not that last one because I have so far managed to go twenty-three years without calling someone an oven dodger [Really, really awful, I mean really. Do you even have a conscious, Mel? Jesus would not approve.], but I'm not so sure it's not the second one.

Anyway, in a bit of fail I didn't finish the claims process with ParcelForce. I know, I know, but there are reasons. First, thanks to their timely [sarcasm] responses to my enquiries, there really was no way to get the claim in on time anyway. You know, the whole not accepting claims over e-mail thing and how they have to receive the claim within two weeks for Global Express options. And, secondly, this is really a Royal Mail problem, honestly. I discovered that one of the other packages mailed that day also hasn't arrived yet, and, well, ParcelForce actually hasn't received anything. So, really, shouldn't Royal Mail pay for this mix up? Yes, but they won't, as I will explain in a second. 

The final nail in the coffin was when I looked at the claims form and I realized that I, stupidly, had screwed myself by not keeping all the receipts. I know, I know, you should always keep receipts, but some of the items were, like, grocery store chocolate and stuff. I do have the receipts for some of the stuff, and I debated just sending in what I had. Especially because Royal Mail won't even look at my claim, or even let me submit one. I filled in their little form on their customer service page, and even though it was supposed to get there in three days [and didn't... I so feel like a broken record here. THREE DAYS, THREE DAYS, THREE DAYS. I don't even like the number 3], they were all, "Yeah, no, you can't submit a claim until it's been missing for at least fifteen working days, keep checking your mail." Uhm, great. Except there was a delay, do I get compensation for that? Yeah, Royal Mail does not care. I tried to go back and redo it [Yes, I was the child who used to do those choose your adventure books backwards so I could get the best outcome], but, hilariously, they have some sort of remembrance thing on it. I kept getting a message at the top of the page all, "We're sorry your package hasn't arrived, check back when it's been fifteen days. In the meantime, keep checking your mail." Great, thanks Royal Mail.

Anyway, it all doesn't matter because...

They found the package!

I've still been checking the tracker religiously, you know, just in case. Today instead of the dreaded, "Advised," the tracking information says, "In transit." That's all it said on Royal Mail's website. Clearly an institution of very little words, so I checked in with ParcelForce, who elaborated a bit and claimed that the parcel is an international hub somewhere. Uhm, okay. Canada, what do you have say on the matter? Yeah, Canada Post says that the international hub is located in the country of origin, or, England. Okay, this is okay. It's moved, it has a location. 

EXCEPT HAVE YOU PEOPLE BEEN WATCHING THE NEWS? 

IT'S LIKE SNOWPOCALYPSE HERE:

Yeeeeep, this is the amount of snow that totally shut down London.
I can hear you laughing, Canada... Northern USA!
Stop it! It's not nice.

Look, it might not look like a lot but London is not used to anything beyond  particularly heavy flurries. Sometimes the tubes shut down because of *leaves* on the tracks. This is not a city that has the infrastructure to deal with an amount of snow that most of North America would consider a mild inconvenience. Yesterday I ventured out for food and, three days after the snowfall, they still hadn't cleared or salted the sidewalks. They have no idea what they're doing, and if they do, well, they don't have the equipment to do it, sadly.

Flights have been cancelled all over the place, people are sleeping in airports, I know several people who haven't made it home for Christmas and at this point it looks unlikely that they will. It's really terrible. And if England, and the rest of Europe that got hit with snow much heavier than normal for their climate, can't move people, odds are they aren't going to be moving parcels. 

So, anyway, eventually the parcel will make it to Canada, but the story isn't done yet! Royal Mail is avoiding my calls like they're scared I'm going to ask for a paternity test, and I still want some money back from the amount I paid to send the parcel... So... ParcelForce is clearly being set up to take the fall for this one. I e-mailed them, again, and asked if I could claim for part of the shipping fees, and if this required submitting receipts.

Here's hoping this thrilling [haha] saga can be concluded with a Part 4!

<3 Jade