Napoleonic, WSS & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Thursday, 23 July 2020

Hooptedoodle #372 - A Modern Epic - Heroism in Very Small Steps

Morning run - the brave boys from USPS set off with another day's deliveries
Recently, I was brave enough to purchase something online from the United States. I used to do this from time to time in the past, but have sort of got out of the habit. Shipping prices and other overheads have become more problematic (various reasons), and I have a faint concern that the handlers will realise that the package is intended for the hostile liberals overseas, and may drive a fork-lift over it, or urinate on it, or similar (call me nervously imaginative if you will).

At the time I made the purchase, a delivery date of 28th-29th July was estimated, which seemed very optimistic, but no matter - I am not in a particular rush, and I am in any case now a veteran of a recent post-lockdown postal experience of air-freight from New Zealand which took a few months, so I have the calm which comes from experience. It's OK - these are tricky times - the brave chaps on the high seas will do their best for me. Whatever. We have to be grateful.

So I was pretty relaxed about my parcel - it will get here, but it might not make it by 28th July. Hey, there are lots of people in the world with real problems, so I can stand to wait a week or two. This morning I received an email message to say that my package had arrived at the courier, and was out for delivery.

Fantastic! - in a state of some excitement, I followed the links to get some tracking details of this miracle of space-age logistics.

Hmmm. What has happened is that it has arrived at the start of the international bit of its journey. All the previous toil and endeavour appears to have been local bits of USPS handing it on to each other - or maybe putting it back in the bin for tomorrow - or maybe rubber-stamping something [come on - I can't be expected to understand how these things work]. What seems to me like the hard bit has not begun yet, and I have not even mentioned import tax and all the glumph at this end. So I've gone back to my previous assumption that it will not make it by 28th. We have not yet got to tales of aeroplanes flying over the ocean, or Big Tam with the size 12 boots at the depot in Edinburgh.

Mind you, there's still 5 days to go. If it makes it, I promise I shall sing their praises on this very blog. I'm not too worried, to be honest - if it's late it serves me right for being rash - but this view of the innards of the gig economy at work doesn't impress me as much as I had hoped.

***** Late Digression *****

Nothing to do with the above (apart from implications of international shipping, I guess), but I've just got word from Allan at Lancashire Games that they will be stocking Vauban's Wars when it is printed and released. Just thought I should mention it...

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7 comments:

  1. Jonathan Freitag23 July 2020 at 17:06

    My personal opinion of ebay global shipping based upon a few transactions is that it offers more expense shipping costs with slower delivery times than traditional international shipping but YMMV.

    My digression: Allan from Lancashire Games is a great vendor and a pleasure to deal with.

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    1. MSFoy23 July 2020 at 17:36

      Agreed - I wasn't offered any choices on the shipping.

      Allan at LG - yes - good chap.

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  2. Anonymous23 July 2020 at 19:01

    Did you have to pay extra for your item to do a farewell tour of the USA?
    Agreed on A at LG.

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    1. MSFoy23 July 2020 at 19:57

      I'll check on the order details. In my ignorance, I may well be disregarding the fact that my package has already travelled huge distances, but some of these steps seem to be on or off a truck, not to mention the ominous "n/a" entries. The problem with tracking systems is that the actual workers have no real incentive to use them properly; unless there are penalties for incorrect use, these systems can only bring you trouble. That happens here with Hermes - the delivery drivers can put fictional entries in to keep the productivity people off their backs. Eventually, of course, all USPS staff may have jobs which consist entirely of making entries in a computer system, and there will be no-one left alive who remembers that they once used to transport and deliver parcels. That's not unlike the way Audit and Compliance eventually took over all the jobs in the UK finance industry. And what happened to piano tuners? And what about dinosaur exterminators?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous23 July 2020 at 22:30

      Or bank clerks, the job of which these days mostly consists of apologising for what 'the system' has done and their inability to understand why or put it right.

      Delete
    3. MSFoy23 July 2020 at 22:57

      Good example - relevant to me - I'm currently trying to get the Bank of Scotland to correct my postal address on their records. I can't do it online, because I have an old (and defunct) account which has an error in it, and I can't change it and and I can't close it. I am told to go into the local branch and get them to close my dead account and correct my records. They are not allowed to do this unless they can book an interview for me with their resident financial advisor (who is usually aged 22, and is most of the way through his/her banking exams). I tell them I would rather die, thank you, and they apologise and say they don't really understand it, but this is what they have to do.

      There are other redundant roles now - UK Prime Minister seems to be a bit of a throw-back, also it's interesting to have a read of the official job description for the UK Attorney General, and have a ponder on what the blazes went wrong there.

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    4. Anonymous24 July 2020 at 10:15

      Good game! I recently tried to pay into a savings account (this lockdown is saving me a fortune in diesel and beer) but the online system wouldn't let me as I hadn't used the account for a couple of years. It would, however, let me draw all the money out of it and pay it into another account I hadn't used for much longer. My query obviously wasn't on the 'helpline' chap's script but he helpfully persisted in answering a host of completely different questions which were only vaguely connected to what I had asked.

      UK PM? Something to do with waving crustaceans at the public, I gather from the news. Right, I will, sounds like a good read over a cuppa.

      Delete

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