What a good son, brother and grandson I thought I was being. My first Christmas living overseas and I had bought, wrapped up and packaged a parcel full of gifts for my family at Christmas. I had even gotten myself down the Post Shop to post it in time for it to arrive in the UK for Christmas!
Never mind that it was a blazing hot day and I could feel the chocolate bar in the package had gone soft. It would soon be sat in the freezing hold of an Airmail plane and would be restored to its former glory. I was definitely doing the right thing by sending these presents – wasn’t I?
Well, 25th December passed and my family still had not received their pressies! In fact, most of January passed. Sorry, all of January. And February. Their parcel was lost. Or stolen, more like. Everyone’s innocent until proven guilty, but it seems that the temptation of three NZ calendars, a DVD and a bar of New Zealand’s finest choc is a wee bit too much of a temptation for some postal workers. “How did they know what was in the package?” you ask. Because it was written on the side of the flipping envelope! On the customs slip. Next time I reckon I’ll just write ’1/4 litre of urine, some fingernail clippings and last week’s TV guide’ on that thing.
Of course, there is the possibility that the parcel was genuinely lost by some honest accidental method. Such as ‘it fell out the back of the plane’. Or maybe a sniffer dog raided it at the airport, just before the poor creature found out what chocolate does to dogs? Or, at a push, the melted chocolate looked too much like a stool on the x-ray scanner to allow it entry into the UK?
None of it matters, really. The main point is that my family are still awaiting their Christmas bundle of joy and it’s 13th March. And that makes me quite sad, really.
April 3rd, 2009 at 22:15
I sympathise with you Dunc! That’s why we set up Post a Present, our UK based online Gift shop and we market ourselves to overseas customers, like yourself, with family in the UK.
Most of my family live in South Africa and they have the same problem, it quite often doesn’t even get out of the Post Office!
With Post a Present you can order online and we will send direct from the UK and also wrap it for you and include your message. On the rare occasion anything gets lost or damage, we will put it right straight away. We pride ourselves on great customer service and we have a wide range of gifts at affordable prices for all occasions.
We have many customers in Australia and New Zealand and you can see their comments at http://www.postapresent.co.uk/acatalog/Customer-testimonials.html
Give us a try next time mate!
Helen x
April 6th, 2009 at 23:04
Thanks for the sympathy Helen! I did receive compensation for the parcel disappearing off the face of the Earth, but I would rather it had just got there in time for Christmas. Will definitely be looking at your service next time around!