My daughter and her husband moved to London to do their big OE a few months ago. Thanks to modern technology, we've been in touch almost every day but I had to resort to snail mail to get her winter clothes to her.
No computer geek has yet invented a device that gets items carried through cyber space. So early in November, I bundled up all her heavy winter coats and bought some possum/merino jerseys and scarves and gloves, along with a few little treats and the omnibus of Hairy Maclary stories for the wee boy she's looking after and headed to the Post Office. One hundred and ten dollars later, I was assured she would receive her care package within four to six days. And, if I wished, I could follow the parcel on track and trace. Great, I thought. What service, I thought.
Wrong. To date, she has yet to receive the parcel. At first I thought it might have been held up at the London end. It seems that Her Majesty's revenue agents are pinging everything that comes through, be it hand-knitted baby clothes, used clothing or gifts. A number of people I've spoken to say friends and family have had to pay a Customs tax far in excess of what the gift cost to uplift it from Customs. But after further investigations, it seems it's not Her Majesty's customs officials and their mercenary practices that have stopped the parcel coming through. It's good old-fashioned incompetence.
It has vanished, which I thought would have been hard to do with track and trace. But apparently, once it's in the air, a parcel can't be traced - for security reasons. It can only be tracked when it leaves a country and when it arrives in another. So, while it's flying around the world, it's untraceable. Expensive lesson learned - from now on, while the kids are away, it will be online vouchers for them.
Which is nowhere near the same as receiving care packages from home, but sending parcels through the post is just too risky and expensive. No wonder postal services around the world are going out of business.
