We have lots of problems with couriers where we live.

Our house in the countryside in a tiny little farming hamlet of about 7 farms and a school and our nearest town is about 15 kilometers away. Anyway, because of this we have a mailbox at the school and we pick up our mail from there. The road, although it has a classification number, has no mane (ie its not called 'Sesame Street' etc but CA1234...). Couriers tell us that they can't deliver to our house because:

1 - It doesn't exist - if it did you'd have a proper address, with a proper street name and the postman would deliver to your house.
Well the house does exist and we have all the legal documents to prove it. I can also provide the GPS location codes to help the courier find it - or directions for those still in the dark ages.

2 - The road doesn't exist - if it did it would have a name.
Road is real and the Spanish provincial government and town hall maintain and repair it. It's on the provincial map and there's actually a big sign up that tells us how much money the EEC invested into improving it 2 years ago.

3- The school doesn't exist - if it did it would have a proper address with a street name.
Scary, my daughter goes to an imaginary school .

4- The hamlet doesn't exist - if it did... (well you get the idea).

We're just about to have a new dac delivered. It should have arrived on Monday but didn't turn up so I contacted the courier yesterday and their response was, which is a new one on me:

'We couldn't deliver because the recipient's name is false'
Me, 'Pardon?'
Courier, 'The recipient has not got a proper family name. It is made up and therefore false so we cannot deliver it.'
Me (ever so slightly annoyed), 'Well it's the family name I've had all my life and it's been our family name for centuries.'
Courier, 'You'll have to talk to my boss tomorrow.'

Wednesday: Call courier's boss.

She repeats points 1,2,3 and 4 above but accepts that I have a proper family name.
Me, 'OK so you can't deliver to me as the street has no street name?'
Boss, 'Yes, that's right'
Me, 'OK, can you deliver to the local petrol station and I'll collect it from there?'
Boss, 'Sure. What is the street name'
Me, 'It's the CA1234.'
Boss, "That's fine. The parcel will be delivered tomorrow.'

The noise you can here is my head as I bang it repeatedly against the wall.

But I am happy that they're going to deliver it finally.

Do they change couriers often there?
I can understand they not finding a house "in the middle of nowhere" the first time... but the rest?

Maybe it's summer and they have new guys working there for just a couple months who don't know the place...

Or maybe they are just... well...

Patience man, couriers can sometimes be a pain in the ass. Even in big cities


Edit: Forgot to ask Tony, what is that family name of yours that the couriers refuse to believe to exist!?

hahahahah!!!

QUOTE:
'Well it's the family name I've had all my life and it's been our family name for centuries.'


this part made my day! LOL

totally frustrating for you I can more than well imagine, but hilarious!

the luck of the Irish?

How irritating!

The only tip I can give you is that you think to yourself; How would Basil Fawlty resolve the situation

Sounds like a lost script of Fawlty Towers

You're staring a grand opportunity in the face! Pit the Courier service against your town/city and say that according to them, your house, road and school don't exist, therefore you shouldn't be paying taxes!

Oh gosh - I love Fawlty Towers!!! They are so funny!!!




hahaha!!! Yeah!!!

Man, I'm in the shipping business and that's one of the craziest things I have ever heard.. Hope it all works out for you. Play a little trick on them when they do show up to deliver and refuse it. Kidding of course.

Haha, that must be annoying, but it makes for a good story

Oh... and check your mail

edit:
I cannot deliver the e-mail I'm afraid.
Your e-mail doesn't exist - if it did it'd have a proper address, with a proper username and the e-mailman would deliver to your inbox!

The system is so weird for the postage. They must not check into it much, just two piles it gets thrown into...

I've even signed up my dog to get the couriers delivered and they got to my pet just fine. Yes with his name, Patch the dog, on it! It was a new dog bed for him. The delivery guy needed a signature and got a paw print instead with my scribble of the word Patch below it on his remote signature pad. He just laughed and said that's fine, hope your dog enjoys the gift!


The best one I've heard for postage is the taping of coins onto the letter. This guy was writing a letter to his girlfriend and ran out of stamps to use, so taped coins and a little extra onto the envelope a little note saying he ran out of stamps and here's an extra in coin for the hassle.

Well years later he gets a reply... an apologize letter from the post.

It got there, but the letter gets ripped. The postmen rip a corner for his share of the coins and got fired for it.

The taped coins actually jammed up the sorting machines.

The cancel ink mark won't stick to tape.

USPS policy kicked in: you can’t return a damaged letter to sender. No stamps to send onwards. Sat around for ages lost, and finally they found it and decided to send it to the girlfriend it was addressed to. Apart from the tip being removed the girlfriend got the letter with the coins still on it.

"3- The school doesn't exist - if it did it would have a proper address with a street name.
Scary, my daughter goes to an imaginary school "


HAHAHAHA, that killed me!!!

I hate that kind of burocratic things

Parcel was finally delivered to the petrol station yesterday and we picked it up from there. Dac is now installed so all's well etc - at least to the next time .

Fran -
family name in Irish is ó Séaghdha - a very old Irish name that goes back to 1002AD when the Irish king Brian Boru demanded that the large Irish clans take a distinct family name. So the name itself is over 1000 years old and is one of the original Irish clan names.

The clan goes further back to the 5th century AD. Most of my father's family come from County Cork and County Waterford and over there it's a very common family name; there's over 600 ó Séaghdha's listed in the County Cork telephone directory

There you got it. Make a copy of the phone directory and send it to the guy who said it was a made up name!
Interesting story Tony!

Glad the parcel arrived