Husband and I ordered some classical audio cd’s from Amazon recently. I usually like to order from Archiv, but everything there was on backorder.
Our selections were fairly eclectic, ranging from choral music by Arvo Part and Henrik Goreki, to a cd by Brooklyn Rider, a string quartet, playing with an Irish fiddler.
When you order from Amazon, you never quite know where the products are coming from. Three of the cd’s we ordered came from overseas. A London /Decca recording of Chopin nocturnes played by Vladimir Ashkenazy came from Japan. It arrived speedily, several days before even the US cd’s arrived. It is a lovely recording, but all the liner notes are in Japanese!
Two of the cd’s are coming from England. One is from Banbury, Oxfordshire. The other is from Stockport, in Cheshire. That particular cd is being shipped by Royal Mail. I have no idea what that means in terms of speed of delivery, but it sounds so impressive! I imagine it being delivered by someone in a Beefeater uniform.
Any interesting shipping or delivery stories? What music have you discovered lately? What would you like to receive via Royal Mail?
Trail Baboon 
My recent music and mail delivery together.
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I have been enjoying the Mona Lisa Twins since seeing them on here recently. I don’t *think* it’s just the red hair… 🙂
This is a nice mix song. Thanks Wessew!
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but the red hair is great. too
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Shipping and tracking is taking on a whole new meaning in the last two years hasn’t it? I ordered a DVD of The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, a 3-part Walt Disney production from probably the 60s. Turns out it was shipped from Japan. Who would’ve known? And it came very quickly. The flipside of that is that I ordered some soap molds in the spring and they turned out to be shipped from Russia. That took almost 2 months. YA is working from home today because we supposedly have a package arriving and it’s worth enough that she was able to convince her supervisor she should work from home today. Of course I just checked tracking and at 12:47 it was in Encino, New Mexico… I’m thinking it’s not getting here today..
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Rise and Shine, Baboons,
Last year I ordered heavy boxes into which I wanted to pack my kitchen items, then store them on the porch. I wanted uniformly sized boxes that would stack easily because I had a limited amount of space to work with. I ordered the boxes from Costco.com in early November so I could pack during December before we departed for AZ. I got an email around Nov. 20 saying that they had been delivered. I looked on the front patio. No boxes.
I gritted my teeth and called customer service, as instructed. Of course, I got a recording. I started hitting buttons and finally I got a real person who took my report of no delivery. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I cancelled my payment through the credit card company.
On December 23 I found a battered stack of flat boxes by the front door. By then I had piles of the liquor store boxes I did not want. Then Costco wanted to bill me. I filed a complaint with the credit card company and they honored my case. I wish these companies would create customer service systems that actually were effective.
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PS, question Renee: Why do you order CDs as opposed to downloading music then creating your own? It is faster and cheaper.
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Answering only for myself and not Renee, but it’s only faster and cheaper if you know how and have the requisite equipment… and the music you want is available for download.
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I suppose it is the same reason we don’t have audio books or download books onto Kindle or whatever one can do these days. I like others to do the work, I don’t have the equipment, and I like the liner notes. I also have definite preferences about conductors, performers, and ensembles, and I can get picky about what I listen to.
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THanks for answering—I was just curious.
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Super post
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My work involves a LOT of shipping and last year this time was a nightmare.
Custom made, personalized Christmas gifts shipped priority mail (2-days) that were “en route” for a month. After the first week or so, USPS tracking didn’t even bother trying to update beyond “it got dropped off in St Paul”.
I think what I want delivered via Royal Mail is a small tea set in Royal Dalton with handpainted periwinkles, along with some Earl Grey and some quality shortbread. Please hold delivery until after 12/15 as I won’t be able to enjoy it until then, please and thank you 🙂
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Yes, Hyacinth.
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That’s Mrs. Bucket to you, sir.
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Boou-kay
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Daisy is my favorite sister. That is the funniest show even after many years.
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A travel writer I like, whose name escapes me at the moment, says he is addicted to bags, not luggage as such, but back packs, messenger bags, brief cases, preferably out of leather. He says he has a room just for bags, into which his wife is not allowed because she would give them away. He says he periodically goes into the room, spread leather bags on the floor and tolls around on them.
I have always wanted but never purchase a real leather bag. These days I carry a cheap plasticy bag with me when I go see Sandy. I do much of my business out of that bag. I have a leather brief case/messenger bag coming today, or so tracking says. (Every time I type bag, it wants me to use this 💼
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Mail delivery has become rather interesting. I receive mine at a 12 door cluster box. The problem is that two of the units have no key and the tenants have put on notes asking that their mail be put on top. The mail person has been doing that but also mixing up other tenants mail. Mine has sometimes been put on top. My mail is quite lackluster while the other folks stuff is interesting without ever opening the envelopes.
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More of the story.
5,000 fine!! No opening letters from me.
But on the outside are bills from ankle bracelet monitoring companies, Ohio Attorney General, multiple county courts, sheriffs, lawyers, etc.
Everything seemed pretty calm until last night when two tenants got into a fight in the hallway. A pit bull bit BOTH combatants. The police took down one guy, cuffed and hauled him away. There are huge holes in the drywall and blood spatter everywhere. His future mail should be interesting.
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Wow!
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Wow is right!
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Oh, Wes. That must have been a scene. Did you see the whole thing go down, or just hear about it?
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Is the dog ok?
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Don’t know. Biting a rabid human could be a problem.
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I had no idea you almost live in a “gated” community, Wes.
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I witnessed most of it through my peephole and quick looking out my door and talked to the good guy neighbor this morning. Several of the neighbors had their phone cameras out. Not me! There’s far too many guns out here. Thankfully the cop shop is about 200 yards away and arrived in minutes.
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I need to send a 12 x 15 painting to Norway, with good stiff protection on both sides. What will that cost me? I assume UPS is best option. Anyone have experience at this?
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Take it to UPS and have them pack it
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Who is Anonymous today?
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I think Clyde.
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Clyde (he mentioned Sandy).
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i have a suitcase fettish
i like really nice suitcases
i have a bunch from travels and visiting garage sales in years gone by
i have a stash of hartman luggage with its tweed elegance and a beat up 30+ year old set of tumu lifetime guarantee bags from before the bag limit days when you could pack a monster suitcase with 90 lbs of paperwork and samples and throw in 2 shirts and 3 pairs of underwear and head for ports unknown to be returning with 3 additional suitcases full of stuff purchased while on the road. i used to go to hong kong with an overhead bag and return with gifts, tailored suits and cellos from my trip
suitcases are either lifetime or disposable
i have lots of each
disposable is nice too because you don’t have to care
my hartmans always take a little piece of me when the scars of travel mar the finish and make it a bag with character with imperfections inevitable but hard not to see
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i usually go us mail to europe
check the weight
if you can keep itunder 4 lbs it’s quite reasonable
less than 20% of ups or fedex
don’t bother with insurance or confirmation
if it gets screwed up you’re screwed anyway
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Wes’s mention of an ankle bracelet reminds me that not too long ago I was picking up a bunch of stuff that had been discarded outside a dumpster, in order to sort out and donate the usable stuff. One thing I found was an electronic device that had a symbol on it indicating that it should not be put in the trash, It looked like a monitoring device. It included a phone number and said there would be a reward for its return.
I called the number and got a recording. There was no opportunity to ask any questions or even leave a message, but it gave an address where the item could be shipped, so I did that. The reward turned out to be $25, on a Visa gift card.
I’m thinking I could get a couple of CD’s for that.
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The Brooklyn Rider disc arrived. It is lovely!
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Not packages, but we’ve had a lot of dealings with the VA this year, were supposed to get some important forms to fill out in the mail, I was told on the phone, in August. I didn’t even receive the forms for 6 weeks, well after the due date for them to be signed and returned…
If you ever had to deal with the VA, do it by phone and fax.
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I have that post office app that gives me a daily preview of Our mail, plus notification when packages have actually been delivered. Since we’re the end of the route, If the regular guy, Bruce, just has the one route we get mail at 2:30. If he’s working two shifts, which he usually seems to be. Or there’s a substitute, we don’t get mail till 6:30 or 7:00 PM
And many times we don’t get a package and the app says something like “door blocked“ or “animal interference“. But that’s only because there’s not a box that says “I’m overwhelmed and I quit“.
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I didn’t know there was such an app (but I probably should have).
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Not really an app, just a website, “USPS Informed Delivery”. But it sends daily emails of the mail.
My brother told me about how much he likes it when they’re traveling.
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Good to know!
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Shipping update. I just got home from an evening seeing White Christmas at the Columbia Heights and no surprise to me, the new Robo vacuum is not here. Tracking says now it will be here on Friday. I’m not holding my breath for that either but we’ll see.
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