This post is more cathartic than really about France. Its a cautionary tale with a bit of a rant but we can all hope for a Saturnalian miracle to happen!
OK....deep breath. Before we left for France we organised an express delivery box via Australia post. This express service would ensure we had the vital stuff we needed - ugg boots, wireless music system, warm clothes..etc. to be delivered soon after we arrived. Always nice to have some music for xmas!
The box had a tracking number so we could see its progress. It left Australia on 14th October on a five day door to door delivery. It arrived in Paris three days later....and then didn't move for a week. The frustrating thing was with this tracking number we could see exactly where it was. After a number of calls to Chronopost it finally made it out of Paris. In fact a week later it go all the way to Toulouse. There it had a 'dysfonctionnement' and was promptly sent back to Australia.
We could see all this happening, but calls to Chronopost to stop it being sent back were to no avail. It's too late, we were told. The Chronopost agent (one of many, each of whom take no notes so each time you repeat yourself) said that we (not them who caused the problem) to contact Australia post when it arrived back in Australia and have it sent back to France and would then have it delivered to our address.
Australia post said they would intercept the parcel before it got delivered back to our old address and send it back, but they didn't and it ended up back at our old house in Perth. No-one lives there so it ended up back in the local post office. Eventually we were able to persuade Australia post to send it back to France. Yay!
It arrived back in France, by this time over a month has passed since it was originally sent. Again it sat in Paris for a week. We called Chronopost again and asked why the hold up this time. We were told it had been sent back to Australia again. No reason, no explanation! Bloody hell Chronopost, you admit fault, say send it back and then when it gets back to you return it back again!!!!!
So once again it was sent back to our old address. Once again we said intercept it before it gets delivered back to our old address. Once again they said they would. Once again there is an attempted delivery back at our old address. If only I had signed this box up for frequent flyer points!
Throughout all of this both agencies don't seem to know what the other is doing. It's only through multiple calls to Chronopost and email chats to Australia post that its got anywhere. Aghhhh!!!
So it's now back again to Australia. I have now given up on trying to send it to us in France Maybe, I will send it to the UK instead and go and pick it up!
