Was very confused myself, I spent nearly half an hour sorting everything out at the private post before I finally got it.
Three post offices: the private one I usually go to, the public post office on campus (I had quite a long chat with them while waiting for them to straighten everything out, and I learned they have a tie-up of some sort with the private one I go to), and the CMEC that I went to this morning.
APPARENTLY, because of that tie-up thing (and because of their proximity, or so they say -- it's a pretty long commute between them!), they have the same delivery-route-schedule-thing I forgot what they called it, basically it's almost like the public post office on campus is just a branch of the private one I go to. Lucky for me when the public one on campus had trouble with yours, they sent it to the private one, where everyone else's shirts were, so I didn't have to go back and forth between the two to get everything. I went to the private one today to follow-up on the ones I had sent some Saturdays ago (the Saturday AFTER I dropped off your shirt at the public PO on campus), and they said that they hadn't sent it out yet because the public PO on campus had left THEM (the private PO) to sort it out and yeah basically they screwed me over big time. >_______________< I should've gone to the CMEC in the first place. Expensive commute be damned, at least everything gets done properly right away. >_____________________________________
Hm, wow, this is pretty complicated, but thanks for the explanation, I guess. I was also worried about the shirts of the others that got apparently put on hold because of mine. If EMS to other countries is fine, I can't understand why they must have delayed everyone else's because of mine. :(
Also, you saying you have a tracking number made me assume that at least the rest were sent out, even if mine wasn't.
Can you confirm that they shipped out everyone's tonight? It seems your postal service is hard to deal with.
CMEC is, like, right beside the airport since it's THE central post office, everything goes through there before they get sent out to their recepients (mail incoming from overseas, domestic mail, mail to be sent overseas from here, etc etc). I made sure they put it in the shelves that were marked with today's date, so they'll definitely be on the planes by midnight.
I have tracking numbers for the ones I sent today, but I have no idea how to track them -- last I checked the official website (about a week ago), the Tracking page was still Under Construction. WTF it's been "Under Construction" for two years!!! >___________________________
Can I ask you to give everyone their tracking numbers? They could find a way to track the packages through their own post office, and it'd be a reassurance to them.
Just edited the post on the comm, and another trip to the private postal stand is in order to bug them about three other shirts that I sent out through them.
Thank you. I'm a bit disappointed though that you didn't post this info straightaway. (Along with Maye's being already sent like I've just learned from the comm post?!) I've said before that I think being kept in the dark about where and what my (our) money is doing is quite unpleasant for everyone.
I've been anxious about this issue ever since I got back from vacation and as organizers of this project (I think I can count myself as one of those, being in charge of the letters) it's our responsibility to give a project that has been a brain-, and love child of all of us a priority. Especially seeing that many people devoted time and money for months now, so it can be complete.
I think as one of the people in charge, you understand this too. Thank you for making effort so it can be safely finished.
I understand, and I'm really sorry. I tried to be on top of things, I really did. But it's the first time that this had gotten so incredibly complicated -- I arranged a birthday project for Adachi back in 2007 and that one went really well, seeing as all I had everyone do was send me stuff, no worrying about waiting for money and bugging printers and sending more than one thing out to more than one country. I guess I was caught by surprise with the complications that this one brought and was unequipped to deal with it efficiently? Probably, and that's entirely my fault, and I can't apologize enough. Plus school getting in the way, with all the trekking I have to do for the thesis that I haven't even officially started yet (I shudder to think how much heavier my schedule will be once I actually DO start on my thesis).
I know Ginnie, and I understand. But still, you offered to do it and - especially seeing that you have experience with organizing a project like this before - I'm sure you knew that it'd be time consuming and mean a lot of responsibility.
IIRC, Sally offered to run the whole thing, but you said it'd be cheaper if you did it and we took this at face value, yet it wasn't the case at all. For ex., if I knew beforehand that there's no EMS to Hungary from you, I'd have pushed for Sally to run the shirt printing/shipping process.
You say yourself that you knew that this would involve sending more than one thing out to more than one country. I know that *I* absolutely wouldn't have had the time to organize this, thus didn't even volunteer. But you did, and so we assumed that you'd be able devote the necessary amount of effort to this - regardless of other obligations. We even left a HUGE time margin with the money for the shirts being sent in April/May already.
I don't want to sound like I'm condescending, but remember that it's always a slippery slope people's money is involved.
Anyway, I hope we can forget about the whole thing, look back on it more calmly and move on, once the shirts are here.
I did want to devote time and attention to this project, I really did. Sally and I came up with this together, there is absolutely no way in the world that I wouldn't give as much time as I could for this.
I was expecting a quick and easy sending process. I go to the postal stand, fill out papers, leave everything to them. That's the way it worked the other times I've sent stuff, except that all those other times were always either only to Japan or the USA. And the timing of the project coincided with the changing of employees at postal stands, bringing in newbies etc, plus not everyone was as prompt as you and Sally in sending their money over -- I've had to PM some of the others multiple times before I even get so much as an "Oh, I'm sorry -- I'll go to the bank soon" from them, and then they take their time to actually send the money, and then the bank decides to take THEIR time giving me the money.
I was looking at a posting date of May for the shirts. But with the delay in getting everyone's money, partly because they took so long to send it and partly because the bank decided to screw me over with Paypal clearance delays for the first time in my life, that didn't happen. And then again with the waiting for the bank to clear my Paypal money so that I could already send your shirts out. And THEN the whole thing with the postal service being more confusing than I remember it (NEXT TIME, STRAIGHT TO THE CMEC *NOTES*).
Ack, if you had trouble with people paying up, you should have said something / asked Sally or me for assistance - I'm sure if we also poked them a bit more, called for payments on the comm, they would have paid more earlier. That's why I suggested you should update the comm constantly, to let us all know where things stand. Also, I wondered why you didn't ask for shipping money together with the price of the shirts - then you could have immediately sent out the shirts of the ones who paid earlier and not wait for the latecomers to pay up. But that's all speculation now and not worth mulling over. All that's left is to wait, huh.
I didn't know until I actually got the shirts how much shipping would cost, since it's all by weight, so I didn't ask for the whole cost right away. It just so happened that the $10/$15/$20 were pretty much right. I also would have prefered to get the amount sent exact the first time rather than have too much sent and then I'd have to send back the extra because there's money lost due to Paypal fees.
Three post offices: the private one I usually go to, the public post office on campus (I had quite a long chat with them while waiting for them to straighten everything out, and I learned they have a tie-up of some sort with the private one I go to), and the CMEC that I went to this morning.
APPARENTLY, because of that tie-up thing (and because of their proximity, or so they say -- it's a pretty long commute between them!), they have the same delivery-route-schedule-thing I forgot what they called it, basically it's almost like the public post office on campus is just a branch of the private one I go to. Lucky for me when the public one on campus had trouble with yours, they sent it to the private one, where everyone else's shirts were, so I didn't have to go back and forth between the two to get everything. I went to the private one today to follow-up on the ones I had sent some Saturdays ago (the Saturday AFTER I dropped off your shirt at the public PO on campus), and they said that they hadn't sent it out yet because the public PO on campus had left THEM (the private PO) to sort it out and yeah basically they screwed me over big time. >_______________< I should've gone to the CMEC in the first place. Expensive commute be damned, at least everything gets done properly right away. >_____________________________________
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Also, you saying you have a tracking number made me assume that at least the rest were sent out, even if mine wasn't.
Can you confirm that they shipped out everyone's tonight? It seems your postal service is hard to deal with.
Reply
I have tracking numbers for the ones I sent today, but I have no idea how to track them -- last I checked the official website (about a week ago), the Tracking page was still Under Construction. WTF it's been "Under Construction" for two years!!! >___________________________
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Can I ask you to give everyone their tracking numbers? They could find a way to track the packages through their own post office, and it'd be a reassurance to them.
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I've been anxious about this issue ever since I got back from vacation and as organizers of this project (I think I can count myself as one of those, being in charge of the letters) it's our responsibility to give a project that has been a brain-, and love child of all of us a priority. Especially seeing that many people devoted time and money for months now, so it can be complete.
I think as one of the people in charge, you understand this too. Thank you for making effort so it can be safely finished.
Reply
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IIRC, Sally offered to run the whole thing, but you said it'd be cheaper if you did it and we took this at face value, yet it wasn't the case at all. For ex., if I knew beforehand that there's no EMS to Hungary from you, I'd have pushed for Sally to run the shirt printing/shipping process.
You say yourself that you knew that this would involve sending more than one thing out to more than one country. I know that *I* absolutely wouldn't have had the time to organize this, thus didn't even volunteer. But you did, and so we assumed that you'd be able devote the necessary amount of effort to this - regardless of other obligations. We even left a HUGE time margin with the money for the shirts being sent in April/May already.
I don't want to sound like I'm condescending, but remember that it's always a slippery slope people's money is involved.
Anyway, I hope we can forget about the whole thing, look back on it more calmly and move on, once the shirts are here.
Reply
I was expecting a quick and easy sending process. I go to the postal stand, fill out papers, leave everything to them. That's the way it worked the other times I've sent stuff, except that all those other times were always either only to Japan or the USA. And the timing of the project coincided with the changing of employees at postal stands, bringing in newbies etc, plus not everyone was as prompt as you and Sally in sending their money over -- I've had to PM some of the others multiple times before I even get so much as an "Oh, I'm sorry -- I'll go to the bank soon" from them, and then they take their time to actually send the money, and then the bank decides to take THEIR time giving me the money.
I was looking at a posting date of May for the shirts. But with the delay in getting everyone's money, partly because they took so long to send it and partly because the bank decided to screw me over with Paypal clearance delays for the first time in my life, that didn't happen. And then again with the waiting for the bank to clear my Paypal money so that I could already send your shirts out. And THEN the whole thing with the postal service being more confusing than I remember it (NEXT TIME, STRAIGHT TO THE CMEC *NOTES*).
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The postal stuff is pretty unfortunate, though.
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Wait. And a lot of praying. T_T
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