Fraudulent promises

Warning: This is a rant-type post. Skip if you're too full of good holiday cheer.

During the Christmas holidays is when delivery companies get slammed. People tend to shop online a lot these days and mid-December is when the insanity begins. I am an online shopper, not for the convenience but because I do my research as a consumer. Sometimes, the best, full-featured, durable items are simply not available anywhere but online. So I shop online more often than not.

Shopping online means that I don't get what I buy immediately. There's usually a lag of anywhere between a week to two weeks. I've had items delayed for up to a month before. It's all part and parcel of online shopping - we just don't quite have the infrastructure to send packages efficiently and on-time over long distances without paying through the nose for it.

Over the Christmas hols, I expect some parcels to be late. It's just not reasonable to expect some poor, underpaid person to work late on Christmas Eve just so I can get my parcel - there is an element of social responsibility here. The unspoken contract is that I'll be reasonably patient waiting for the parcel and they'll be reasonably competent delivering it on-time.

Unfortunately, this doesn't work. There are a few delivery companies I will do business with, including Canada Post, USPS (excellent!), DHL and FedEx. Regrettably, other companies are not so good and for two of them, I've decided to boycott them due to their abysmal customer service. Let's take a very recent example, shall we? The trend tends to go something like this:

1. I buy something online and pick a delivery method with company X. It doesn't matter what I pick, it won't show up on time so I just choose the cheapest one now.
2. About a couple of days after it's shipped, I can check my tracking number online and it'll say when it's supposed to be delivered.
3. I'll check my tracking number on the delivery day when no parcel has shown up at all and it's well past the time for last delivery. Lo and behold, mysteriously my delivery date information has disappeared and my package is "in transit" somewhere between here and Hades.
4. I call the courier company. I'll get a clueless customer service rep. I'll call again a couple of hours later, and usually get someone a little better. S/he will tell me they're starting a trace.
5. I sit and wait. A few days goes by, still no package. I call again. The package is still "in transit" and apparently no one has started a trace yet but they will this time, apparently.
6. I sit and wait. According to my online tracking information, it hasn't even reached my city yet. I call again, apparently they're "working hard to find where it is".
7. Suddenly my package appears. This would usually be around Delivery Day + 1 or 2 weeks.

I had a recent episode with a worldwide courier service. My online order came with free "guaranteed N day" delivery. When it failed to appear, I called and got told, "Oh, yeah - that's just what we call that level of service. We don't actually guarantee anything". I'm speechless. I consider that fraud. So, I'm boycotting that courier service. It means that I can't shop with quite a few popular online stores now but I refuse to give my money towards a business that out and out rips off their customers through blatant misrepresentation.

Is this what we have been reduced to? No wonder our businesses in Canada and the US are getting eaten alive by foreign competitors. We have no pride in what we do. More than that, we have no sense of shame anymore.

Women wargamers

I was chit-chatting with a few folks last week and the conversation meandered over to childhood hobbies. One guy who we shall call Mr. X was reminiscing about wargaming and I chimed in, "Yep, used to love that sort of thing too", for which I got an odd look and the comment, "Yeah, right - girls don't wargame". I was, of course, suitably offended by this (it was a boring day and I hadn't filled my Emotional Reaction of the Day quota yet) and was challenged, "Uh huh. So if you've played them, which ones have you played?", to which I rattled off quite a few.

Here's the funny part - while I was playing Harpoon, 3rd Fleet and WSIM, Mr. X's entire experience with wargaming consisted of Risk, Axis and Allies and chess (which I don't consider a wargame at all). Following that was a series of good-humoured but pointed exchanges, much to the amusement of those present. His parting shot was, "Well, playing is one thing, but winning is another."

Now, I don't care what you are as long as you're not a bumbling idiot who keeps asking "What do I do now?" when you're playing with me. I agree conceptually with that chap - most women in general don't seem to play wargames. I think the last study done showed that women wargamers comprise less than 1% of all wargamers, and wargaming comprises less than 7% of the entire gaming community (yes, citation needed, I know). Doing a rough guess, I'd say that there are fewer than 10,000 active women wargamers in the world right now. Therefore, I don't dispute the basic fact that women wargamers are rare. What I do take umbrage about is the idea that wargaming is not something women can play, or play well at. It wasn't worth the time and effort to educate Mr. X - if he considers Risk as a proper wargame, then heaven help him. He has, unfortunately, taken to calling me "Xena" since then, something that I shall have to remedy in short order.

To a certain extent, I'm not being fair to Mr. X - I had a rather unorthodox childhood for a gal. Do I love wargames anymore? Not really, or at least nowhere near the extent I did way back when. I certainly do not count myself as being an active gamer anymore, let alone an active wargamer. My interests have shifted elsewhere since my younger days and I can definitively say that I am a radically different person now.

Still, I recently picked up the latest incarnation of a favourite wargame of mine and discovered that yes, I still do have the touch. Not everyone can successfully defend the GIUK gap against a Soviet boomer surge. :)

Christmas 2007

Well, here's my first semi-obligatory Christmas post. We had a very nice quiet Christmas at home. The kids were happy with their loot and I spent a few good hours playing with them. Yes, I know Christmas isn't about loot and prezzies - good luck explaining that to small children. That vacant look when you explain these things to them? That's not comprehension. What's going through their little minds are something like this: I have no idea what she's talking about oh boy I can't wait to get back to my super killer robot mmm candy canes in my stocking yum ah good she's done yay!

The day was filled with good food, good company, good cheer and the din of children hard at play. That's pretty much it. It's an ordinary Christmas all around. However, that's not necessarily true of some folks I know. This year, I've known one person who was laid off not two weeks from Christmas, one who's spending Christmas alone after what turned out to be a nasty divorce despite a good start and one who is finally spending Christmas with friends but is so haunted by her past that she's having trouble accepting it.

There but for the grace of God go I.

Christmas is a time for happiness and joy, good food and good family, hot chocolate by the roaring fireplace, carols on the radio. What we sometimes forget is that there are unfortunates out there who are spending the day alone. Not necessarily because they have no money, although that certainly happens a lot too. No, Christmas is only meaningful if you have friends and family. Which some people, good people at that, do not have. Sometimes that's because of their own doing. Other times, it's because they have family who don't know how to be family.

I recall spending Christmas alone. A lot of Christmases, really. I also remember back when I was young and religious sneaking out on Christmas day to attend Christmas service, knowing full well the seven kinds of hell that would descend upon me afterwards from my non-Christian parents. I'm not religious these days but we still celebrate Christmas for the kids' sake. For as long as they believe in Santa and have innoncence in their eyes, my sis and I will eat the horrendously large cookies left out every year for the most conspicuous and recognizable B&E repeat offender from the North Pole.

I'm rambling, can you tell? Turkey dinners make me fuzzy.

Ah well, time to head off to bed, methinks. Happy Christmas everyone!