Package Delivery in YK

It's rather amazing, and how it goes just all depends...

Late last November I had ordered some flannel-lined jeans from LLBean. LLBean used Purolator (I believe), and neglected to put my phone number on the outside of the package. Since it arrived at the beginning of the Christmas rush, the fellow had no time to track me down, or deliver - so the package sat in the Purolator warehouse... and sat... and sat... until finally I got smart myself and went to them four weeks later, in the off chance that maybe something had been delivered. "Yep!" said the guy, and immediately retrieved it.

More recently I ordered some kids' presents from Land's End, who used UPS. Same story, different process (and same guy here, though - seems to handle UPS and Purolator): no phone number on the outside of the package, and stricter time limits on how long a package could sit. By the time I had figured out how to access the tracking number and see where the package might be, it had been shipped back to Edmonton (!), since the "keep" limit is five days and the fellow had already exceeded that. Luckily I caught him early enough on a Friday afternoon that he, in turn, was able to catch the woman in the Edmonton office - and sure enough, she knew the package and put it on the first truck back to YK. The shipping fellow now has my name and number on a yellow sticky by his computer.

Just today a letter came special overnight delivery - Buffalo Air Express. I was sitting in the Vietnamese Noodle House, a few blocks from my house, when the phone rang: "Package delivery downstairs!" (of my apartment). "I'm not home," I said, "I'm at the Noodle House." "Oh," he said, "you can pick it up tomorrow," and he explained location and hours. A few minutes later the phone rang again: "I wasn't thinking," he said, "that's just around the block, isn't it! I'll just come by - I'll be wearing a yellow safety vest." And sure enough - a few minutes later the van rolled up and the letter was delivered to me at the restaurant. Amazing.

Soon Willem will ship something Greyhound - except that Greyhound doesn't deliver to Yellowknife, but rather hands off freight to Frontier Coachlines. I've told him to be sure to get a tracking number, and track religiously, so I'll know whom to contact and when! wouldn't want the item to languish, or to get sent back, or even to get delivered to a restaurant.

Though the latter was rather nice, and much appreciated.