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Author
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Topic: Adventures in shipping
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Frank Cox
Film God
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Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011
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posted 10-06-2014 03:22 PM
I mentioned last week that I was setting up a secure laptop and sending it to the person who wants it. This is the first time I've sent something like this to any destination that wasn't in Canada or USA, and it was far more of an undertaking that I had anticipated.
I was supposed to ship it by DHL, so I got the box packed yesterday, weighed and measured it, and tried to ship it this morning. After two hours on the phone with DHL, and having talked to seven(!) different people, it turns out that I can't ship it by DHL because I can't pay them.
Melville doesn't have, and never has had, door to door mail delivery. Therefore I, and everyone else in town, have a post office box at the post office here and all of my mail is put into that. I walk to the post office every day to pick it up.
My credit card bills are delivered to my post office box. Where else would they be sent, right? The only way to pay DHL is with a credit card. However, because my the address on file for my credit card (post office box) isn't my street address, DHL's payment system rejects all attempts to make a payment.
Two hours and seven people later, I was told that the only way that I can ship something via DHL will be to physically carry it into their office in Regina, which is a two hour drive from here.
And even if I made that drive, what are the chances that when I arrive there they will tell me that I need form XYZ that I don't have, and I'll have to go and get that and return, making this into a multi-day, multi-trip odyssey.
Time for Plan B. I see a FedEx truck in town every day, so get on the phone to them.
Turns out that there is no pickup in Melville. The FedEx guy who comes here is FedEx Ground only, and he can't pick up FedEx Air shipments. The only way for me to ship FedEx air is, guess what, carry the package into their office in Regina myself.
On to Plan C. Canada Post offers a Priority Worldwide Air service that has an expected delivery date of October 15, which is the same date that DHL offered, and the price was about the same too. $334.36. That's the most expensive stamp that I've ever bought, but at least the thing is now on its way to the destination.
I never would have thought that shipping a package would be a most-of-the-day adventure. I receive packages from FedEx and DHL all the time, but never tried shipping anything out with them that wasn't already prepaid by someone else. I mostly send freight out by bus. Unfortunately, that doesn't work for overseas packages like this one. But now I know if the situation ever comes up again. First stop: Canada Post.
Edit: I just noticed that the fine print on the receipt form that I got for this box from the post office says "International delivery by FedEx Express". So I guess it ended up going FedEx anyway.
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Frank Cox
Film God
![](/ubbmembers/6258a.jpg)
Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011
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posted 10-07-2014 03:48 PM
It would absolutely be cheaper to purchase the laptop at the destination location. In fact, the laptop owner already has a laptop (or several, I'm not really sure).
The objective wasn't the laptop as such. The configuration and setup was the important part, and the actual hardware involved is strictly incidental.
I don't think it's currently possible to zip down to your local office supply store and purchase a laptop that is pre-configured with Centos 7 (instead of MS Windows Whatever) and set up to allow secure remote access (by me, in this case) to complete the setup to be what the end user requires.
If it was possible for her to do it locally, it absolutely would have been cheaper and it would have saved me a lot of time into the bargain.
I considered creating an image on my computer here with Virtual Box and then sending her the image to have natively installed on a locally purchased computer, but there seemed to be far too many potential pitfalls involved in that scheme to try it. She would have to find a computer that the image would work with (which took me a whole day to do myself, and I actually know what I'm doing) plus probably find a computer tech at her location who is trustworthy and knows what he's doing to install the image for her since I'll guarantee she couldn't do it herself. Simply running a Virtual Box image on a Windows host wouldn't meet the security needs. We're getting rid of Windows, not installing more software on top of it.
Usually when I do this sort of a setup it's a "bring it to me and I'll set it up for you" operation. I occasionally do it on an I'll-ship-it-to-you basis as well, but again, I don't remember ever shipping one of these things on anything other than the bus, or maybe by ordinary post office mail. Most often bus freight; it's pretty reliable and doesn't cost the earth.
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