The Most Unbelievable Story Ever
2 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 23 February 2007 at 2/23/2007 10:45:00 am.
My friends here say I should always write down or otherwise make a mental note of my first impression of things here in BW-land, just because soon you get so used to everything and then you overlook the "little things in life" later on, and things that were once special don't hit you as being "appreciable" anymore. Stuff like driving past the local baboon troop every day on the way to work, the incredible sunrises and sunsets, the "currently unique but soon-to-be-everyday-average" little things like dodging a herd of donkeys on the road during your morning walk....
Well I was thinking that our current furniture-less situation could constitute one of those things that perhaps should be remembered for posterity. Not because it's necessarily a feature of life here, but more just because it's probably one of the most unbelievable examples of how moving countries is not all as friggin butterflies-n-puppydogs as I sometimes make it out to be, given my ability to sometimes gloss over reality.
I guess the ultimate point is that: We're still sleeping on the floor. But to make that kind of short story long.... well, lets start with 2 weeks ago: Week beginning Feb 6:
Container arrives safely in Johannesburg. W's alerted by Frasier Moving Co. that it should be in Gaborone and available for unloading in 1 week = Feb 12.
Week beginning Feb 12:
Container arrives Gaborone Terminal. Ready to be offloaded from train and taken to Frasier Moving Co. for Frasier Moving Co to bring to our house and unpack for us.
Feb 12: Container Arrives Terminal. Some technical error causes Frasier Moving Co to call us and say "we're delayed 1 day, please wait til tomorrow"
Feb 13: Container still un-released due to "truck broken down?" Frasiers don't know.
Feb 14: Container still un-released due to what Frasiers now believe is a "trailer" problem?
Feb 15: Container still un-released from terminal, now because of what appears to be a malfunctioning CRANE.
Feb 16: Morning = "OMG IT'S FIXED! WE CAN DELIVER TODAY!"
Feb 16: Afternoon = "oops! it wasn't really fixed. Sorry".
Week beginning Feb 19:
Whatever freakish "some technical malfunction at the Terminal regarding a crane" has been fixed. Container can be offloaded from the train at the terminal, and brought to our house, unloaded by Frasiers.
Feb 19: J&J (that's us) rush away from work at 10am after phone call from totally lost container-truck-delivery guy who's currently driving our container around our neighbourhood looking for our house. J&J get home, container guy parks container on driveway, drives away, saying he'll be back at 3pm to load up the EMPTY container and take it back to terminal. What's this? Frasiers Moving Co is still not here to do the opening up of container and unloading thereof. Phonecalls are made.
Feb 20: Fraiser calls J&J saying "sorry we didnt unload yesterday - there was an issue with Customs at the terminal, that delivery guy wasnt supposed to drive away with your container - it hasn't been 'officially' released by Customs OH NO!" J&J are again at home now, having left work AGAIN under the assumption that moving would commence as promised yesterday. At this point we're mad at the stupid delivery guy for driving off without clearing customs properly CUZ THATS WHAT WE WERE TOLD by Frasiers. J&J tell Fraiser Man to make sure that the Terminal Delivery guy DOES NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES come back to fetch this container!!!! We want to know that it's at least on our property. Do NOT remove it!!!
Feb 21: Still no answers from anyone. Container still in driveway. Still under impression that customs can throw us in jail if we tamper with the seal on the container - not helping our Botswana Resident's Permit issue and not a good option - but we threaten to anyway, if the movers don't unload our CRAP by tomorrow morning.
Feb 22: Container still sits in driveway - unloaded. Phone call is made. Heavy duty wire cutters are coming out of the shed. Frasier manager panics, under impression that JWx2 meets Container Seal with Pick Axe today. Calls us and proposes to come to our office for a "meeting" to discuss "the issue", could we please refrain from doing anything drastic until such a time. Meeting is held, the story comes out:
"Due to the pure knacker-like dodginess and misbehaviour of the IRISH moving company (whom we paid more than a pretty penny to up front, upon engaging their services), Frasier Moving Company was forced to tell us a BALD FACED LIE on Monday the 19th. The lie being 'this and that about a customs mishap at the terminal involving the driver.' Yes, a lie. Customs was cleared with no problems, the container was released with no drama, and yes, we COULD have broken it open by ourselves to get our stuff out.
Said 'dodginess and misbehaviour' by the Irish moving company side, was that they basically wouldn't pay their friggin bill. Yes they had been billed over 2 months ago. No they didnt pay it, No they STILL didn't pay it when the container arrived this side. When they were asked for payment they were agressive, foul-mouthed, and verbally abusive to the Frasier staff. Even when the container was sitting safely HERE in Gaborone, they wouldn't pay up. This is why Frasiers lied to us. The manager had come over to our office, here, now, to offer a solution: Something to the effect of "will you please pay us the balance and we will pay you back once your Irish moving company comes up with their half of the bill, and we'll unpack your stuff" now. We're sorry for lying but we had no choice. We've never experienced this before." Why the lie? Well, because technically we had every right to break into that beeyotch and re-claim our stuff at this stage. So they thought they needed some leverage and chose to get said leverage by putting the fear of deportation due to illegally opening non-customs-cleared property that could've gotten us in all sorts of gov'mint trouble. And it worked! We bought it hook line and sinker, leaving our crap totally sealed up on our driveway for a damn WEEK!
But get this. Right in the middle of this tail-between-the-liar's-legs speech, his cell phone rings and he's given the news that the account has been paid, yes, right this minute, by the Irish crowd.
Hangs up the phone, orders a moving crew to meet us at our house IMMEDIATELY and begins unpacking. Again a serious apology is offered, and serious BOLLOXING OUT of Mr. Manager, by J&J commences. J&J abandon all work, truncating the EXTREMELY IMPORTANT AND UNBELIEVABLY COVETED download of Episode 8 of LOST, generously uploaded by my dear heart Alan in Ireland, slowly half-downloaded at this time by the W's computers (this is just too important to explain in words - watching these episodes sent from Ireland gives me more happiness than any inanimate object ever - my buddies & I discuss and pour over every detail together after watching. It brings soooooo much joy....). Althouth it's ripping my heart-strings apart, but we leave it anyway. It's going to have to wait. Which means I cant participate in our little online Lost arguments until NEXT WEEK!
Anyway the RACING home commences.... wildly sending "finally! finally!"-type text messages to everyone important in their life. The normally-25 minute drive is reduced to appx 18 minutes due to adrenaline-induced speeding on the part of the W's.
Open up driveway gate, drive up to house. What's this? Lo and behold the sight around the corner of the driveway...? NO FRIGGIN CONTAINER HERE, FOLKS!!! That's right, tis GONE.
Phone calls are made, cuss words are slung, Frasiers find out at same time as we do, that CONTAINER DELIVERY GUY from the Gaborone Terminal had fetched what he believed to be "EMPTY CONTAINER" at 12:30 this very day.
What's that? Oh it's BACK IN THE QUEUE at the TERMINAL now? With a potential waiting time of 2-to-3 days for off-load??? REALLY! WOW! What a SURPRISE!
(about this time a truckload full of little red-shirt-wearing Frasier moving guys pulls up in our driveway. "Where's the container we're supposed to unload, Mma?")
$%"^"&*&%$**!!!
Feb 23: Today. This morning we join Team W (that's also us). at 8:15 in the morning, when a text message from Frasier Moving Co arrives on the cellphone:
"Spoke to terminal. Machines are down. But considering the situation, our container is first in queue. Will jeep you posted".
Yes, they'll jeep us posted.
The end.
This is my karma, and I accept it.
Well I was thinking that our current furniture-less situation could constitute one of those things that perhaps should be remembered for posterity. Not because it's necessarily a feature of life here, but more just because it's probably one of the most unbelievable examples of how moving countries is not all as friggin butterflies-n-puppydogs as I sometimes make it out to be, given my ability to sometimes gloss over reality.
I guess the ultimate point is that: We're still sleeping on the floor. But to make that kind of short story long.... well, lets start with 2 weeks ago: Week beginning Feb 6:
Container arrives safely in Johannesburg. W's alerted by Frasier Moving Co. that it should be in Gaborone and available for unloading in 1 week = Feb 12.
Week beginning Feb 12:
Container arrives Gaborone Terminal. Ready to be offloaded from train and taken to Frasier Moving Co. for Frasier Moving Co to bring to our house and unpack for us.
Feb 12: Container Arrives Terminal. Some technical error causes Frasier Moving Co to call us and say "we're delayed 1 day, please wait til tomorrow"
Feb 13: Container still un-released due to "truck broken down?" Frasiers don't know.
Feb 14: Container still un-released due to what Frasiers now believe is a "trailer" problem?
Feb 15: Container still un-released from terminal, now because of what appears to be a malfunctioning CRANE.
Feb 16: Morning = "OMG IT'S FIXED! WE CAN DELIVER TODAY!"
Feb 16: Afternoon = "oops! it wasn't really fixed. Sorry".
Week beginning Feb 19:
Whatever freakish "some technical malfunction at the Terminal regarding a crane" has been fixed. Container can be offloaded from the train at the terminal, and brought to our house, unloaded by Frasiers.
Feb 19: J&J (that's us) rush away from work at 10am after phone call from totally lost container-truck-delivery guy who's currently driving our container around our neighbourhood looking for our house. J&J get home, container guy parks container on driveway, drives away, saying he'll be back at 3pm to load up the EMPTY container and take it back to terminal. What's this? Frasiers Moving Co is still not here to do the opening up of container and unloading thereof. Phonecalls are made.
Feb 20: Fraiser calls J&J saying "sorry we didnt unload yesterday - there was an issue with Customs at the terminal, that delivery guy wasnt supposed to drive away with your container - it hasn't been 'officially' released by Customs OH NO!" J&J are again at home now, having left work AGAIN under the assumption that moving would commence as promised yesterday. At this point we're mad at the stupid delivery guy for driving off without clearing customs properly CUZ THATS WHAT WE WERE TOLD by Frasiers. J&J tell Fraiser Man to make sure that the Terminal Delivery guy DOES NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES come back to fetch this container!!!! We want to know that it's at least on our property. Do NOT remove it!!!
Feb 21: Still no answers from anyone. Container still in driveway. Still under impression that customs can throw us in jail if we tamper with the seal on the container - not helping our Botswana Resident's Permit issue and not a good option - but we threaten to anyway, if the movers don't unload our CRAP by tomorrow morning.
Feb 22: Container still sits in driveway - unloaded. Phone call is made. Heavy duty wire cutters are coming out of the shed. Frasier manager panics, under impression that JWx2 meets Container Seal with Pick Axe today. Calls us and proposes to come to our office for a "meeting" to discuss "the issue", could we please refrain from doing anything drastic until such a time. Meeting is held, the story comes out:
"Due to the pure knacker-like dodginess and misbehaviour of the IRISH moving company (whom we paid more than a pretty penny to up front, upon engaging their services), Frasier Moving Company was forced to tell us a BALD FACED LIE on Monday the 19th. The lie being 'this and that about a customs mishap at the terminal involving the driver.' Yes, a lie. Customs was cleared with no problems, the container was released with no drama, and yes, we COULD have broken it open by ourselves to get our stuff out.
Said 'dodginess and misbehaviour' by the Irish moving company side, was that they basically wouldn't pay their friggin bill. Yes they had been billed over 2 months ago. No they didnt pay it, No they STILL didn't pay it when the container arrived this side. When they were asked for payment they were agressive, foul-mouthed, and verbally abusive to the Frasier staff. Even when the container was sitting safely HERE in Gaborone, they wouldn't pay up. This is why Frasiers lied to us. The manager had come over to our office, here, now, to offer a solution: Something to the effect of "will you please pay us the balance and we will pay you back once your Irish moving company comes up with their half of the bill, and we'll unpack your stuff" now. We're sorry for lying but we had no choice. We've never experienced this before." Why the lie? Well, because technically we had every right to break into that beeyotch and re-claim our stuff at this stage. So they thought they needed some leverage and chose to get said leverage by putting the fear of deportation due to illegally opening non-customs-cleared property that could've gotten us in all sorts of gov'mint trouble. And it worked! We bought it hook line and sinker, leaving our crap totally sealed up on our driveway for a damn WEEK!
But get this. Right in the middle of this tail-between-the-liar's-legs speech, his cell phone rings and he's given the news that the account has been paid, yes, right this minute, by the Irish crowd.
Hangs up the phone, orders a moving crew to meet us at our house IMMEDIATELY and begins unpacking. Again a serious apology is offered, and serious BOLLOXING OUT of Mr. Manager, by J&J commences. J&J abandon all work, truncating the EXTREMELY IMPORTANT AND UNBELIEVABLY COVETED download of Episode 8 of LOST, generously uploaded by my dear heart Alan in Ireland, slowly half-downloaded at this time by the W's computers (this is just too important to explain in words - watching these episodes sent from Ireland gives me more happiness than any inanimate object ever - my buddies & I discuss and pour over every detail together after watching. It brings soooooo much joy....). Althouth it's ripping my heart-strings apart, but we leave it anyway. It's going to have to wait. Which means I cant participate in our little online Lost arguments until NEXT WEEK!
Anyway the RACING home commences.... wildly sending "finally! finally!"-type text messages to everyone important in their life. The normally-25 minute drive is reduced to appx 18 minutes due to adrenaline-induced speeding on the part of the W's.
Open up driveway gate, drive up to house. What's this? Lo and behold the sight around the corner of the driveway...? NO FRIGGIN CONTAINER HERE, FOLKS!!! That's right, tis GONE.
Phone calls are made, cuss words are slung, Frasiers find out at same time as we do, that CONTAINER DELIVERY GUY from the Gaborone Terminal had fetched what he believed to be "EMPTY CONTAINER" at 12:30 this very day.
What's that? Oh it's BACK IN THE QUEUE at the TERMINAL now? With a potential waiting time of 2-to-3 days for off-load??? REALLY! WOW! What a SURPRISE!
(about this time a truckload full of little red-shirt-wearing Frasier moving guys pulls up in our driveway. "Where's the container we're supposed to unload, Mma?")
$%"^"&*&%$**!!!
Feb 23: Today. This morning we join Team W (that's also us). at 8:15 in the morning, when a text message from Frasier Moving Co arrives on the cellphone:
"Spoke to terminal. Machines are down. But considering the situation, our container is first in queue. Will jeep you posted".
Yes, they'll jeep us posted.
The end.
This is my karma, and I accept it.
You. Have. Got. To. Be. KIDDING. I gave up cussing for Lent, but it seems you're doing it enough for both of us. Well, you've waited this long, what's another week or 2???
oh yes my dear friend. What IS another week or two? TOTALLY justifiable question....
...EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT IT INVOLVES GETTING SCREWED UP THE a**!!! I want compensation! I want sass-tisfaction! I want them to believe that their balls-up results in us spending stupid amounts of money on a hotel or B&B for 2 weeks!! (No really, this would be so easy to accept if the damn thing was held up off the coast of Saudi Arabia or something. But imagine it's just on the other side of town!! Then try imagining being without ALL YOUR CDs for nearly 3 months!! EESH!!)