No, scratch that .... nothing is ever the way it's supposed to be, even the most basic things.
While trying to arrange a move from one side of the world to another, one certainly needs a little flexibility. Our contact in the US, who arranged getting our stuff here from the US as well, has done a terrific job.
The folks on this end? Well, that's another story. I'll name names (and share some other stories) once we've gone, but for now it'll be enough to say this about our 'removals' company:
1. After speaking with them several times, they still don't know how to spell our name. (Okay, lots of people have the problem, but still.)
2. They are trying to bully us into paying them to send men out to our house for three days to do a job that really won't take more than one day--even though I've agreed to pay for two. (I'm packing everything myself--they just need to wrap the furniture and load it in the container. On the way here, two guys packed our entire house in 8 hours and three loaded the container in less than 4.)
3. They don't have our address correct, despite the fact that I've explained to them at least three times that we've moved.
4. Apparently the e-mail address at which every vendor of generic V!@gra can reach me at doesn't work for them.
5. All of this information came via letter, even though they've been able to reach me via telephone on at least three previous occasions. A letter which, by the way, included one run-on sentence, several typos, and a smiley! :) (Though it occurs to me now that the author of the letter may be 12 years old, which would explain it all.)
I find myself again saying, 'Yes, this could happen in the US.' And it does--I recall a similarly poor 'collection' letter from my alma mater while my loans were in deferment. Of course, that letter was more than 10 year ago. And I remember it because it was such a piece of crap I was embarrassed for the sender. Here? Just yet another example of what appears to be the Kiwi Way--
incompetence, bullying, and typos, typos, typos.****
One more minor rant, while I'm on the typos thing:
Last weekend was Mother's Day here, too. On one page in our local 'newspaper', Mother's Day was spelled three different ways: Mother's Day, Mothers' Day, and Mothers Day. There was also an ad for "Christines Cafe," which I can't blame on the newspaper, since that is actually the name of the place. I guess it could be owned by two women named Christine ...
