As a mum of three young children with no car and a husband who works long hours, I thought online shopping was going to be my saviour this Christmas.
It’s so simple: order the things, put in your credit card details and they arrive on your doorstep like magic. The wonders of modern life!
It’s all fun and games until a parcel doesn’t turn up… and you don’t realise it hasn’t turned up until you’re wrapping stuff two days before Christmas.
Even worse is when the MIA parcel contains a good portion of your kids’ Christmas presents, and the courier company currently in possession of said parcel basically gives you the ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ in response to your queries.
If you’re an online shopper, you’ve probably noticed that in the lead up to Christmas, as the postal system becomes overwhelmed, your parcels are being delivered by myriad different courier companies. This is where my problem currently lies.
A couple of weeks ago I was wrapping the gifts I had already purchased and realised there was an unequal distribution of presents between my kids. Or, my daughter had around 50 bazillion presents and my two boys had one. Between them.
It was meant to make things easier... Image: iStock
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Just found out the presents I got my daughter won't be here in time. Ordered on the 15th when their site said order by 17th to guarantee Christmas delivery. Have since found out it hasn't even been dispatched as they have a backlog... of which there was no mention of on their web site. Grrrrrr. On the flipside... ordered from Aliexpress a large item on late Friday and it arrived on Tuesday.
Let's just be clear here: parcels are delivered by underpaid couriers, not well-paid Australia Post government employees. I have no problem with deliveries taking time, if it means less stress for those couriers. And, seriously, how about planning for the Christmas rush?