Australia, the lucky country... not!

Owning our own home never seemed quite so far away as it did today.

About a week ago we had a call from a nice fella working for the Homebuyers Centre. We'd entered a competition of theirs online to win our own house, and he was calling to find out all about our financial situation.

After I told him how much debt we have, along with the pittance I get paid, he tells me that they might be able to help us out, and we set up an information session for tomorrow night.

Exciting stuff.

Exciting enough to have us enquire today at the National Australia Bank about what it would take for us to be able to get a home loan from them. The NAB are, for the most part, Australia's best bank (IMO). I realise that's a bit like having four piles of shit in front of you and claiming one of them smells a little less than the others, but I digress.

So we sit down, and their home loan chick hits us with it. Typically a home loan from them is for 80% of the property and requires a 20% deposit, so for a standard $400,000 house, we'd have to cough up around $80,000.

It's lucky I was sitting down, because if I hadn't been, I'd have hit my head pretty hard en route to the floor.

We laughed, and then figured out that, if we started saving now and really behaved ourselves, we could get started around the time I turn 44. As a point of interest, I just turned 37.

Pretty much never going to happen. Seriously, who has that kind of money in savings?

One option that's apparently quite popular these days (no doubt because so few people actually have EIGHTY FUCKING GRAND in the bank) is to have your folks set their home up as security for the loan. I'm not quite sure how that one works, but I think the idea is that the value of their home is used to help secure the financing.

Yeah... nah. I don't think so. Those without morals or values of their own (of which there are many) would no doubt be more than willing to have their folks put their own home on the line, but not me. My testicles work just fine, thank you very much.

I mean, really, if something bad happened and our place had to be sold but the sale didn't cover the loan amount, our folks' place would have to be sold to cover the difference.

Not in this lifetime, Jack.

I couldn't believe it, but the lady actually finished up with a line about doing the lotto, which is like admitting that their archaic way of doing business isn't really designed to help the everyday people out. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and if everyone could afford their own home, who would rent from the rich?

Welcome to Australia.

I don't know what this guy is going to say when he shows up tomorrow night, but he's going to have to pull a rabbit out of a hat.

The airline off-loaded packages.

So I came away after my post last night feeling really good about myself. I'd given credit to some of the finest shipping companies on the planet, and my current item had just arrived in Singapore, giving it plenty of time to make it here to Perth ahead of its scheduled delivery date on Friday.

Then I went to bed, woke up, and refreshed the UPS tracking page, only to be greeted with the following message: "The airline off-loaded packages". That and, the big bar at the top of the page, which was previously green and said "in transit", was now yellow, and said "exception".

Uh oh. Going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing my package was one of those that was off-loaded, and that your package being off-loaded is not good.

They couldn't really be any more vague if they tried, so I googled the phrase, and ended up reading forum comments from other folks who had it and didn't really know what it meant either. The best guess seemed to be that the plane was full, and that some packages had to be left behind.

I'd like to know who chooses what stays and what goes, you know what I mean? I was picturing some Singaporean guy laughing at my name as he places my package aside into the "doesn't matter when we ship this" tray.

As it turns out, it was a temporary inconvenience, because another update a couple of hours later said something about it having been released by the clearing agency and was now in-transit for delivery. I'll admit that I considered this update quite peculiar also, on account of my not actually living in Singapore.

Up until a moment ago I was still reasonably happy though, because throughout all of this, the scheduled delivery date remained Friday. Friday is the best day to get packages, of course, because if gives you the whole weekend with it.

A recent refresh, however, and my heart sank. Sure, it has finally left Singapore, but the scheduled delivery date has now been pushed back to Monday.

Thursday afternoon, and at the last minute, UPS delay delivery from Friday to Monday? Are you trying to piss me off?

Ordinarily I wouldn't care, because it will still have been delivered a lot sooner than I was originally led to believe when I placed the order. The purchase website originally said something like 8-16 business days, and I'll actually be getting it in 5.

The problem is that, for the past few days now, it's been saying the delivery date would be Friday, so I've been prepping myself for that. Isn't the idea to set the customer's expectation and then meet that expectation? If it'd said Monday all along I wouldn't be fussed, but to make me feel like it's going to be Friday until right up at the last minute, and then delay it?

Not happy, Jan.

A thanks

Over the years, I've bought a lot of goods online, many of which have come from overseas. I've had packages sent by a vast number of shipping companies; anywhere from USPS to UPS to Fedex to DHL to the UK's Royal Mail. Even Australia Post *shudders*...

As most are likely well aware, you usually only hear about the horror stories. You could Google problems with each and every one of those, and you'd get hit after hit from customers complaining about how their packages either became lost or took ages to arrive.

You'll even read posts from those who claim they've worked for these companies, and how they recommend staying away from them.

I have a different story to tell.

For starters, if I'm being honest I'm probably one of the more anal customers one can get. When I'm expecting something, I'm refreshing that tracking website just about all the time. As it happens, I'm waiting for something at the moment, and it's getting done just about every opportunity I can get.

So if they put a step wrong, they hear about it from me. Entertainment is my life, and when my purchases don't arrive on time, it's like Doom 2 Hell on Earth all over again.

Thankfully though, the vast majority of shipping companies have never put a step wrong by me. USPS, UPS, DHL, I have nothing bad to say about any of them.

If I'm being honest, Fedex annoyed me once or twice, but an extra day here or there is nothing to really get in a knot about. All things being equal though, I can see why they're not really all that big out here in Australia. I wouldn't not recommend them, but then, I wouldn't go out of my way to use their services again either.

Australia Post have, without doubt, pissed me off the most. I have a PO box with them, and it's annoying enough that junk mail finds its way there, but what really got my knickers in a knot was when they didn't put a slip in the box to let me know the packages I was anxiously awaiting had arrived. And yes, that's packages... as in, two of them. One I could maybe understand, but two?

All in all though, I'm happy with the lot of them. They are doing marvellous, marvellous work. Yes, even the clowns over at Australia Post. Thanks!