Breaking point

Today we woke up on a mission. I called FedEx and had a heart-to-heart with the random call centre guy, who gave us the same "update" from Dec 14, and promised to have somebody call us back about it asap. I told him if somebody actually called me back, I would fall off my chair. Then when I got to work I wrote a strongly worded letter and faxed it to FedEx HQ in Mississauga. Mr. O, meanwhile, was on the phone with the CIC, trying to ascertain just how we would go about completing his immigration process sans Emirati Certificate of Good Conduct.

Lo and behold, somebody from FedEx called him back this afternoon, somebody with a name AND a private extension. They told him they would call Abu Dhabi to establish the whereabouts of the package (which Mr. O has all but accepted as lost by this point) and either attempt to redeliver it or send it back to us. Mr. O also asked for a letter explaining the reasons it couldn't be delivered, if that turned out to be the case, and/or the reasons for its disappearance, for the sake of a consolation prize for the CIC.

This miniature shitstorm, after months of laissez-faire neglect of my blog and our little experiment, has started me thinking about breaking points. We are all trained to have faith in these little institutions (like mail) and when they break down, I for one am incredulous, until it becomes clear that if I don't do something about it, nobody will. This no doubt makes me spoiled, as spoiled as anybody used to paying money to have things done for me by others. It's a shock when this doesn't happen, or when the system breaks down. And yet, when it does, really there's nothing in place here to help us out. No consumer advocate, no 6 'o clock ass-kicking camera-toting watchdog. Nobody really gives a damn.