Member postings for David Taylor 4

Neil,

You may sense increasing frustration with the late delivery of your magazines. Your attitude that it's Canada Post "end of story" does not help solve the problem.

Has your organization or your contractors talked to Canada Post about the problem?

When I complain to the Economist about late delivery they take it up with Canada Post and the service does improve for a short time.

I think that your contractors are always attempting to minimize their costs. There is no penalty for slow delivery so they ship by what ever means is available as long as it is lowest cost.

We poor colonials suffer from Canada Post shipping our local mail 600 km to Vancouver for sorting and then back for delivery. The truck travels any way, the fact that it takes three or four days to receive a letter from the next town to us is irrelevant to Canada Post. Your contractors are playing the same game with the same effect of slowing down delivery and may not be wholly responsible for the delays but are certainly partially responsible.

I look forward to more robust efforts on the magazines part to solve the delivery problem.

Looky here!

Just received issue 4579 by way of Hungary. It may have travel the eastern route to Canada via Asia and across the Pacific, across Canada to Montreal and back to me in BC.

A frustrating situation to which ME have offered no solution. Not good.

Bandersnatch is fortunate indeed having home delivery of mail. A lot of us have to harness up the dog team and sleigh a few kilometers to a lonely tin box by the trail side to collect our mail.

However the problem does not lie with the local post office who give excellent service but with the main receiving centers. The problem started, for me, in January this year and is indicative of a new protocol for prioritizing mail. Bulk magazines obviously being given the lowest rating. Do them when ever you get to them.

I see no hope of improvement. My efforts over many years to get the Economist on time have never succeeded.

A solution is to have a digital sub, which I have, but it is not as nice as the paper version.

I am still missing issues 4577, 4579, 4581. In addition an EIM is in arrears.

The good thought is that the erstwhile boss of Canada Post is now in charge at the Royal Mail. What hope for our deliveries if she brings the Royal Mail to Canada post standards?

DaveT

Today I received two MEs, 4583,(30 March -12 April) sent from Belgium and 4582,(16-19 March) sent from Hungary. May be I was unfair to Canada Post and the problem does lie with Mytime publishing and their attempts to save money on postage.

When will a Mytime executive add to this thread with some assurances about restoring reliable and acceptable, to the subscribers, delivery times?

Dave Taylor

Barry Solomon is far too kind to Canada Post. Over many years of having a subscription to the Economist delivery problems have been endemic including lost issues. The paper has to be delivered from Vancouver to Fruitvale BC , about 600km. It some times takes three weeks. Some times a current issue arrives before it's predecessor.

Last week I received a "brown bag" ME replacement for a missing issue. It was sent "International Priority" and took twelve days to arrive.

I suspect that the magazines are shipped in bulk from the printers to the distributors. It may be that the printers have changed shipping company. This would be one explanation for the sudden delivery chaos beginning in January, (new contract starting in the new year).

My EIM is late this month. Usually get it a week prior to the month end. No show so far for April. Must be Canada Post.

It seems that Ritetime publishing has subcontracted out all the services needed to deliver the magazines to the readership in a timely manner. UK incompetence on top of Canada Post incompetence?

Time to think carefully about renewing my subscription? Lack of response to this thread by senior Ritetime management indicates a lack of interest in solving the problem which is reflected by the subcontractor's staff we have to deal with. Lots of fluffy words no action.

Dave Taylor.

I live in Trail, BC.

So far this year I have received issues 4576 and 4580 all the others are AWOL. Yes it is Canada Post, an incompetent organization. Itinerant opera singers would provide a better service.

Montreal seems to be the sticking point. Mail from the US coming through Vancouver is still almost delivered when it should be.

An order from a UK supplier took 12 weeks to reach me, being sent first week of January reaching me at the end of March.

Dave Taylor

I am looking for information, particularly a drawing, on the cylinder oil lubricator designed by Jim Ewins using two, spaced , 'O' rings. I have searched my collection of Model Engineers without success. I would be grateful for any help.

Dave Taylor.