8 May 2008

Canberra - too far from anywhere

| Peter Holland
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Last week, my wife and I purchased a 7-seater lounge suite from ebay. No problem. we then found a courier that wasn’t over the top in costs to ship from Sydney (Casula) to Canberra (Kambah). Again, no problem.

Then the fun started. The courier picked the lounge suite up after around 20 calls by us all week – finally completed on Saturday. Now, I may be wrong, but if it was picked up from Sydney and started its way to Canberra on saturday morning, we should see it about monday. Wrong.

I was advised by the courier every day this week so far that it was in transit. I received a call from my wife today that it was in goulburn at 9.15 am this morning.

Has Canberra moved to Perth? is there something I don’t know about in regards to shipping from Sydney? I was starting to think that I had magically moved to central australia. Why is it that couriers I deal with at work can ship overnight, but the average citizen gets the run around?

is Canberra just a regional centre, not the “Nation’s Capital”?

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peterh – removalists were AF Palmer – http://www.afpalmer.com/ Happy to pass on their name to folks who might be shifting.

Grumpy Smurf5:06 pm 09 May 08

I have had the same problems with regard to ‘shipping’ items from Sydney or Melbourne to the ACT… maybe the problem is the terminology… they’re looking for a dock called Canberra.

go down townshend street, turn up colbee court, (near the public toilets) and there it is.

@peterh – not yet unfortunately, although I’m overdue to stop by at Motorini in Phillip sometime in the next couple of weeks – since I’m not actually conversant with pretty much anything that side of LBG, care to give me some directions on how to get there ?

Mælinar said :

Work out a way to put it into 1 post, 3 post nutter.

considering that I don’t think that quickly – I guess I will remember next time eh?

Tried the butter chicken yet??

Woody Mann-Caruso10:11 am 09 May 08

A mate won a competition in the late 90s for an overseas trip for four, including economy class flights from four from his nearest capital city.

“So you have to depart Sydney between…”
“I’m in Canberra.”
“Yeah, the prize only covers you from capital cities, and Sydney is your closest capital.”
“Canberra is a capital city.”
“Um…we mean capital capitals. You know, like Sydney.”

Work out a way to put it into 1 post, 3 post nutter.

jaydee said :

In contrast, when I shifted here last year from Qld, the furniture truck beat me here. My daughter and I watched the truck drive away from our house in Toowoomba, washed the floors in the house and delivered the keys to the new tenant, and then jumped in the car to drive to Canberra. We stayed overnight in Orange as we just couldn’t make it the whole way in one leg – and received a phone call the next morning when we were at Borowa from the truck driver asking us how far away we were as he was at this house in Canberra.

We arrived an hour later to find the truckie and the neighbour sitting on the back deck having a good old chat and a cuppa, filling in the time till we arrived.

After hearing so many horrendous stories about removalists, I was so impressed with this mob – top workers and great chaps!

any chance you can send me the name? I am planning a move for a relative soon.

Loquaciousness said :

You can still love the city you live in, but don’t get grand ideas about how important we are on an Australian map. (Or the international one, for that matter, ask an American what the capital of Australia is and the answer will be either Sydney or Melbourne. Most of never heard of Canberra).

and this isn’t a bad thing from an international perspective – if they don’t know we are here, we are harder to hit.

I would expect that a delivery from sydney to canberra by a company that delivers here every day would make it on the promised day – and that is the key – if they told us that it would take a week, that would have been fine. they told us it would be overnight, on the next truck.

I-filed said :

Perfectly normal. If you went for a cheap courier, and they don’t do a lot of Sydney to Canberra, they will need to build up enough other goods to take as part of the same load. They probably do more Sydney-Goulburn – hence the wait in Goulburn. Be reasonable! If your quote was less than $150 then it’s a VERY cheap job for something that size.

If my quote was less than $150, I would agree. Considering that we paid over $300 for the delivery – which was touted as “overnight”, I expected to get what I paid for. The worst thing about this experience (for the company that we used) is that I will not recommend them to any of my friends, including several that are planning an interstate move.

I work in the customer service industry, and can be assured by my clients that if I give them a fixed date of delivery, and the equipment doesn’t turn up, they will place the blame squarely on me. Most of the carriers that I use are overnight, even when they state that it is off-peak.

Loquaciousness9:26 am 09 May 08

It *is* the nation’s capital – fair point. However, that’s purely political. In reality, we are a small city that is easily avoidable along the major routes. Let’s face it – we may *feel* important, being the capital, but it doesn’t change the fact that population of Canberra is 18% that of Brisbane, and a mere 9% and 8% of Melbourne and Sydney (respectively).

You can still love the city you live in, but don’t get grand ideas about how important we are on an Australian map. (Or the international one, for that matter, ask an American what the capital of Australia is and the answer will be either Sydney or Melbourne. Most of never heard of Canberra).

“Well ain’t this place just a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere!”

In contrast, when I shifted here last year from Qld, the furniture truck beat me here. My daughter and I watched the truck drive away from our house in Toowoomba, washed the floors in the house and delivered the keys to the new tenant, and then jumped in the car to drive to Canberra. We stayed overnight in Orange as we just couldn’t make it the whole way in one leg – and received a phone call the next morning when we were at Borowa from the truck driver asking us how far away we were as he was at this house in Canberra.

We arrived an hour later to find the truckie and the neighbour sitting on the back deck having a good old chat and a cuppa, filling in the time till we arrived.

After hearing so many horrendous stories about removalists, I was so impressed with this mob – top workers and great chaps!

Don’t worry – when my partner’s car was being fixed by a smash repairs run by Brothers located in Belconnen, we needed a head lamp unit couriered down from Sydney.

Somehow, this took over 4 weeks. Every day was “it’ll be here tomorrow.” “it’ll be here tomorrow” “it’ll be here tomorrow”

I’ve had the same issue; cheaper and less stressful to drive the family to Sydney and pick it up yourself!

If it was a ‘cheap’ courier for a large item like a lounge suite, then it’s likely you’ve picked up a removalist backhaul rate.

Perfectly normal. If you went for a cheap courier, and they don’t do a lot of Sydney to Canberra, they will need to build up enough other goods to take as part of the same load. They probably do more Sydney-Goulburn – hence the wait in Goulburn. Be reasonable! If your quote was less than $150 then it’s a VERY cheap job for something that size.

is Canberra just a regional centre, not the “Nation’s Capital”?

In short answer, Yes. To a lot of people, Canberra is that place that you can avoid on your trip from Sydney to Melbourne.

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