sigh

[theducks]

So I'm still in Melbourne. lizbyrd's LJ has the full story, but basically as one of her friends put it, _EVERY_ single group involved with Liz's passport has managed to fuck things up royally. End result is that a plastic satchel containing her passport has been "misplaced". It's not like we used some poxy little courier company, we used Australian Air Express, which is part owned by Qantas and Australia Post.. of all the things they could loose, why this?!? Everyone we've talked to has been very helpful, but the fact is that along the way, someone somewhere didn't do their job properly and they managed to loose something that was VERY VERY important. The people at the airport terminal were very helpful, and photocopied a notice about this satchel to put up everywhere, but in the end, if we don't have it in a few hours, we're not going to Japan at 7AM. And I really suspect we won't.

I'm trying to remain positive, and thinking the best will happen with everything, but fucking eh it's hard. The only positive thing is that for the next three days we're staying here, we get free breakfast.

I don't really like holiday-ing in Australia. I feel that conceptually it is a waste of my valuable holiday time. Yeah, I'm a brat, but moving on... The concept of going somewhere in Australia for a holiday has been ruined for me by years of being dragged from city to city and town to town by parents. I've been everywhere except Tasmania, been thru most of the habitable parts of WA, SA and QLD, I've flown domestically over a hundred times, etc. Needless to say, extending a holiday in Australia is pretty damn far from my ideal way to spend my leave. I've had a reasonable time in Melbourne seeing things, and Liz is awesome company, but I've had enough and it's time to go, tomorrow, not on fricken Tuesday.

Also in the liz-and-alex-are-jinxed-department, we got Japan Rail Passes and tickets to Studio Ghibli Museum today from JTB. And then there was a bomb threat or something (6 cops and several cars outside the building within like 3 minutes?), and the building had to be evacuated.

So assuming AAE can't find it, we have to get a new passport for Liz on Monday, which will SUCK A LOT. To start with, the new passport is produced within several hours, which means it probably isn't going to be machine readable, which will mean Liz will need a visa to visit the US any time until 2014 (or the US gets a new government which doesn't have its head up its ass, which will hopefully be sooner, but I digress). It also requires filling in another application and maybe new photos (bu-bye another $160 or so..) and lots of stress all round. It will also be not-their-fault-tm because Liz's parents were the ones who sent the passport. All this crap over something we've NEVER EVEN SEEN :(

Also, what happens if they find the old one in the mean time? We will have pissed off Passports and they will have probably cancelled it anyway, which will make it no good for travel.. sigh. Also, the new passport is likely to have a different passport number, which will mean getting new tickets for Studio Ghibli (thankfully a max of $36, but still..)

Travel insurance will hopefully pay for a lot of this, but by no means all of it, and it may make getting insurance next time more difficult (they ask if you've ever had to make a claim)

SIGH

Comments

[jphoenix.livejournal.com]

if the courier misplaced or lost it, shouldn't they be the ones responsible for the cost of replacing it?

i'd be kicking some courier ass right about now if i was in your position.

[dafwarg.livejournal.com]

that's pretty much what I was thinking... given that AAE "guarantee" overnight delivery, what are the conditions of their guarantee?

[maelkann.livejournal.com]

Well I know that Australia Posts overnight guarantee says that if it doesn't go over night, we'll give you another overnight bag free!

Pretty useless, ne?

[singularity.livejournal.com]

Wow, that seriously sucks. I hope things get settled in a semi-decent way for you two.

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

That is so terrible! I feel wretched for the pair of you. I hope things work out OK from here on in.