Couriers... don't please

So, as the crayfish diving here is all hookah (which involves a boat, a compressor, a skipper's ticket - none of which I have) or tanks-BC-Regulator - which I also don't have, but have hired -quite reasonably - from Mike Nicholls the local divemaster. It's still an expensive process or one that relies on someone offering you a spot on their boat with their hookah. Which happens, but not that often.

So as Mike has said I could borrow a tank and just pay for refills, and my frequent dive biddy Jamie has a spare tank, and the garage sales had produced a BC thanks to my buddy Peter in Melbourne... I decided that I needed to by a regulator/octo. And as I am hoping to do a little diving in the next few weeks, I had a look on the net. I'm mostly diving 3-5 (with occasional 10) metres which I can do free, but you do not want to fight with these crays free-diving, and besides you can't really spot them from the surface. So I had no real qualms about buying a second hand rig. I'll test in shallow water and I don't go deep or long enough to make major decompression an issue if I have to do an emergency ascent.

So I find an ad. For two sets of gear - which from my POV means I will be able to dive with my boys, or Clare, or they can dive, and it's much safer. In Sydney. So I call up another one of my mates - who has just got a new head for his ute, by courier. "Couriers Please - they're great, cost me relatively little to get it here from Ballarat. I've dealt with them for years..."

Great. So I agree to internet transfer the money to this bloke in Sydney - he e-mails the bank details, we do a transfer, I am excited about the kit... e-mail Couriers Please. No reply. So I phone them. They'll get their sales guys to call me. They never do, but I am busy finishing a book. I send the seller details of how it needs to be packed...

Meanwhile i work through until 3AM finish the book... only to have Roland sick. I'm not sure what is wrong with him, I've had him at the vet twice today. He's got a temp and a sore tum. And he's miz... and I've had about an hour and a half sleep.

And then the seller contacts me. UM. "I made a mistake in the e-mail with my bank details." So... we have to follow up. Now our bank is clear - you get it wrong, it's your lookout. They don't match name and number. So we thought we'd probably lost it... (This is WHY I got the seller to email his details. Paste them in)

Fortunately the number is not an account they have, so it bounced.

So we pay into the right account.

I phone Couriers Please, who about 2 weeks back delivered Bill's head. Spend 20 minutes on hold... get a live body. Tell him what I want.
"No we don't deliver there."
"But you just did."
"No I am sorry. We don't."
"But Bill's just got his stuff delivered."
"Can I put you on hold."
Another 3 minutes.
"No. Sorry."
So now I have paid for a bunch of gear - booties, weight belts, BCs and octos... and they're in a box in Sydney.
Tomorrow I'll have to look at other options. Of course perfect timing - my Melbourne mate, who is an organising whiz called to say he was off to London - and he had a friend bringing a container out from South Africa with some space. Did I want anything.
Can I get a runner with a cleft stick? I am sure they deliver to Flinders Island.
In the meanwhile I can can say Couriers Please don't. If they'd said 'oh we stuffed up and found it was too expensive and we're not doing it again' -- that's fair enough. But this BS about not delivering here,(when they just had) really rubbed me raw.
Anyway, done the first layer of spell checking...
Nil Carborundum illigitimi. (which is probably spelled wrong)