RANT - POST OFFICE STRIKES - CANNOT CARRY ON WITH MY PROJECT

[kolbep]

Damn South African Post office.
If you have been keeping up on my other threads, I have designed myself a DMX controlled Dimmer system,
which I definately need by the beginning of December.

But the South African Post Office employees are striking (as usual), and this one has been going on for over 10 weeks:
Wanting thousands of Casual Employees made permanant,
Wanting the EXCO sacked, etc.
Although it is Mostly the branches in Gauteng that are closed,
all the International mail routes through there.

I looked at the news yesterday morning, which said the strike is almost over, 
but then I looked again today, and they say the main unions have rejected the offers. 

That means I cannot get the following:
My Boards that ITEAD have produced
My Sample RS485 Transceivers From Maxim
My Sample PIC's from Microchip
and all my SMD components from the various suppliers

Guess If I want this thing done in time, I will have to build it up on Stripboard with all the parts I have lying around (Now where did I leave that old board that had a 3v3 zener on it?.....).

At least when I go to my Postbox, I do not see any Junk Mail, or Spam....

Well, That is my rant for the day.

[leppie]

Yip, waiting on a bunch of packages too. Cant recall when last I have seen a letter in my post box... and this is in Cape Town.

[kayvee]

Situation pretty much the same here in KZN, also have a number of packages in the "system" somewhere.

Moved on to using courier only of late, but not too practical on the little shipments.

[zapta]

I think someone who has been employed as a casual for a long time ought to be able to be made permanent.

This means that many casuals will not work for long time anymore ;-)

[eurofox]

Yip, waiting on a bunch of packages too. Cant recall when last I have seen a letter in my post box... and this is in Cape Town.

Look at the bright side  you don't get invoices to pay 

[VK3DRB]

You have nothing to complain about.

Australia Post (100% government owned) is on permanent strike. That is, they work almost as slow as the public service in France and are just as clueless on how to run an efficient organisation. Australia Post cost me approximately $100,000, lost a shipment of $2,000 of rare academic books costing a relative 3 months of work and they lost some irreplaceable personal effects. The total compensation I got from these clowns was $150. I avoid them for anything important.

Reputable private couriers is a much better option if you want reliability.   
 

[NiHaoMike]

Maybe it has something to do with fears over Ebola?

[SeanB]

Nope SAPO is just one of those places where you get those who failed the street sweeping exam, and promoted them to top management. Bottom line staff are normally pretty good and pleasant, but the top is terrible.

Standard is that you get a parcel sent and it will take 2 days from anywhere in the world to get to the International area, then it sits there for 4-8 weeks minimum before it is allocated a local tracking number. Then it takes another week to get to your local post office, then another week for the slip to arrive ( if you are lucky) for you to collect.

I have a few in transit as well, so I know the feeling. Worse is that you can only send courier internationally, and there even a letter will cost $120 to send. I have 4 parcels that I want to send, but at that cost I will not be able to afford it. I am also in "hurry up and wait" mode.

[leppie]

Good news. I got 2 notifications in the mailbox today. One is for a nappy though (my wife has a cloth nappy fetish...). Other one could be for me or another nappy... 

[SeanB]

Joys, nothing for me, and I am on first name terms with all the staff at my local post office, who keep any mail for me and give it with no hassles. I have a PO box that I have not bothered to go to in 3 weeks, simply because it will be empty.

BTW in addition to the above demands they want a 16% pay increase. I did not even get anything near that this year..........

[SeanB]

Good news, the strike is seemingly over, with 60% returning to work tomorrow. Hopefully they should get the backlog down in a week or two. I think our local postie will drop dead though under the load.

Who knows, I might get my stuff this week, but that is still in the realm of porcine aviation.

[kolbep]

When I heard that on east coast radio this afternoon, I was overjoyed.  But I still think I will be better off building Mk1 of my dmx dimmer on veroboard. That way when the backlog is cleared, I should have my firmware fine tuned to go on my smd boards from itead, whiçh are currently sleeping about 5m deep at the bottom of the pile in the jhb international mail centre

[kolbep]

Yaay  I Got Mail!
Guess their contingency plans have started to work :
My SMD Caps and resistors from China.
Now all I need is the boards, and all the other parts, and then I can get my dimmers up and running.

[SeanB]

Saw the postie today walking past in the street, with a very heavy bag. But still they are on go slow, but are starting on the backlog. I hear that Durmail and all the sorting centres are full up to the roof, so they are going to take a while to shift that load through the system. They are still not accepting parcels for international, but i will see if I get a chance tomorrow to trot past Durmail in person to see how they are doing, and see if I can send a few that are sitting in my office waiting for this strike to be over.

[kolbep]

Last week I received my Copper Clad boards I ordered from a guy in Pretoria (and he shipped them the beginning of September)

and Today, I received my 10 x Chinese SMD Bridge Rectifiers (also ordered the same time),
also got  some other persons piece of toilet paper (otherwise known as a 'Notice of Infringement' Speeding fine (but it is not a fine, only a warning that they say you have gotten a fine)...)

This is getting fun, Every week I never know what I will get in my post (even though it was all ordered the same day).

[SeanB]

I got a parcel from Mlorton today, posted 16 Sept. the backlog seems to be getting done slowly.

Send the love note back to the post office, so the guy can have a chuckle. Your local Stasie Blompotte love those notes, you always see them out balancing the municipal books with a gatso or a camera.

I went past the camera the other day, and the cop was asleep. Wonder what they would do if you did a Leon Schuster on it?