Brewthulhu III

Brewthulhu fled across the ocean, and the pandemic followed

The Brewing system was done, I had paid the balance due and that remained was having it delivered. “Emily” said they offered Door to Door delivery, which was good because I didn’t own a truck, nor did I want to hassle with customs, bills of lading, and other tools of the logistics trade. It would cost an extra couple hundred dollars which I was happy to pay to skip the minutia and red tape myself.

So, all in all, not a terrible experience thus far.
1. Vendor who appears motivated
2. Vendor who is extremely responsive to queries and sends frequent updates
3. Fast turnaround time
4. Door to door shipping option
What’s not to like right? Well, let me tell you what.

Covid Strikes

I get notified that my new system is ready to ship out and would be on a boat in 2 days headed for British Columbia. So, I’m thinking that in a few short weeks I’ll have my system and be off to the races.
Morgan Freeman Narrator Voice ” He did not get his system in a few weeks”

The pandemic had other plans, and although my system was loaded up on a ship 3 days later, it didn’t leave port for almost 3 weeks. It then traversed the seas in a slow and, from all I can recollect, a meandering path because it took almost 2 months for it to arrive in BC. I get notified by the manufacturer that it has arrived in BC and should be offloaded shortly. I mean in the cosmic sense, sure, it was an infinitesimal amount of time; but to a guy who wants to brew it was interminable. From the day I placed the order until it reached the Canadian shores it had already been 6 months. (Side note, turnaround time means nothing if delivery time is so slow.) It sat in port waiting to be unloaded and sent to a warehouse for 3 more months. 3 months, for it to be removed from a boat, removed from a sea can, placed on a truck and driven to a warehouse, still in BC.

October 2022, Halifax Nova Scotia
I’m on the East coast for work, it’s the first week of October and I’m walking to a pub with some coworkers when I get a call from K-trans Logistics in BC, wanting to discuss delivery. I excuse myself from teh group and malinger outside on the docks while I listen to the guy on teh other end asking me about delivery, is it a business or residence? Residence. Is there a loading dock? Umm it’s a residence, so no.
Are you ok with a 150 extra charge for a lift gate truck? Do I have a choice, I have no loading dock, so Yes
OK he says the system is in the warehouse and waiting to be picked up for delivery, shouldn’t be more than a week. Great!

He tells me he will email me details and an invoice where to send the fees, because there are always fees. To their credit Ktrans fronted the dock, import fees, and tariff (AKA Taxes) those along with the 150 lift gate fee came to around 1500 bucks, not terrible, not great.

Did I mention the Pandemic yet? Because once again it thwarted my plans. Remember I was told shouldn’t be more than a week for delivery, well turns out it was almost 3. I emailed Ktrans several times over that period asking for updates, each time being told that they were trying to find a driver to deliver it. Turns out no one wants to drive to where I live, because it’s an out of the way town, not a major city like, say, Toronto.

I was on a holiday in the US when I get a call on Friday.
Hi, this is Ktrans, we want to deliver your system on Monday.
Oh, and you’ll need a forklift, turns out your system is just a bit too big to actually use the lift gate on the truck you paid an extra 150 bucks for.

So, my brain sets into a mad rush to try and figure out how I’m going to get a forklift to my house in 3 days when I don’t get home for 2, and it’ll be a Sunday…
My wife tells me to call the stone store down the road and see if they will help me unload it for a fee. She’s a smart one, I’ll keep her.
I call the stone store and the guy who answers, listens and when I’m done explaining the situation says, I don’t think we can do that, but let me transfer you to the shipping manager.
I get transferred to John the shipping guy, and I explain the situation, adding in that we did spend several thousand dollars with them during our renovations, you remember the renovations from the first part of this story, right? After I get done spinning my tale of woe he says, “Yeah sure when are they coming?” I say Monday between 10am and 3pm. He says, ok just call the store and I’ll come down with a loder and we’ll get you fixed up. I ask him how much it’ll cost, and he says “We’ll figure that out later”

October 24th 11:37 am I get a call, “I’m about 30 minutes way, just wanted to make sure you were there”

12:08 pm The truck arrives and I call the stone store down the street

12:18 pm the truck is gone

12:25pm, I’m uncrating my new system