After publicly blaming Canada Post for its package delivery failures, a Red Deer man has been deluged with messages of support.
Josh Kralka estimates that in the first 24 hours after CBC ran a story on Tuesday about his irritating experience with the nation's mail service, at least 30 people reached out to him by email, Facebook messenger, and LinkedIn, many of whom were complaining of similar experiences.
The one exception: Canada Post itself.
With the exception of a couple of comments on Reddit, public support has been universal.
"Everything's been positive. Everyone is saying, 'Thank you, this has happened to me. It's about time someone reaches out.'"
Kralka's unexpected emergence as the voice of miffed mail customers everywhere began on April 19.
He was at home working when his doorbell camera captured a mail carrier coming up to the house, Kralka assumed, to drop off a package he was expecting. He did not get a package. Instead, he got a notice saying he could pick up the package the next day.
There had been no knock on the door or doorbell ring and the carrier clearly did not have the package in his hands. What he did deliver at 11:30 a.m. was an apparently pre-written unable-to-deliver slip.
What Kralka found most irksome is that he had specifically paid about $15 for express, next day, home delivery. Not get it at your local drugstore the next day delivery.
"It's not like I bought something and (thought) yeah, it can show up whenever. It's not urgent if you come here next week or the week after.
"I paid for their express post service with next day, tracked delivery. That's how I knew it was out that day and coming for delivery because I was getting updates on the package since the order was placed.
"They were just going to keep it in their car at the end of my driveway and not even attempt to deliver it."
Kralka uses the analogy of a food delivery service to highlight what he sees as the absurdity of his experience.
"Maybe you bought Skip the Dishes for dinner and paid for delivery and then they said, 'Actually you can pick up your dinner tomorrow.'
"What good is to me then? I specifically paid for it to be delivered today."
Kralka tracked the mail carrier down nearby a few minutes after the non-delivery and got his package and, possibly, an apology. He did not quite catch what the carrier said.
At first, that was going to be the end of it.
He was going to put it down to Canada Post incompetence. After all, he once lived on 51st Street and he and a neighbour at 51A Street regularly exchanged mis-delivered mail.
The more he thought about it, though, the more it bugged Kralka, who works in supply chain logistics and deals with ordering and delivering all the time and knows how it is supposed to work.
Out of a sense of fairness, he reached out to Canada Post first for an explanation. In a Canada Post online chat, an employee told Kralka the carrier could not leave his package because it had to be signed for. But that is his point – he was never given the opportunity to sign.
Canada Post informed him it had put out a service ticket, but that was the last he heard of that.
He then went public with his story.
Will his story, which has quickly been gaining momentum on social media, make a difference at Canada Post – he's not sure.
"I have no idea. I imagine people will get a talking to there.
"I've had people send me links from every social media feed. I've had people ask me to go on podcasts. It seems to be blowing up pretty quick. There are a lot of people frustrated with the same issue, problem."
Canada Post said it has apologized for "this unfortunate and frustrating delivery experience.
"While the customer received their parcel, it should have been delivered at the time the employee arrived at the address," said a spokesperson in an email.
"When we were made aware of this situation, our local operations team followed up with the delivery agent and took a detailed look at what happened to ensure that additional steps were taken to prevent this from happening again."
Carriers are to follow the shipping label, which identifies how it can be delivered, including leaving it in a safe location at an address or leaving a notice if no one answers the door.
"It is our expectation that every parcel that can be delivered, be delivered as instructed. In any instance where we don't meet the expectations of the customer, we ask them to contact Canada Post's Customer Service team online at canadapost.ca/support or by telephone at 1-866-607-6301."