The Email Thrash – 5/20/2013
May 21st, 2013 by rallyadmin
I didn’t expect any responses from my emails to Martha and Sr. Gabriel on Sunday and none came. I wanted the bill of lading number and the ship that the container was on to verify that the car had been shipped. Of course, there couldn’t be a bill of lading because the container wasn’t loaded yet. Add the local penchant to not do anything before it’s necessary to do date and the Sunday silence made perfect sense.
Monday started calm and then the flood of emails from Martha started. The first was an email with all of the invoices attached. There was a message but even Google Translate couldn’t decipher it. When I sent responses continuing to ask about the car, I kept getting even more confusing emails from Martha. Finally, a last one written completely in caps. This one Google Translate was able to decipher enough so that I knew what the problem was.
The $192 invoice that we had asked Martha about but she said was already paid was, in fact, not paid and she demanded to know what we were going to do about it. If I didn’t respond she was going to cancel the shipment. A quick email to John and then a quick email to Martha.
I told her that we agreed that we owed the money and that we had that we had tried to pay her. If she’d send bank transfer info, we’d transfer the money to her account immediately. Or, if she’d rather, we’d give the money to Sr. Gabriel and he would forward it to her. Or we’d courier the money to her when we arrived in Panama. Now, when would the car be in Panama so that we could make flight reservations to get there at tthe right time?
Meanwhile, as the week went on we started getting emails from Sr. Gabriel. When should we arrive in Panama? Ignored. When would the car be available for pickup? Ignored. Where should we stay and how should we get there. That elicited a response. Hotel recommendations for Colon and they would make arrangements to send a car and driver to pick us up.
No dates but something. And something I said calmed Martha. I assume that it was just owning up to the invoice that calmed her. She’d made the mistake and we helped her cover. A Friday email she says that she has sent the documents to Sr. Gabriel. The car must have shipped.
Finally on Saturday, I sent still another email telling Sr. Gabriel that we would be arriving in Panama City on the evening of the 21st. That resulted in an email on Sunday with the container ship info. I looked up the current position of the ship on the shipping.com web site and found the live track showing the ship entering Colon harbor.
A series of quick emails and, now, on Sunday night, it looks like our car will arrive in Panama after all. Sr. Gabriel will email the driver’s name and plate number. The driver will pick up up Wednesday morning. Sr. Gabriel says that we only need one night in Colon to get the car. And then we start the last leg of this little journey.
We knew all along that it would work out.
Obi-wan
One Response to “The Email Thrash – 5/20/2013”
I was wondering what happened to you two. Thought I would have to come down to Cartagena to look for you. Take care Friends, Joe