Joe's business card doesn't show
a fax number. I find the head office
fax number on the Ducana website. I
fax a cancellation letter to Ducana's
head office. To be certain Joe know's
of the cancellation, I send a copy
of the letter registered mail on Saturday
August 30th, 2008 to Ducana's Chatham
store address. The Chatham address is the
address on Joe's business card. Now how
I ended up with a Ducana rep from Chatham,
I don't know. The Chatham number is
not in the yellow pages. I'm thinking
maybe when I initially contacted
Ducana I was asked for my address. I recall
the person I intially spoke to - not Joe,
saying that they've replaced windows on my
street. So I must of told the person my
address. But that doesn't explain why Joe,
does it? Or maybe it does.
I decided to take a closer look at the
papers that the lawyers assistant gave
me with the keys to the house on August
15th, 2008, the closing date.
They were photocopy receipts
for windows that the previous owner
had replaced by Northstar Windows. What
I had not noticed before was there was
a warranty transfer for the windows that
had to be mailed to Northstar by
the second owner within 30 days of taking
possession of the home. So I immediately
wrote a cheque for the required $100.00
administration fee, put the certificate
in envelope and sent it registered mail
on the same date, August 29th, 2008.
I check Canada Post's on line tracker.
Joe's registered letter reaches Chatham
on September 4th, 2008. But the tracker
indicates that the registered letter to
Northstar shows as "accepted at Windsor"
The appearance is that the envelope with
the warranty transfer is still sitting
at the Windsor post office. I head to the
post office to find out what's going on.
They don't know and give me a card with
a list of Canada Post numbers I can contact
to get help. I don't call right away.
I have sneaking suspicion that the missing
registered mail containing the window warranty
transfer is not a fluke.
I notice another warranty transfer certificate.
I'm not certain whether the $100.00 administration
fee covers both certificates or if I need to
send $100.00 for each certificate. I decide
to write two separate cheques. I figure if
the fee covered both, Northstar would return
one of the cheques. At least I hoped so. You
never know these days.
I go to a post office at another location and
this time I send the warranty by Xpress post
because I'm running out of time. It has to
be at Northstar by September 15th.
Guess what? My suspicion was right. It wasn't
a fluke. The same thing happened. The Canada
Post tracker indicated that the mail was
"accepted at Windsor." Nothing further. Again
the appearance was it never left Windsor.
I still didn't contact the post office. I
decided I would after I contacted Northstar.
I contacted NorthStar's head office in St.
Thomas. I spoke to someone who transferred
me to their accounts receivable department.
I then spoke to a women about the warranty
transfer. I asked if I could fax the certificates
and pay the administration fee by credit card.
She said I could. So that's what I did. I faxed
the certificates and paid the $100.00 administration
fee by credit card on the last day that I had to get
the certificates to NorthStar, September 15th, 2008.
I also put stop payment on all three cheques.
I made a mental list of those I knew were aware of
the warranty transfer. The previous owners who
coincidentally are my next door neighbours, who
coincidentally had the two NorthStar workers
doing work at their home, the law offices involved
in the transaction. Those are the parties that I
know were aware of the warranty transfers.
A couple days later I contact Canada Post. I
give the employee the tracking numbers for
the envelopes sent by registered mail and
Xpress post. She reads the same thing, "
accepted at Wiindsor." She finds it bizarre.
Her word.
She asked me what I was sending.
I explain to her that I just moved to my
home and that it was a warranty transfer
for windows that had to be submitted within
30 days of my taking possession of the house.
She asked the name of the company and the
telephone number, which I provide. She tells
me Canada Post can reimburse me for the
money, but I there would be no investigation
if I'm reimbursed first. I tell her to
investigate first. She gives me case number
for the register envelope, case no: 648 9842
and for the Xpress post, case no; 648 9906.
The following day, Tuesday September 16th, 2008,
while I'm out arranging for stop payments on
all three cheques written out to NorthStar,
the women from NorthStar's account receivable
department leaves me a message indicating
that she had three cheques from me for $100.00
each that she was returning to me. I could hear
her lightly chuckling. I can't say I blame her.
She also indicated that she was including a
receipt for my credit card payment of the
administration fee.
I receive two telephone messages from Canada
Post indicating that they were going to
reimburse me for my cost. For some reason,
although NorthStar did receive my mail, once
the envelopes left Windsor, for some reason
they were not scanned again, giving the
appearance when viewing the tracker, that
the envelopes never left Windsor.
The entire thing was really strange. It
made me think that someone did not
want me to benefit from the warranty
transfer. It was really odd to register
two letters on the same day, different
addresses, to have one letter reach its
destination and other containing the
warranty certificate, appearing on the
on line tracker as if it never left
the post office. For the same thing to
occur at different post office...well?
In between the issue of the missing warranty
transfer certificates, I was dealing with a
Ducana sales person, Joe, who didn't want to
understand that cancel means cancel. I'll
be posting Part III shortly.
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