Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 July 17

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

July 17

ANTIQUE (VICTORIAN?) HOTEL LOBBY FURNITURE AND THE LIKE

I am looking for the name of a piece of furniture that I have seen in movies and photos. It is an upholstered circular sofa/bench with an upholstered pier in the center that everyone uses as a common back support. I think they are usually one large piece although I have seen one that was a sectional. Along these lines there is a piece of furniture that I have only seen once. It was in the movie "KEEPER OF THE FLAME" with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. It was in the scene where Spencer went to see "old Mrs. Forrest". In her "sitting room", Spencer sat on this piece of furniture to talk to her. This also was an upholstered piece of Victorian period but it was made for 4 people and the back supports were convex to the center. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.100.8.123 (talk) 07:15, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Here's a pic of one: [1]. Apparently it's called a borne (def 2), but many just call it a circular sofa or circular settee. StuRat (talk) 09:47, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

I'm going to mark this resolved now. StuRat (talk) 03:30, 20 July 2012 (UTC)

Resolved

finding someone

So, a friend of mine has had a parcel of theirs mislaid, the item was delivered, according to the USPS tracking system, to an R. Eldridge in Sydney, Australia, all the information we have to go on. having contacted the company, they assure us that there is noone on their customer records with that name or in that city, showing that it arrived there by mistake. Is there any way of finding this person and seeing whether they can help clear this up?

Kitutal (talk) 16:54, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

You would probably be better off getting the postal service to find your parcel than trying to track down the recipient yourself. I'm assuming that you posted an item in the US to an address in Australia - otherwise something has gone seriously wrong!

The USPS website says: Each international destination country has its own postal system that is independently operated. Once the mail leaves the United States, it is handed over to the postal system for that specific country. USPS has specific service providers for Global Express Guaranteed. Global Express Guaranteed service is the result of a strategic alliance with United States Postal Service and FedEx Express. FedEx Express provides the international transportation, commercial customs clearance, and delivery of every shipment while the Postal Service provides mailing labels and packaging to create the shipment, payment options, and acceptance of the shipment. For all other mail classes, we do not keep a listing of other specific postal operators around the world.

So, unless you sent the package by 'Global Express Guaranteed', the final delivery will have been by Australia Post. On the subject of missing items, they have a webpage where you or the intended recipient can enter details of the package and initiate an enquiry into where it ended up. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 17:28, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

we've tried that, though, been in touch with the australian post a lot, but they've been looking for something posted to my friend and it seems to have been sent somewhere else, not sure what they can do in that case, we don't even really have proof that this is the same package as he should have gotten. Kitutal (talk) 17:32, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Ok, so, to get this straight, the following events have taken place:

1. You posted something in the US with USPS, correctly addressed to your friend in Australia
2. You were able to track the item with USPS, which showed the item to have arrived in Australia
3. Your friend didn't receive the item
4. You contacted Australia Post, who initiated an enquiry about it
5. Australia Post informed you that the item was delivered to R Eldridge at some address other than your friends', but gave no further information. They now refuse to do anything else.

Is that right? Frankly, I would get back on to Australia Post (or, preferably, get your friend on to them - as a resident he will be able to do more) and get them to sort it out. They have procedures for finding lost items, or getting compensation if they can't. I apologise if I missed some details about why that's not possible in this case. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 17:49, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Yep, pretty much, other than that he had been contacting the post for weeks before that, when it never turned up, with them unable to do anything then, and hasn't since then, but he has gotten in touch with paypal, seems there's nothing they can do any more. I'll get him to contact them again, and see what's going on, maybe they can find out what happened now. thank you. Kitutal (talk) 17:59, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

You mentioned Paypal - was this something ordered off Ebay? If so, as well as contacting the postal service, you should contact the seller for proof of postage. (Sorry, I thought you were the person who posted it). I would also recommend that your friend documents all the contact they have had with Australia Post in case this comes to a compensation claim. If they are claiming that there's nothing more they can do, compensation might be the only way forward. I don't think I can advise any further than that without giving legal advice (which we don't do here), so if you need more assistance you might want to contact a lawyer. Best of luck! - Cucumber Mike (talk) 18:06, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Paypal can't do anything more than 45 days after the transaction, and he's waited longer than that in case it turned up some time. He has plenty of records of what's been going on with the postal service and the seller, emails, receipts, whatever else. claiming compensation then, I guess it is. good luck to him. Kitutal (talk) 18:24, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Postal and parcel carriers dont normally delivery stuff to the wrong name or address, just a thought but did you have the right tracking number? MilborneOne (talk) 18:36, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Postal services have a duty to deliver items to the right place. If they have failed to do that, then they need to sort it out. If they refuse to do so, then I suggest you seek legal advice. Trying to track down the item yourself is very unlikely to be effective. --Tango (talk) 23:57, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Of course, if you're up for a bit of Sherlockian fun, you could try hiring a private investigator and working with them to find out where the thing actually went. Obviously not the most expedient course of action, and possibly quite expensive, but at least it'd give you something to do for a few days, if you're bored.  dalahäst ^{(let's talk!)} 02:55, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

USPS tracking shouldn't ordinarily say to whom it was delivered, but where. There appears to be an Eldridge Road in Sydney or the Sydney area. Your friend should contact the local post offices in Sydney - both his, the one it should have been sent to or the one the USPS says it arrived at ( on Eldridge Road(?) ). Make sure the USPS tracking says it went to the correct postcode / Australian post office & that the seller addressed it correctly - an erroneous digit could have helped cause the non-delivery. And as MilborneOne says, make sure you have the right tracking number. The USPS site should tell you the date it was sent - if that's wrong, the tracking number can't be right. The US post office, especially the one it was sent from, especially if you ply the clerks with enough donuts, might be able to help more, if provided with the tracking number - at least they could give you a lost mail form, or find their copy of the customs form if they haven't destroyed it. John Z (talk) 05:55, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

Maybe this experience will be useful to you. Not long ago I had occasion to reschedule a delivery. When I checked on the website using the number I'd been given, I found the parcel had gone to Aberdeen, some 500 miles away! However, when I contacted the company to find out what was going on, I discovered that the rescheduling had the effect of cancelling the first number and issuing another number. Meanwhile, the first number had been reallocated. Maybe, somewhere in the trek between US and Australia, something like this happened and the number you were given originally is no longer valid? --TammyMoet (talk) 08:29, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

I somewhat disagree with Tango in that if you actually read the terms and conditions you'd find their guarantees often are rather limited although it varies greatly from country to country and depending on the service you use. Perhaps consumer laws will provide additional protection but postal services are widely used enough that I personally doubt it's common their T&Cs don't comply with consumer law. Anyway my main point of replying is to point out that you may want to ask the sender to initiate a query with USPS. Although Australian Post may have been the delivery agent, it's fairly normal for the sender to be the one to initiate claims for lost parcels, they are normally the ones who directly paid for the service and know all the details, and of course this is whoever they sent it with (i.e. USPS) not who the final delivery agent was. USPS will of course need to contact Australian Post but this is also normal. Depending on the service used and the norms, you may get a signature (the fact there's a name suggests to me this was collected) and perhaps time and address of delivery. Of course if you don't trust the sender and believe they may have sent you a tracking number for something else you're fairly SOL. I admit I'm a bit confused why your friend waited so long for delivery. I don't live in Australia but I'm pretty sure at least in the urban areas things aren't much worse then NZ. An item sent from the US even with the normal airmail service should arrive within about a 1 week, at most 3. If things haven't arrived by then, it's time to ask the seller what's up (remember with eBay whatever the seller may say, they're actually required to ensure the item is delivered to you). (For the record, I've ordered plenty of things off a variety of sellers off eBay and elsewhere, the longest to arrive was something that got 'lost' during the volcano disruptions a couple of years back and was about 60 days, the next longest was well within 45 days.) Since they had a tracking number, I'm even more confused what happened, if it supposedly arrived but hasn't that's the time to tell the sender there's a problem and let them make inquiries. (If an item is missing or the parcel is damaged it may be you to initiate the claim since you have the evidence to show them although it's usually best to tell the sender first, particularly for missing items with no evidence of tampering to ensure the sender didn't just forget it or whatever.) Nil Einne (talk) 16:05, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

Documentaries about sewage

I am looking for documentaries about sewage in the UK, dealing with such things as pipe infrastructure, transport, treatment, sewage farms, sludge beds, water reclamation, effluents, etc. The closest thing I have been able to find so far is episode 18 of the 90s children show Come Outside [2] but it is only 10 minutes long and not very detailed. Something like this but longer and more in-depth and technical would be wonderful. Thanks

75.87.101.44 (talk) 18:59, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

See if you can find episode 4 of the 2003 BBC series Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, which is about Joseph Bazalgette, "The Sewer King". -- Arwel Parry (talk) 19:20, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll definitely look that up. Just to clarify though, I was hoping for documentaries about more recent sewage projects and technologies such as from the 1950s to present. 75.87.101.44 (talk) 19:33, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

BBC News Radio ran a detailed ~10 minute segment on the origins and history of London's sewage system about a month ago. I'm sure you can find it at http://bbc.co.uk 75.166.200.250 (talk) 02:52, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

I can't find the one I heard, but this is close enough to what you want. 75.166.200.250 (talk) 03:29, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

I seem to remember some episodes of Modern Marvels dealt, at least in part, with sewage. Looking through List of Modern Marvels episodes, episode 7-40, about plumbing, may have some good informagtion. There are a couple titled "Bathroom Tech" that may have something along those lines as well. --Jayron32 05:02, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

How can no one have mentioned Cities of the Underworld? μηδείς (talk) 05:11, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

Episode 108, 301, or both? 75.166.200.250 (talk) 08:00, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

I have only actually seen the episode on Budapest. But the series seemed an obvious place to look. μηδείς (talk) 16:53, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

Ah-ha! Please see London sewerage system. 75.166.200.250 (talk) 08:00, 18 July 2012 (UTC)