Holiday redemption! January 27, 2012 12:48 PM   Subscribe

Quonsmas, Mark II

I just received a quonsar gift in the last-chance phase of the Quonsmas experience. Thank you so much, mystery gift-giver (whose real name I have, but whose Metafilter username I don't)! I haven't read 'Cloud Atlas' yet, but because I loved Jacob de Zoet, I'm eager to get a fire going in the woodstove and plop down for a few hours with my new book tonight. Thank you so very much--I was starting to think I'd be a Quonsmas orphan forever!
posted by yellowcandy to MetaFilter-Related at 12:48 PM (21 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite

Hey!! Me too. It was an absolutely lovely, unexpected, beautifully-packed trio of local deliciousness from down Virginia way. Thank you, SQ, it was even better now, away from holiday madness.
posted by thinkpiece at 5:18 PM on January 27, 2012


If at all possible, for next Quonsmas, I'd like to request a woodstove (and accompanying installation). Until then, I'll seethe with jealousy (and shake from footnumbing cold) at yellowcandy's ability to read in relative warmth and comfort.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:01 PM on January 27, 2012 [1 favorite]


If you want to pay for the flight to Japan, the wood stove, and the tools, I'll provide the installation (and maybe even a book).
posted by Nackt at 6:05 PM on January 27, 2012


If I hear one more fucking Quonsmas carol.
posted by found missing at 6:05 PM on January 27, 2012 [2 favorites]


Today, my wonderful backup SQ's gift arrived and it felt like holiday season was back again! Love the honey scented candle with bumble bee on top, the chocolate bar, the lovely tea, the oatmeal and honey soap, the peppermint scrub bar, the coop bag, and the touches of red sparkle in the wrappings. Thanks Very Much. I am transformed from disappointed SQ neglected to happy SQ recipient.
posted by bearwife at 6:43 PM on January 27, 2012


Sniff. No Quonsmas for me yet. China customs bounced back my parcel and it doesn't seem to have arrived in my alternate Canadian address. Maybe it'll arrive in time for my Birthday?
posted by arcticseal at 8:14 PM on January 27, 2012


You ever notice how nobody ever says Merry Quonsmas anymore? It is all Happy Holidays this and Best Wishes that.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:36 PM on January 27, 2012


Yay, I'm glad people are getting their backup SQ's.

I'm with arcticseal, as I haven't gotten anything yet.. but it'll come eventually, right? Just gotta keep up hope!
posted by royalsong at 8:46 PM on January 27, 2012


I'm eager to get a fire going in the woodstove and plop down for a few hours with my new book tonight.

Must be a pretty thick book if you reckon it's going to keep a woodstove going for a few hours.
posted by flabdablet at 8:49 PM on January 27, 2012 [2 favorites]


Which brings me to ask Julen, how many people stiffed their Quonsees this year? It seems like a lot of people needed backup gifters...
posted by IndigoRain at 8:52 PM on January 27, 2012


Until then, I'll seethe with jealousy (and shake from footnumbing cold) at yellowcandy's ability to read in relative warmth and comfort.

Mind if I point and laugh?
posted by flabdablet at 8:52 PM on January 27, 2012


Sorry, that ended up incoherent. First line is a http://metatalk.metafilter.com/21407/Holiday-redemption#964177.
posted by flabdablet at 8:53 PM on January 27, 2012


Oh, I'm in good form today. Buttons... buttons... where's the right button?
posted by flabdablet at 8:54 PM on January 27, 2012


Mind if I point and laugh

Sure, go ahead and laugh. My revenge will be sweet. Just give me, say, six or seven months. We'll see who's asking for a wood stove, oh yes we will, you southern hemispherian.
posted by Ghidorah at 11:26 PM on January 27, 2012


Which brings me to ask Julen, how many people stiffed their Quonsees this year? It seems like a lot of people needed backup gifters...

I wonder this too. I love my replacement SQgift, but am a little astonished the original SQ sent nothing, and wondering who else experienced that. Frankly it seems like a nasty form of theft to sign up and get a gift, but fail to send anything but excuses oneself. (Sorry, I was pretty disappointed to get nothing, then learn mySQ was overwhelmed but promised something was coming late, then still get nothing. BOOO.)
posted by bearwife at 1:13 AM on January 28, 2012


Warning: Long Post Ahoy.

Stiffed and the number of people who didn't receive gifts aren't the same number, although obviously one is a subset of the other. In early January, we were tracking 30+ non-arrivals and 40+ non-responses to our "Did it get there" mails. It was really depressing. BUT! Some were slow travelers, some were late sends, some were genuinely lost or stolen, and some were [not arrived for unknown reason].

We actually have not used all of our second chancers, although we were really worried about it at one point a few weeks ago. I tried to match second chancers to people whose gift would arrive expeditiously, and almost all of our giftless participants so far have been Americans. I was saving our non-American second chancers for folks who hadn't received a gift who lived in Europe, Asia, or Canada so we could get gifts to them expeditiously.

Because we did a much better job of following up this year (thanks Crunchland!), we have a much better sense of this year's sq status overall than in previous years, so it's hard to measure compared to previous years. However, I think I can say these things with a reasonable amount of certitude:

+ There were a LOT of people who sent gifts late for a variety of reasons, good and trifling. It feels like there was an uptick of unplanned major life events in December, and we were happy to work around them. There were about an average # of people who forgot to send
their gift before leaving for holiday vacations, coming home to a massive case of "DANGIT!". There were a few people who let other people mail their packages which resulted in no package being mailed on time. There were people who just kept putting it off and then it was Christmas and whoops! There were people who just flaked on it (and totally copped to it in email to us) and sent it late.

+ There was a disappointing number of packages we had to mark lost/stolen. These are packages for which there are tracking numbers, estimates, notations in the shipping record, customs forms, receipts, etc. They never arrived.

+ There were a number of gifts we marked missing. There weren't tracking numbers, estimates, customs forms, etc, but they too didn't arrive. For most of these, we believed that the gift had actually been sent based on our interactions with them. In fact there were packages that took more than 2 weeks to travel 500 miles. There were packages that took 6 weeks to arrive. There were packages that took 4 weeks to be returned to the sender. There were gifts that must have been given a complete tour of the Canada-US border to justify how long it took to arrive.

I think there were maybe 2-3 people who lied to or significantly misled us during the process, but I can not prove it. So I'm going to keep my eye on them. Their recipients have all gotten a gift (not all second chancers, either!).

+There are 6 names on the scofflaw list for this year so far. We will not reveal them publicly, but they do not get to participate next year.

+ The vast majority of senders whose gifts were lost sent a subsequent makeup gift, which I found to be a really wonderful thing. That their gift had not arrived was a concern and a worry and they wanted to make sure something arrived. The 2-3 who couldn't afford to send a new gift included a past year's second chancer and people with documentation that they sent the first gift. In fact, one of our second chancers this year did it (second chance gifting) because he/she couldn't resend a lost gift two years ago and appreciated that someone had stepped in to make it right, and wanted to do that for someone else this year.

+ Our second chancers were a lovely group, and I'm both sorry and happy that it looks like we won't be using all of them. The group included someone who missed the signup but got a special SQ gift from someone who saw that in MeTa, several people whose gifts (they would receive) were extremely late or missing themselves (and whom I didn't want to use for second chancing if they hadn't gotten a gift yet), and people around the world.

+ There are still a few folks who haven't received their gifts yet. One was pre-arranged for a late delivery, some are getting second chance gifts and/or resends, and some are waiting for their original gifts (some international shipping took forever! Others are from folks who sent late.

+There were two folks who - upon telling us they hadn't gotten a gift - didn't want a second chance gift. They were generous and lovely about it, saying essentially that it was all chance and they had enjoyed gifting. We honored, that of course, but thought it a lovely gesture. In each of the years I've been doing this, we've had people respond this way (different people!), and I always find it a really lovely gesture.

+There is one person who sent a gift that never arrived, and sent another gift that got returned. They resent the second gift and .... nothing yet. Very frustrating.

+There are more than 15 recipients we never heard from as to whether they got their gift. Last year, I'd say I didn't know about 100+ recipients, so progress!

+We had a number of issues with email address and mailing addresses this year being wrong or incomplete, so we're looking into seeing how we can mitigate that next year to make sure we have valid info before the swap. (I'm thinking a receipt when you signup that shows you the information you entered, but I need to make sure I get bounce messages when it goes to an incorrect email address, which apparently didn't happen with the swap emails this year).

+ Crunchland and Phunniemee were fantastic this as they stepped up to help make it all work. I just can't say enough good things about their contributions.
posted by julen at 7:54 AM on January 28, 2012 [9 favorites]


Thank you so much julen, crunchland and phunniemee - SQ this season was amazing and I can't wait to do it again.
posted by bibliogrrl at 6:14 PM on January 28, 2012 [1 favorite]


Is my Quonsee one of those whose response is MIA? I never heard whether the gift was received or not, though my tracking showed it had been delivered before Christmas.
posted by SisterHavana at 9:39 PM on January 28, 2012


I responded via MeMail.

If you haven't heard from your recipient that they got it, and want us to verify it arrived, we'll be glad to do so via email (or memail). However, if you haven't gotten a note from us saying, "So, the gift you sent X ... what's up with that?", chances are excellent that it did arrive.

And for gift-getters: It's never too late to say "Thanks!" or even "It arrived!"
posted by julen at 6:44 AM on January 29, 2012


I sent an email to secretquonsar yesterday - just checked in with home, no parcel yet even at the second address :(
posted by infini at 11:13 AM on February 6, 2012


Infini, you're not alone, still no SQ for me. Checked with in-laws and no package in Canada after the first one got turned by by Chinese customs.

The expectation for my package is now at such levels that I'm expecting unicorns to frolic out when it finally does arrive.
posted by arcticseal at 4:55 PM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]


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