Hi Harman, congrats!
Sydney emailed me today in the morning that my visa was ready for collection at reception, and that I would need to arrange the Fedex pickup.
Seemed easy, but wait, I couldn't really do it from the UK...tried with online chat, on the phone, email, everything, I spoke with Mailboxes and asked to do it for me, as they're the account owners but no success on their part either. Then I called Fedex Australia, and I went through the same crap. In the end they told me to try again in the morning and have account number ready, which I could sneakily obtain from a very kind online representative, after about 10 calls. I'll try contacting them in a couple of hours, when the customer service opens and see if I can do anything. I'm really really worried and pissed off at Sydney, for not arranging this for me. Fedex told me that since Sydney is the shipper of the return envelope they would only have to give them a quick call and say "come and get my package", all they need is the tracking number on the package, which they've already got.
I'm very annoyed because Ottawa and other VOs arrange pickups for applicants, and it seems Sydney doesn't care at all. Come on, I already went through the hassle of sending a package from UK, prepaid everything (spent like 50 pounds for sending it off, and will spend another 50 when it comes back) and followed the instructions carefully. I really don't understand. I hope that in your case everything goes smoothly, but if you chose a courier like you said, chances are they're not gonna arrange a pickup for you, they're gonna sit there with your package on the table and not move a finger.
If I can't sort it later on the phone, I'll call up the Consulate, and try and convince them to spend two minutes on the phone with Fedex. I'm gonna be charged for the pickup as well, so I don't really understand what their problem is!
Sorry for the ranting, I'm just so frustrated, when I thought the worst had passed...:-(
