Speed ( huh???) Post experience

Well for starters, Dictionary.com defines speed as

Speed : –noun

1.	rapidity in moving, going, traveling, proceeding, or performing; swiftness; celerity:

So applying this meaning, i thought speed post == a post which reaches earlier than all other posts. Moreover, it is supposedly a priority delivery service, according to Indian postal service at least.

No wonder, i decided to send my acceptance letter + the DD to the B-School using speed post as i had just one week time. So on 7th of May 2007, i went to my local post office and after confirmation from the concerned person, that the mail will reach Lucknow in 2 days, i sent it through the speed post.

After 5 days (on 11th of May 2007)

I see a post in the famous forum for B-school aspirants that some person who had sent his acceptance letter through speed post had found out that his letter hasn't reached Lucknow yet. I felt a bit concerned about my letter and decided to call up the office and inquire the status. well, yes i was right. My letter hadn't reached the institute yet. Well I had time till 14th of May for the letter to reach, failing which my candidature will be annulled. I sent a mail and a fax to the concerned person, telling him that i have accepted the offer and the letter is lost in the post. But i was informed that if the letter along with the DD doesn't reach the institute by 5:00 PM on 14th of May, they can't do anything.

The goddamn website of India post does have a tracking mechanism, but it just showed that my letter has been bagged from Bangalore. After a few more hours of frantic calling, I finally had to fly to Lucknow and deposit a fresh DD and come back. And even now, the DD hasn't reached yet.

Well, what i wanted to tell was.... if this is the case of the priority based service, then what abt the other one which are not prioritized. And this was not a one off case. Nearly 50 odd students suffered the tension and distress. This is the worst possible service provided by them.

I am actually planning to ask those ppl for compensation. Because of them, I had to shell out another 30k for DD and 50K for flying.

But I HATE SPEED POST

Update: Well it has been more than 3 weeks since the draft was sent in speed post and it hasn't reached the recipient yet. God knows where on the holy earth is that letter of mine. There is no action taken on the complaint filed with the post office in this regard. Looks like consumer court is the only option