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ARVIAT
An Arviat woman is sending words of caution to all Nunavummiut who place orders during the annual sealift.

Stephanie Courtorielle of Arviat displays diapers a sealift company weighed out at more than 100 pounds during her barge order this past September. - photo courtesy of Stephanie Courtorielle

Stephanie Courtorielle has been writing letters and sending e-mails to the Quebec-based Marche Turenne Inc. for months.

Courtorielle's woes began shortly after receiving her family's $7,000 barge order this past September.

Upon inspecting the order, she found items that expired the previous April and May and others set to expire from November to February.

Courtorielle said numerous items were substituted without notice, and she was charged more than triple the quoted price on others.

She said she was often charged an outrageous amount for items nowhere near their listed weight.

"We received four products already expired and numerous others with an expiry date shortly after we received the order," said Courtorielle.

"I was short 128 diapers, but still paid the same price.

"We were charged 93 kg of weight on four boxes of unwanted Pampers.

"Each box weighed just under three kg, so the math speaks for itself."

Courtorielle said the company took advantage of the fact her family is isolated and can't do anything about it.

She said as far as she's concerned, old products were dumped on them because there's not much you can do once they arrive.

"It's not like you can go return it at the store, and they took advantage of that.

"We have a friend in Arviat who placed a barge order with another company, and there were a few problems with substitutions and receiving the wrong items.

"Once contacted, the company reimbursed them for the mistakes and everything was resolved the same day."

Courtorielle hoped her order would be handled in the same manner.

But, she said, after numerous e-mails and letters, the company still won't own up to anything.

"It won't even admit we received expired products.

"It's the first company we've ever had to deal with up here that won't do anything for us."

Courtorielle said the company did send out a mass e-mail stating it won't be conducting a sealift this coming summer. She said she can't help but wonder how many other Northern customers have been treated the same way.

"I also wonder how many people don't even know they were taken advantage of.

"I don't know how often this happens, or who figures out what to charge us up here, but it's not right to overcharge customers like this and get away with it."

Courtorielle said all she has from the company are a few nasty e-mails.

She said it's even more frustrating because nobody signs their name for her to contact them directly.

"At first my concern was getting reimbursed, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

"Now I just want to make sure this doesn't happen to anybody else.

"If people know it was done to us, maybe they'll double-check their receipts and invoices to make sure it hasn't happened to them.

"We give a lot of business to these southern companies to provide a sealift, and they need to treat their Northern customers with more respect than this."

Courtorielle said her family is still discussing the option of legal action against the company.

She said they could have, at least, been sent an e-mail on unavailable items, rather than receiving replacement products they didn't want or agree to.

"The company my friend deals with e-mails to ask if every substitution is OK.

"We didn't receive any such courtesy.

"We received our order in September with a good percentage of our items set to expire in November or December and the rest, pretty much, January or February.

"There's no reason for products to expire almost as soon as you get them.

"There certainly were better products on the shelf than what were sent to us."

Courtorielle said a number of people have told her they don't really check their sealift.

She said she wants to warn everyone to look through their order to make sure they know what they're receiving and not getting ripped off.

"Check your expiry dates and don't assume because it came from the south it's not going to spoil shortly after you get it.

"We've been in the North for a number of years, but it looks like we're going to be moved to Alberta this summer.

"So it won't affect us anymore, and we could just let it all go under the bridge, but it's not about us right now.

"I just want people using the sealift to be aware of what happened to us and not find themselves getting put through the same thing."

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