Why do I bother?
I'm off today, as a comp day for working last Saturday at the conference. I'd planned to potter around a bit, do some research, run some errands, relax. Catch up on email (still haven't gotten around to that.)
I ordered some DVDs and a CD from Amazon on Wednesday. They noted they'd be shipping with UPS. *uh-oh*
I have a long history of ugliness with UPS. They think my building is a business, and while they will deliver to homes without requiring someone to be there to sign for it, they won't for a business. The only 'business' here is the park district office, and it's only staffed about ten hours a week.
This means that I order things or things get shipped to me, they arrive when I'm at work and there's no one in the office, and I don't get them. Generally, I have to call and have the delivery re-routed to work, which takes an extra day. Or two.
Normally, I save myself the bother and have things shipped directly to work to start with. Of course, if delivery is scheduled for a weekend, I still have to wait, but I don't have the aggravation of wondering whether the shipping stars will align properly.
But hey, with this shipment, I thought, "I'll be home on Friday," and had it sent here.
And people say I'm not an optimist. Hah.
Got up this morning, checked tracking. Sure enough, it left the facility early for local delivery.
I can hear delivery trucks pulling into the parking area right by my apt, but (having been down this road many times before) I put GREAT BIG GREEN SIGNS on both the door nearest my apt and the one near the park dictrict office noting that I was home and which door to go to.
People were actually around quite a bit this morning, as well -- park district people who know me, and would sign for the package.
By mid-afternoon, I was seriously annoyed. Normally UPS comes in the morning, and I had errands to run.
At 3PM, I checked the tracking again. It now reads:
Status: Exception (see below)
11:13AM NOT READY FOR PICKUP ON THE 1ST ATTEMPT. A 2ND PICKUP ATTEMPT WILL BE MADE
Estimated Delivery: 5/7/07.
Cue confusion -- and building anger -- on my part. What the heck is a 'pickup attempt'? If it went out for delivery early this morning, why did it need to be picked up again? Regardless, it's now saying delivery Monday, when, oddly enough, I won't be here.
Called UPS, spent a while on their prompts trying to get to a real person.
Gave up. Remembered Readerjane posting a while back that there was a way of routing a package to a new address. Went to that link. Unfortunately, that link is for people who are shipping something, not people who are awaiting a delivery. However, the FAQ says there's a way of changing delivery address from my tracking screen. But there's no button like that on my tracking screen, and I've gone over it and over it. Ain't there.
Tried to call again. They don't have an automated option for rerouting packages, and the computer didn't understand the language I was using. (This might be a good thing.) Remembered the wonderful 'live human' database. Checked that, and it said to dial 0 when given the options (even though 0 or operator isn't an option), repeatedly until I got a human. It worked.
This is funny: It gave me the first series of choices (Shipping, Tracking. Supplies -- I'd already tried Tracking, and the cheerful computer told me the same thing my computer was telling me) I hit zero and the computer said, "I'll connect you with an operator but first, select Tracking, Shipping..." I made an ugly noise and hit zero again. This time I got a live person right away. I think I scared the computer.
Explained the situation to the woman. Woman told me the driver obviously meant he'd attempted delivery at 11:13AM, and hit the wrong code.
I screamed. Really. Managed not to swear directly at the poor woman, but it was a close thing.
I pointed out:
1) I can hear all vehicles pulling into the drive, and have checked every single one. I've never been further than ten feet from a window all day.
2) Signs on all doors directing driver to the correct door.
3) If he came, tried to deliver, and left, why didn't he leave one of those annoying little "UPS tried to deliver" stickers? Perhaps because he'd have to have placed it RIGHT ON TOP of the sign that said, "UPS: I'm home, please knock on this door"?
When I got to #3, it plainly puzzled her. "He didn't leave a note?" Me: "No. No note."
I stated again that I've been able to hear every vehicle that came through today.
At this point, she told me she'd try to have it redelivered today, but in the meantime, got my work address. Then she got my phone numbers and said she'd try to have someone call me within this hour if there was any chance of another attempt today.
Hmm. While typing this, another woman called, from my local warehouse, and asked me for details. I gave them to her, explained the setup and that no, no one has been here today. She's going to call the driver and see if he can come back, and when that might be.
Okay. That helps. Even if he doesn't come back, the fact that they made the effort is helping my blood pressure. And my amusement at having apparently scared the computer is reasserting itself.
Still, I can't shake the feeling that this has completely thrown my whole day out of whack. *sulks*
ETA: They called back, said he'd be here in a few minutes. He was, and was quite apologetic. He said he had been here earlier, but just pulled into the edge of the drive and couldn't see the building. It's his first week, and the RFD address confused him, too. So, yeah, I'll cut him some slack. I didn't point out that he should have still left a 'tried to deliver' note, no matter what. I'll let his supervisors do that.
Anyway...I'm happy.
*goes off to listen to Pathfinder soundtrack CD*
(What? You didn't guess that a temper tantrum from me on this level would be Karl Urban related in some way? What were you thinking?) *g*
I ordered some DVDs and a CD from Amazon on Wednesday. They noted they'd be shipping with UPS. *uh-oh*
I have a long history of ugliness with UPS. They think my building is a business, and while they will deliver to homes without requiring someone to be there to sign for it, they won't for a business. The only 'business' here is the park district office, and it's only staffed about ten hours a week.
This means that I order things or things get shipped to me, they arrive when I'm at work and there's no one in the office, and I don't get them. Generally, I have to call and have the delivery re-routed to work, which takes an extra day. Or two.
Normally, I save myself the bother and have things shipped directly to work to start with. Of course, if delivery is scheduled for a weekend, I still have to wait, but I don't have the aggravation of wondering whether the shipping stars will align properly.
But hey, with this shipment, I thought, "I'll be home on Friday," and had it sent here.
And people say I'm not an optimist. Hah.
Got up this morning, checked tracking. Sure enough, it left the facility early for local delivery.
I can hear delivery trucks pulling into the parking area right by my apt, but (having been down this road many times before) I put GREAT BIG GREEN SIGNS on both the door nearest my apt and the one near the park dictrict office noting that I was home and which door to go to.
People were actually around quite a bit this morning, as well -- park district people who know me, and would sign for the package.
By mid-afternoon, I was seriously annoyed. Normally UPS comes in the morning, and I had errands to run.
At 3PM, I checked the tracking again. It now reads:
Status: Exception (see below)
11:13AM NOT READY FOR PICKUP ON THE 1ST ATTEMPT. A 2ND PICKUP ATTEMPT WILL BE MADE
Estimated Delivery: 5/7/07.
Cue confusion -- and building anger -- on my part. What the heck is a 'pickup attempt'? If it went out for delivery early this morning, why did it need to be picked up again? Regardless, it's now saying delivery Monday, when, oddly enough, I won't be here.
Called UPS, spent a while on their prompts trying to get to a real person.
Gave up. Remembered Readerjane posting a while back that there was a way of routing a package to a new address. Went to that link. Unfortunately, that link is for people who are shipping something, not people who are awaiting a delivery. However, the FAQ says there's a way of changing delivery address from my tracking screen. But there's no button like that on my tracking screen, and I've gone over it and over it. Ain't there.
Tried to call again. They don't have an automated option for rerouting packages, and the computer didn't understand the language I was using. (This might be a good thing.) Remembered the wonderful 'live human' database. Checked that, and it said to dial 0 when given the options (even though 0 or operator isn't an option), repeatedly until I got a human. It worked.
This is funny: It gave me the first series of choices (Shipping, Tracking. Supplies -- I'd already tried Tracking, and the cheerful computer told me the same thing my computer was telling me) I hit zero and the computer said, "I'll connect you with an operator but first, select Tracking, Shipping..." I made an ugly noise and hit zero again. This time I got a live person right away. I think I scared the computer.
Explained the situation to the woman. Woman told me the driver obviously meant he'd attempted delivery at 11:13AM, and hit the wrong code.
I screamed. Really. Managed not to swear directly at the poor woman, but it was a close thing.
I pointed out:
1) I can hear all vehicles pulling into the drive, and have checked every single one. I've never been further than ten feet from a window all day.
2) Signs on all doors directing driver to the correct door.
3) If he came, tried to deliver, and left, why didn't he leave one of those annoying little "UPS tried to deliver" stickers? Perhaps because he'd have to have placed it RIGHT ON TOP of the sign that said, "UPS: I'm home, please knock on this door"?
When I got to #3, it plainly puzzled her. "He didn't leave a note?" Me: "No. No note."
I stated again that I've been able to hear every vehicle that came through today.
At this point, she told me she'd try to have it redelivered today, but in the meantime, got my work address. Then she got my phone numbers and said she'd try to have someone call me within this hour if there was any chance of another attempt today.
Hmm. While typing this, another woman called, from my local warehouse, and asked me for details. I gave them to her, explained the setup and that no, no one has been here today. She's going to call the driver and see if he can come back, and when that might be.
Okay. That helps. Even if he doesn't come back, the fact that they made the effort is helping my blood pressure. And my amusement at having apparently scared the computer is reasserting itself.
Still, I can't shake the feeling that this has completely thrown my whole day out of whack. *sulks*
ETA: They called back, said he'd be here in a few minutes. He was, and was quite apologetic. He said he had been here earlier, but just pulled into the edge of the drive and couldn't see the building. It's his first week, and the RFD address confused him, too. So, yeah, I'll cut him some slack. I didn't point out that he should have still left a 'tried to deliver' note, no matter what. I'll let his supervisors do that.
Anyway...I'm happy.
*goes off to listen to Pathfinder soundtrack CD*
(What? You didn't guess that a temper tantrum from me on this level would be Karl Urban related in some way? What were you thinking?) *g*