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Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Non Sequitur

(Two posts today. Please scroll down. The two posts are somewhat related)

Last week in my mailbox on the front porch, I received a card from UPS.  The card stated as follows:
We are unable to deliver this package(s) because:
CORRECT STREET # NEEDED, NOT DELIVERED
Your shipment will be held at the above address until:
Dec 02, 2013
After that date, it will be returned to sender.

Please pick up your package(s) at the address listed at the top — a government issued photo ID is required — or you may call us...
The shipment was a set of four audio CD's from Amazon. Clearly, an item that easily fits on my large front porch, where UPS has left numerous large packages over the years.

What makes this topic worthy of a blog post? The utter inanity of it all!

1.  Over the past few weeks before the arrival of  the item-undeliverable card, I received numerous Amazon shipments via UPS.  At least five shipments delivered successfully!

2.  If the shipment was addressed to the incorrect street number — and it wasn't addressed incorrectly in any way, or I obviously wouldn't have received the card at all — why did UPS snail-mail me a card addressed to the same street and number?

I called UPS and spoke with a customer service representative, a very pleasant fellow.

At first he tried to maintain that the package was addressed incorrectly and was, therefore, undeliverable.

AOW: Does the address on the package match the address on this card that I have in my hand right now?

Customer service representative: Um, yes.

AOW: Then the package is addressed correctly, wouldn't you say?  I do have the card here in my hand.

I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head as he realized the utter stupidity of this situation.

I couldn't help but think of this little snippet from Star Trek: The Original Series:


I refused to drive to the UPS office, located some miles away, and the customer service representative didn't insist that I do so.

The "undeliverable" shipment from Amazon arrived early the next morning.

18 comments:

  1. The video is perfect for the situation.

    We've had a problem with FedEx where we life. More than once an item we ordered was marked as "delivered" on the tracking information, but we had not received the item. We call FedEx and they say they will check with the "driver" and get back to us.

    The missing item would show up at our door the next day.

    However the last time this happened, it was a computer my hubby had ordered. If someone drops a big box with a big desk top computer in it on a doorstep, the wrong doorstep, who knows what will happen to it. Could get stolen, kept by the owners of the wrong delivery house, whatever.

    He called, emailed, etc. with FedEx, no answers, no computer. He was informed an "inquiry" would need to be started, paperwork filled out, blah blah blah.

    A couple days later the computer showed up on our doorstep. However, it was brought to us by a weekender, someone who only comes to the house/cabin occasionally, a few times a year. He said he and his granddaughter found the computer sitting on his porch, read the address and brought it to us.

    The addresses were nothing alike, no logical reason why the computer was delivered to the wrong house.

    Upon further discussion with FedEx, it turns out that FedEx had 'contracted' with another company to make deliveries in our area, it was not even a FedEx employee. The same driver had done this before, and every time this happens, the manager is fined $600 per episode.

    One would think that a series of $600 fines would have encouraged the manager to fire the inept driver. But no......

    So while we thought our packages were being delivered FedEx, they were being delivered by some group we still don't know the name of, using Budget Rent a Trucks.

    Debbie
    Right Truth
    http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Debbie, Fedex doesn't have their own drivers. Fedex drivers are independent contractors that own their own truck or trucks and drive for themselves or another company that contracts with Fedex. Sometimes they have to use rental trucks if their trucks are broke down.

      Delete
    2. I did not know that, Warren. Thanks for that info. There must be some recourse for drivers that continually make mistakes on deliveries. Interesting that since that computer delivery, we have had all FedEx vans/trucks, no more Budget Rental trucks. That could be coincidence.

      Debbie

      Delete
  2. You ran into the UPS Christmas help problem. It strikes us in my little community every December.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "CORRECT STREET # NEEDED" ?

    If they didn't have the correct street number how did they know where to leave the card? I guess that I don't understand what happened.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jon,
      To clarify...The card was mailed via the post office. UPS didn't mail the card.

      Delete
  4. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!

    AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nothing compared to the corps of engineers. I submitted an application to have some corps lease land transferred into our name, paid the fee and supplied a bill of sale.

    Six weeks later I get a letter to our home saying we need to furnish a letter with our name and address asking the lease to be transferred to our name.

    Somehow if they mailed the letter in our name to our address taken off our application, you would think they knew what our name was and where we lived.
    Government bureaucracy at it's best.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The Lord must love idiots; he made so many of them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was going to give a solution to the promulgation of the stupid- but decided it would be taken in the wrong light--
      C-CS

      Delete
  7. I'm always on hand for Star Trek non sequiturs... and yes, it's frustrating to deal with USPS, FedEx, and the other one at this time of the year... they're overwhelmed.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I agree that events like this do little to aid in building confidence, but for Sanity's sake we should make every effort to see the humorous side of stories like this.

    Mrs. Cube is right. Workers in this industry are tremendously overburdened -- mostly with TRIVIA -- especially at this time of the year. It never ceases to amaze me that so much of what they do manages to get to the right places at the right time.

    If only we could pass a law against the publication and dissemination of "JUNK MAIL," things might right themselves -- and rather quickly. Because my eyesight is so weak, I find the daily chore of storing through the our-and-out GARBAGE that floods my mailbox increasingly burdensome. So much so in fact i am seriously considering the possibility of having HIRE an ASSISTANT to help sort and keep track of my mail.

    If one little partially-sighted person like me finds ONE mailbox full of garbage THAT challenging, just think what it must be like for the postal workers whose job it is to do that a thousandfold ever day of the week.

    I'm just glad you were able to get the situation righted so quickly, AOW, even though I agree you should not had o bother with it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I miss the nincompoop threads

    ReplyDelete
  10. Welcome to the new world order which requires suspending any degree of intelligence.

    ReplyDelete
  11. BOSTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Young Americans are unhappy with virtually every major thing President Barack Obama has done since he was re-elected, but they would still vote for him today, according to the results of a Harvard University survey released on Wednesday.
    The national poll by Harvard's Institute of Politics of more than 2,000 people aged 18 through 29 is intended to provide insight into the political views of the youngest U.S. voters. This increasingly influential demographic known as the "millennial generation" has been a traditional base of Obama's support.
    More than 50 percent of respondents in the survey, taken between Oct. 30 and Nov. 11, said they disapproved of how the Democratic president handled key issues in his second term, including Syria, Iran, the economy, healthcare and the federal budget deficit.
    Most cited the economy as their top concern.
    Still, disapproval ratings were higher for both Republicans and Democrats in Congress. And a plurality of respondents, 46 percent, said they would still vote for Obama for president if they could recast their 2012 ballots, compared with 35 percent who said they would vote for the then-Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.
    Some 55 percent of the survey respondents who reported casting ballots in the 2012 presidential election said they had voted for Obama, compared with 33 percent for Romney

    It is not just the young people. We "older" citizens also are quite disappointed with his performance. He has shown a constant lack of leadership and ability to manage the issues and challenges facing this country. His ability to communicate ends when he leaves the podium and its tele-prompters. He has shown little interest in dialogue, especially when it involves engaging his opposition. Increasingly, there is evidence that both he and his administration are willing to say anything to reach their goals and get their programs passed, regardless if what they say is truthful or valid. He has gathered around himself ideologues who agree with his view of government and social issues; however, he has brought very few to his organization who have skills of management, leadership, or business savvy. Group think is the key characteristic of this administration. Unfortunately what the group thinks is quite foreign to the values that have made America great. Mr Obama and his administration are quite a failure. He has delivered very little of the hope he preached from his bully pulpit. I thank God that we have only 3 more years of him and his administration. Hopefully, this nation will survive his mismanagement and ill-conceived goals

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  12. Things are looking better my dear friends, I have a renewed sense of Optimism regarding the future of the United States. I hope we are seeing the end of Obamacare, and the end of the Obama’s, BOTH OF THEM! It looks like 2014 will be the beginning of the end to Socialism-Liberalism in this nation, then 2016 will be the final blow for it... lets hope that his record number of scandals finally was the straw that broke the camels back.. nice job you imbecile lib's did to our nation. Have you ever tried to read the Affordable Care Act? Here it is; go ahead, take a crack at it. The law is, to put it mildly, complicated. It is over 1,000 pages long and has many moving parts that interact in various ways. I have read large chunks of the Affordable Care Act, although not the whole thing. Life is too short for that crap.

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  13. http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/millennials-abandon-obama-and-obamacare-20131204

    ReplyDelete
  14. ___________ NOTICE _________


    _________ Rest In Peace _________

    _______ Nelson Mandela _________

    He may have been a Communist, but he was also a selfless man of extraordinary grace, faith, courage, tenacity and good humor. That he never succumbed to bitterness or gave way to a lust for vengeance –– even after twenty-seven-years as a political prisoner –– was remarkable enough in itself, but his manifest ability to lead an entire nation –– peacefully ––from Apartheid to Native African Rule, –– and then to step away from power –– voluntarily with dignity and grace –– puts him in a league with George Washington, among the greatest leaders in recorded history.

    ReplyDelete

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