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October 8, 2008
Incompetency rampant
A number of things in life fascinate me every day. One of them is incompetence.
The following may escalate into a rant. You have been warned...
September 26: A dear friend from college calls me and asks to buy the flat screen monitor I used with my desktop (which I no longer use). I'm happy to send it to him. He is in Georgia.
September 27: I pick up the monitor from my parents' house. (My younger brother had been using it to play Xbox on so he could watch television at the same time. He's not crying though: I bought him an iPod for his 17th birthday. Seriously, I'm not a mean sister.)
September 29: I get my friend's address and head to a certain ground-based parcel service which shall remain unnamed...
I pay to have the monitor packaged properly. I pay to have the monitor shipped. I sign the necessary forms. On the receipt I read the estimated date of delivery: Wednesday, October 1.
September 30: I go about my day, happily informing my friend that the monitor is en route.
October 1: I get a voicemail from unnamed ground-based parcel service. Please call back regarding the package.
Fear kicks in--gosh, they broke it, didn't they? Or they lost it. Or both.
I call back.
"We had two packages going to Georgia that day... and we were really busy... and we have some new people working here..."
"Uh huh." I'm hardly empathetic. I want to know what the problem is not the excuses for it.
"Well your package got sent to the recepient of the other package... And your recepient is going to receive the wrong package too."
"What? How..."
"The labels got switched somehow."
I think: Somehow?! All you had to do what put a sticker on the box!
I say (calmly): "Uh huh. And what does that mean for me?"
"Well I need you to call your recepient and see if he got the wrong package yet. The other person already called and said they have your monitor..."
Sigh. I have to do their leg work. Great. "Okay... and...?"
"And when we know where both packages are, we can arrange to have them picked up and swapped."
The rest of the conversation probably isn't worth even quoting. Lots of sighs on my end. Lots of excuses on her end. Needless to say, the "estimated date of delivery" is not even happening. My monitor was delivered to the WRONG person at the WRONG address on this date instead. Summary: dissatisfaction.
October 2: I call my friend and ask him if he got the wrong package. I have to explain to him what the hell is going on. He hasn't gotten the wrong package yet. I tell him to let me know when he does.
October 3: The unnamed ground-based parcel service calls to tell me that a person signed for the other package... and they tell me the last name. It's not the last name of my friend. So who signed for it? (Translation: more leg work for me.)
Someone at the apartment building where he lives signed for it. Both packages have been delivered successfully--to the wrong addresses, mind you.
October 4: I call the unnamed ground-based parcel service. "Now that both packages have been located, can they please be switched? And soon?" I ask.
"Our drivers don't do swaps on weekends. So the soonest we can get it there would be Monday."
Deadpan--"You can't get it there faster."
"No, I'm sorry. It's actually more likely that it'll arrive on Tuesday. That's a better estimate."
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October 5: impatience consumes me.
October 6: I call my friend to tell him the status of the packages. I tell him that all he needs to do is make sure that the package is at the apartment office where it was dropped off. Why this has become my job I do not know.
October 7: I'm guessing the package has arrived. I haven't received notice from either party--my friend or the unnamed ground-based parcel service.
October 8: I thank goodness that there was nothing timely in my package... I decide to blog this because the rampant incompetency is just too ridiculous not to share.
I consider the level of skill involved in my new job and the fact that I am going to be writing technical manuals for a very important purpose... And then I consider that all this grief was caused over someone screwing up which sticker went on which box.
I check the tracking number online. (I was computerless for about a week so this has been my first opportunity.) All of it is LIES. It says my package was delivered October 1 to the location I designated. That definitely didn't happen...
My current issue? Do I call and complain that I paid over $40 to ship something, that simple incompetency caused it to be significantly delayed, that I had to do more phone calling than I feel should have been necessary as the customer that paid for shipping services and expected timely delivery? Or will they tell me that the tracking system is telling the truth? (...at which point I will scream because this whole situation is just stupid.)
Opinions and commiserations welcome.
Posted by KarissaKilgore at October 8, 2008 8:39 AM
Comments
You know, Newt Gingrich used to make an analogy that if UPS could track a package across the country, why couldn't the United States Government track illegal immigrants (or at least work as efficiently.)
Well, I guess this makes them no better than the government.
Posted by: Mike Rubino at October 8, 2008 10:12 PM