On Monday (I was not home but V** was here), a UPS truck pulled into the driveway. The driver never got out of the truck (that she saw) but left a package in a plastic bag at our front gate. The driver never came to the door to make the delivery, did not even leave the package on the porch where it would have been safe from the weather. When I got home I would have driven right past it if V** had not told me it was there.
On Monday, Wednesday & again today I called UPS & each time it has been the same headache from scratch: they have no record of my previous calls. I am calling because the package is not for us. Although the recipient's last name begins with the same letter as our last name that is where it stops being the same. It is not for anyone on our street; it has a clear address with a different street. It is not for our number on this other street; as with the last names the first number of the four digit street number is the same as ours, but that is it.
Under ordinary circumstances I would say this was a very avoidable stoopid mistake. Wrong street, wrong house, wrong name & any of it could have been avoided if not for the wrong driver. But it actually gets worse: it turns out UPS has no system (or functioning system) for reporting this kind of mistake. Each time I call it is like I have never called before.
In the grand scheme of who has the right to be pissed, it is not me. I am not the shipper nor am I the recipient & I suspect that is exactly what is making it so hard to fix this problem. I am just sick of this pile of garbage (it has been raining on & off over the last four days) waiting for pick-up at my front gate. Last night I dreamed there were kittens in the package which has made me more upset than I should be.
When I take a step back though I notice two things:
1. what do people have against the post office? Sure, they do not have those crazy slick scanning gizmos , but then again this package was delivered to the correct address four days ago according to those same gizmos so what does that matter? Besides, when I go to my local post office, the post-people know me. By name. & they deliver mail to the house almost every day mail is delivered. Want to know how many misdelivered bundles we have had in the past year? Two. If that seems like a lot do the math: 52 weeks x 6 days a week = 312 total delivery days a year & 310 went without a hitch. If UPS made 15 deliveries to my house last year I will be surprised but lets say that they did: 15 deliveries & 14 were OKay. Do I really need to do all the percentage calculations to show who has the better track record?
2. the other bell that kept ringing in my head was the universal health care bell. I am tired tired tired of people complaining that the government will squeeze out private health care providers. If that were true other government institutions would not have private competition (like oh, say the post office). Private firms might have to step up their game. OR they could make like UPS & fake it.
//As I began this post this morning, I did finally get a call from the local UPS office that they had indeed received all my complaints & a driver would be out "shortly". She asked if there was any reason the driver might have trouble finding our house. I said that would depend: if it was the same driver as last time he could not find the front door when he was parked in the driveway. As of the time stamp on this post the package was still out there.
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