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captainsblogI am angry. Spitting-nail angry. Angry at a system that doesn't work despite giving it every chance and every effort to help. It probably is karma repaying me for avoiding another aggravation several weeks ago.
That was the line for Niagara Falls Traffic Court, just over three weeks ago. I was not in that line. I have my Attorney Superpower to avoid such things, and I was out within moments of the judge showing up. She was even gracious enough to give my absent client both permission to be absent and 30 days to pay the quite reasonable fine. Which was good, because I'd asked the client to send me a check for what I thought the fine might be, and it never showed up in the mail.
Got it. This time, she sent it UPS. Tracking number and all. When it failed to arrive after Thanksgiving, she texted me the tracking number, which Siri is smart enough to recognize and send direct to their website.
Scheduled for Thursday delivery last week. Nuthin.
Rescheduled for Friday. Again nuthin and re-rescheduled for Monday. Still nuthin by the time I left the office. I even came back after a late afternoon appointment and checked. Then I figured it out: UPS is coming at that wonderful after-hours time you see their trucks out for on the street where you live, at 7-8 at when you're home. I left a note on the door, and one of their empty envelopes, encouraging them to JUST LEAVE IT.
What else? Nuthin. I was away all day yesterday, but came back to see if it had showed.
Now we're almost within a week of the deadline, so I figured it was time to be proactive. I go to their 1-800-FUCK-UPS phone system (not their real number, but it should be), speak the tracking number, get them to agree to hold it for pickup. This shouldn't be too bad, since their airport location's not that far from my office, and on the way to another client who was also having trouble finding where I work.
I get there, to discover a sign saying they are about to close the location. This Friday. In the middle of holiday package season. One Indifferent Employee is at the counter. No package. Best as I can tell, she looks it up using the same website I could've used myself. From that, she assures me it is waiting at their main local location, on Bailey Avenue near William. This is out of my geographic comfort zone, so I ask Siri to navigate.
Boy does she.
We find William easily enough, then pass Harlem on the way to Bailey- but then I am diverted onto Richard and Tielman and James E. Casey, under overpasses and over train tracks. I think I crossed a moat somewhere in there. Finally, I have arrived at my destination: the beautiful central UPS facility for all of the area:
That's from Street View, so you may not be able to read the NO CUSTOMER USE sign. The STOP message is pretty clear, though. So back I go through the labyrinth, eventually finding the front of that building and the customer "center" which is about the size of a medium-capacity auditorium bathroom. Indifferent Employee Number Two looks up my tracking number, and advises that it's not there. It's on the truck and out for delivery. Again.
It's now three hours since this journey began- the last onroad half hour of it spent in the beginning of our first real snowstorm of the year, not much accumulating but making the roads incredibly slick and testing JARVIS's traction control at every turn and roundabout- and still, I got nuthin.
On the bright side, I did get a bunch of things off my desk before leaving for all of that, and I have another hour here to finish one more pressing project. Tomorrow, weather permitting, should produce good results, and then it's off to Rochester for Friday (me) and Saturday (both of us).
Until then, may nuthin be in your way.
That was the line for Niagara Falls Traffic Court, just over three weeks ago. I was not in that line. I have my Attorney Superpower to avoid such things, and I was out within moments of the judge showing up. She was even gracious enough to give my absent client both permission to be absent and 30 days to pay the quite reasonable fine. Which was good, because I'd asked the client to send me a check for what I thought the fine might be, and it never showed up in the mail.
Got it. This time, she sent it UPS. Tracking number and all. When it failed to arrive after Thanksgiving, she texted me the tracking number, which Siri is smart enough to recognize and send direct to their website.
Scheduled for Thursday delivery last week. Nuthin.
Rescheduled for Friday. Again nuthin and re-rescheduled for Monday. Still nuthin by the time I left the office. I even came back after a late afternoon appointment and checked. Then I figured it out: UPS is coming at that wonderful after-hours time you see their trucks out for on the street where you live, at 7-8 at when you're home. I left a note on the door, and one of their empty envelopes, encouraging them to JUST LEAVE IT.
What else? Nuthin. I was away all day yesterday, but came back to see if it had showed.
Now we're almost within a week of the deadline, so I figured it was time to be proactive. I go to their 1-800-FUCK-UPS phone system (not their real number, but it should be), speak the tracking number, get them to agree to hold it for pickup. This shouldn't be too bad, since their airport location's not that far from my office, and on the way to another client who was also having trouble finding where I work.
I get there, to discover a sign saying they are about to close the location. This Friday. In the middle of holiday package season. One Indifferent Employee is at the counter. No package. Best as I can tell, she looks it up using the same website I could've used myself. From that, she assures me it is waiting at their main local location, on Bailey Avenue near William. This is out of my geographic comfort zone, so I ask Siri to navigate.
Boy does she.
We find William easily enough, then pass Harlem on the way to Bailey- but then I am diverted onto Richard and Tielman and James E. Casey, under overpasses and over train tracks. I think I crossed a moat somewhere in there. Finally, I have arrived at my destination: the beautiful central UPS facility for all of the area:
That's from Street View, so you may not be able to read the NO CUSTOMER USE sign. The STOP message is pretty clear, though. So back I go through the labyrinth, eventually finding the front of that building and the customer "center" which is about the size of a medium-capacity auditorium bathroom. Indifferent Employee Number Two looks up my tracking number, and advises that it's not there. It's on the truck and out for delivery. Again.
It's now three hours since this journey began- the last onroad half hour of it spent in the beginning of our first real snowstorm of the year, not much accumulating but making the roads incredibly slick and testing JARVIS's traction control at every turn and roundabout- and still, I got nuthin.
On the bright side, I did get a bunch of things off my desk before leaving for all of that, and I have another hour here to finish one more pressing project. Tomorrow, weather permitting, should produce good results, and then it's off to Rochester for Friday (me) and Saturday (both of us).
Until then, may nuthin be in your way.