Thomas Kobelsky's Blog

March 16, 2010

Sometime last week (I forget the exact day) I came home from work to find a yellow UPS delivery notice on the front door to my apartment building. Most of the time I pay no attention to them, since I never expect anything from UPS to be delivered to me.

However, for some odd reason, I felt inclined to look at which apartment it was addressed to. Perhaps it was because I was getting home at 11pm and thought that if it was addressed to anyone else, they would have picked it up by then. Sure enough, it addressed to #7 (me). It said it was the first delivery attempt and they came between 2 and 5 pm, the Comments area only had "Plz cAll" with no number printed.

"Ah, I'll deal with it in the morning" I thought to myself, which is exactly what I did. The following morning I awoke and went to my computer to visit UPS' website. I checked the tracking number first to see where it was coming from and found out it was shipped from Toronto to Richmond. Seeing as how I live in Burnaby, I kind of scratched my head at that for a bit before moving on to find their phone number. I called them up and got a machine saying "If you're calling this number, you probably got a yellow delivery notice. You can pick up your package at the UPS store" and that's about it. I waited for a second after the "lady" was done talking to see if they'd give me a list of numbers to press so I could talk to a customer service representative or something... but it just repeated the same message.

"Ok then, that was dumb" said the voice in my head. I looked at the notice in my hand again and saw that their next attempt would be between 10am and 2pm that that, or between 2pm and 5pm that day (basically saying they'll show up between 10 and 5 sometime, but they're not sure when it'll be) and had to leave for work at 10.

When I got home, I saw another yellow tag, but this time it was on my apartment door rather than the building's door, which means somebody let him into the building and he tried knocking on my door. This notice said the same thing, but the next delivery time would be between 2 and 5pm the following day (my day off). Perfect, I thought, since I'd be home all day and catch them on the third attempt.

At 5:00-ish the next day, I hear my buzzer ring. I turn on the intercom system to talk to the person downstairs... but they're already talking to somebody. I tried shouting into the intercom, but the person just kept talking, and actually buzzed me again. 10 seconds later, I hear the door open through the intercom and he walks outside of the building. Puzzled, I run to my window (which overlooks the street below) and see the UPS guy sauntering to his truck which is parked in the middle of the road. I notice the guy's got a Bluetooth headset and he's still talking, so I'm assuming he was talking on the phone while trying to buzz me.

I opened my window and yelled at the guy, trying to get his attention, but he just kept walking and got into his truck. I then ran downstairs and found a third tag stuck where the first one was, saying it was their final delivery attempt and that I should call them. Again, no number was listed.

I couldn't help but think how much of a stupid joke this was. I called UPS again and this time the message said the 3rd delivery attempt failed and that they'd hold my package for 5 days for me to pick up. Or I could press 1 to make alternate arrangements. I decided to press 1 and was prompted to wait until the next available representative was available. 25 minutes I waited before finally saying "screw it" and hung up.

Today, I got a post card in the mail from UPS saying that they have my parcel in Richmond and are waiting for me to pick it up, or else it will be shipped back to the sender on the 16th (which was today), or I could call the number listed to make alternative arrangements to pick up. Since Richmond is just a hop, skip and a jump away from Metrotown when you have no vehicle, I tried calling the number to see if I could get them to send it via Canada Post, or send it to the UPS Store in Station Square (which is basically across the street from where I live) as opposed to having to travel out to Richmond of all places. The message on the phone basically just said that the post card has the address of the UPS Store in Richmond that I have to go to.

Awesome. So I get a post card saying that I have until 6pm today to run to Richmond and get a package, and I had to work until 10:30pm. You don't think they could have sent that post card on Friday for me to have all weekend to go there, eh? Or maybe even give me the notice on Monday that I had to pick it up on Tuesday? Or maybe even just send it to a UPS store in the same city that I live in. trying to get it as close as they can to me (seeing as how they had it within 4 blocks of the UPS Store at Station Square on 3 separate occasions).

I've never had a problem with Canada Post/USPS, FedEx or Purolator... but UPS (the supposed King of Delivery Systems) is run by a bunch of bloody rednecks in armored trucks with no doors (because that's not a contradictive vehicle at all).

-tk

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