Blue Over Brown or Missing the Target

Although I am ranting about an incident with a package delivery service that features mouse brown trucks, my annoyance is actually with people, workers especially, who simply are too lazy or incompetent to solve a problem. It is easier to whine “I can’t do it”, or pass the buck to someone else and go about their merry way with a clear conscience that they “at least tried.”

I had ordered some items for my upcoming Nicaragua trip and received an email Friday that they had been shipped and would likely be here Monday. I dutifully tracked their voyage from Wisconsin, through Des Moines and then their weekend stay in Kansas City, KS. On Monday AM, I noted that the package was out for delivery. So I waited for the big brown truck to arrive. Around 12:30PM, while on the upper floor of the palace, I noted the big truck out front. JOY JOY JOY! I love getting packages. I made my way down and was surprised to not get a call from the delivery man. I got to the door, no truck and no package. No little slip telling me of an attempted delivery. Hummm? Maybe it was just stopped for traffic and they will come back. Nope.

So I checked the online tracking service and see the following note:

THE APARTMENT NUMBER IS MISSING OR IS INCORRECT. UPS IS ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN THIS INFORMATION.

Doofus, we are a secure building like most condos and apartments in the city. We do not list our residents as John Doe Apt 1N, Bob Smith Apt 1S, etc. Their name and code to call is on a phone bank that even I with my poor eyesight can see. The genius also overlooks the note “ALL DELIVERIES RING 11”. It used to read “ALL DELIVERIES RING #11” but then some were interpreting the # as the # on the phone and not the abbreviation for number.

I called the 800 number and got nowhere. Not even an apology, but told I was out of luck and that I could go across town and get the package whenever it gets back there. They are the ones who are stupid and caused a ruckus, not me, therefore I am not going to spend my time and money to rectify their silliness. I fired off an email to them as well, and got a confusing response.

God knows when I’ll get my package.

So this PM, I get the hell out of the Palace. Things had to get better. I had a hankering for a Culver’s pork tenderloin so I headed out that way only to find the place crowded to hell. Sandwich was good at least but I beat a hasty retreat. I needed a new iron since my new thing is iron my own shirts to save some $. My old iron was rather nasty (bought it at a rummage sale for 50cents) so I headed to the near by Target.

Thinking, like a normal person, that irons would be with the small appliances, I was told by a nice stocker that in fact they were the only small household appliance not stocked with the rest of them and were across the store. My luck. I found one I liked on sale for $12.99 only to find at the cash register that they were in fact $29.99. Not wanting to pay that much for a damn iron I went back. The sign in front on them clearly said $12.99 but I assumed someone put them there, again taking the easy way out, and left it to us to figure it out. Wanting an iron that shut itself off in case I wandered off or Puggles knocked it over galloping to save her food from dangers real and imagined, I settled for one that cost $19.99. This time the check out said it was $14.99. Target must be playing “The Price is Right” or something with their customers, either you win the showcase, or go home broke.

I am now blogging and drinking vodka. I was going to swim tonight, but with my luck I’d drown....and then my package would never get here.