[2002-06-27]
FedEx. Grrrr.
Yesterday, I recieved my contract for CH. Yes, the update on that one
is coming soon.
I had a shufty through the contract, and signed it. Put it in an
envelope... and started looking for a way to ship it to the US fairly
sharpish.
Seems the choices I have, if I want it to get there quickly, are FedEx
or... some other company whose phone number I couldn't find. So that's
that.
Ring 'em up.
"Need to send about 10 sheets of paper to CA. What can you do?"
"We can pick it up sometime between now [2.20 pm] and 4.00
- It'll get there Friday before 10 am"
"That's cool."
"25 pounds 80p, please"
[note: that's about 40 bucks for you yanks - ow]
"Mmmmmkay"
<boring snippage>
"Can we have your phone number please?"
"xxxxxxxxx"
Roll on 4.20, by which time I've been sitting around for in excess of
2 hrs.
"Uh... you said you'd be here by 4.00. It's 4.20. Surprisingly enough,
my pick-up address may be York University, but I do have elseplaces to be"
"I'll do <stuff>. I'll ring you back within half an hr"
<hang up>
<15 mins later>
"I've found you ordered something. I'll find the courier for you now"
<hang up>
<Wait 20 mins>
"He came to the pick-up at ten to 3. You weren't there, so he left"
"I've been here since 2.20. Why did you take my phone number if it wasn't
for the courier to contact me?"
"<mumble, totally unrelated>"
"And this is now going to arrive 3 days later, right?"
"Yes, sir, there's nothing we can do about that"
"I've been sitting here for better than 2 and a half hours waiting for
you. As soon as this arrives in the states, I get a rather-seriously-needed
infusion of money. And now it's going to take an extra 3 days to get
to me. Is there anything you can do about it?"
"Sorry, sir, I'll get the courier to come to you tomorrow. 12 to 2 pm ok?"
"Can you pick it up in the morning?"
"Nope. Afternoon pickups only."
"Do I have any other option?"
"Not really"
So. Looks like in future I shan't be using FedEx. I was possibly standing
in the car park at 2.50, but there's no earthly reason for the guy not
to ring me if I'm not there. That's why I give them the bloody number. If
a pizza guy can ring me when I'm only paying a fiver, I'm fairly certain
FedEx can ring me when I'm giving them 40 bucks.
And I'm fucked because I needed to speak to the university with regards
to a, uh, "non-trivial", debt. I was going to go there at 4, but was
waiting for someone who wasn't going to come and gave no message that
he'd been and gone [if that's actually what he did]. Generally, this
has really fucking put me out.
If anyone can recommend a decent cross-continental shipping service for
future reference, I'd be greatly olbliged...
[note: old plan entries are all avilable at
http://icculus.org/~chunky/oldplan]