Saturday, December 17, 2011

Non-Deliveries

How some things have a way of repeating themselves. The UPS deliveryman recorded the reason for my undelivered package as .... "package delayed, security check by gov't or other agency -- beyond UPS control." Somebody must have sent me a banned agricultural item or even better some hazardous material. Then later that evening when the deliveryman gets back at the UPS delivery depot, "The receiver is not listed on the building directory." The driver has made numerous deliveries to me and to this address within his route, and knows from experience that for our building, the directory board has only ring-up numbers, not the names of the individual residents themselves listed next to the apartment numbers. A 4-lb. package in an humongous 8x8 cardboard box is costing me $40(USD)(UPS) now add two inconsistent excuses to that. The better alternative was to have my package routed to a UPS store to hold for me and picked up at my convenience, but there's an inexplicable $5 UPS surcharge for that option. My internet items cost $90, so the $40 shipping is expensive enough to tack on an additional surcharge. Meanwhile, UPS's competitor FedEx doesn't charge to hold your package at their nearest FedEx outlet. I talked to a UPS person on the toll free number about this, inquiring, "Don't you have to make a deliver attempt of the same package to some address anyway? Like what's the difference?" Her reply was, "UPS stores are franchises," from which I gathered that the franchisees make a $5 bonus instead of being a team player. Okay I can see the sense for oversize packages or if the contents are diamonds and paying an extra $5 is minuscule in context.

Anyways, the UPS supervisor talks to the delivery driver and his newly revised reason for the non-delivery is that, "The building's ring-up phone wasn't working." I am beginning to lose track of the different variations of the theme. "But we'll deliver your package this afternoon." So I'm steaming when the deliveryman arrives and had some angry words for him to suit the occasion. It turns out that our building's entry ring-up phone isn't working. What's deceiving is that my phone rings and receives voice transmission but the party at the other end standing at the ring-up board can't hear anything back even though the lines are connected. This time the driver used his cellphone, so cellphone to cellphone. Well bozo your story would have been believable if you had only stuck to a single rendition, offense taken, offense meant. There's enough things that conspire for miscommunication as it is. When you don't keep your story straight it will trigger suspicions to the contrary. Last year the same UPS driver falsified his delivery times and I had words with him although I kept it between ourselves not the UPS office. When he argued back, I reminded him rather loudly that all he is is a lowly delivery boy wearing a brown shirt. So if isn't too much of a giant leap quit acting like the prince of the city as if your 'services' and attitude are indispensable. In the larger picture, Honolulu is getting so third world with the makeup of the immigration that the third world attitude is becoming pervasive. To do good is to do yourself bad if you get the gist. And it doesn't take much. According to the latest US Consensus figures, Hawaii as a whole only gained around a net 4000 local people in the last 10 year period. By appearances, this UPS deliveryman arrived here from a third world country at an early age with his parents and is trying to rid his brain and shake his ass of whatever lingering inferiorities lurking beneath the punk exterior. They really had it too easy.

4 comments:

Cloudia said...

dang!



Aloha from up da road
Comfort Spiral

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RONW said...

Cloudia- why, thankyou.

Kay said...

Sheesh! I don't know. My daughter had the worst time with her UPS guy in Chicago too so it's all over the place.

My sister-in-law in California sent us a package that ended up in Washington D.C. before being directed back to us. It took over two weeks to get here!

RONW said...

Kay- mostly I re-schedule my packages to a holding store. Always with FedEx because it's free with them. I already had a preconceived opinion about the incident because of his past screw-ups. If the driver had kept his story straight from the get go (the entry phone wasn't working), I would have simply checked and confirmed it.