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owlectomyThis is a story with a happy ending. Since I have to go to work in 15 minutes, I'll be brief: Yes, my ARCs have arrived!
To recap from last time: FedEx sent my ARCs to my old address. I saw the door tag and tried to track the package down that way, but FedEx had put the wrong door tag on the door, though they fiercely denied this and insisted it must have been someone I know pranking me. The next two weeks were spent in a limbo of I Don't Want To Bother My Editor, after which I decided I'd better bother my editor anyway. She got the address corrected, FedEx attempted delivery to my house when I wasn't home, and since the door tag said "final attempt" I thought I'd better take things into my own hands. I called FedEx, they told me to call the next day just to make sure the package was available at their Maspeth location.
I took the subway and a bus to Maspeth. It's one of those really deserted industrial areas, and I had to cross a bridge, go into a little industrial park, wander around semi-lost, pass the sanitation department, wander around semi-lost again, and finally arrive at a little security booth between the road and the main FedEx building. I went there and showed my door tag and ID. The man at the security booth made some phone calls, at the end of which he told me, "It isn't here."
"WTF?" I said. "I called to make sure that the package was available. I called yesterday and then again today, and they said that it was available."
Eventually the manager was called in. He checked my door tag. "It was going to #OLDADDRESS, right?"
"No," I said, "That's the old address. The person who was sending me the package got in touch with you to correct it to my new address."
"It's on the truck," he said.
"How could it be on the truck?" I said. "I called to make sure that the package was available. I called yesterday and then again today."
"I'll look into it," he said, and left.
I sat down and started playing a spa game on my iPod Touch, which I had brought along to use as a map.
Some time later the manager called.
"It's going to #NEWADDRESS," he said. "Is that the right address?"
"It's the right address but there's nobody home."
"#NEWADDRESS, that's the right address?"
"Yes, but there's nobody home."
"When are you going to get home?"
My jaw dropped open. "I don't know." (Left unsaid: You expect me to leave here when I don't have any idea what's happening to my package?)
The manager called again some time later. "He's trying," the security guy said.
"But--what's he trying to do?"
During this time the security guy had been cutting the flaps off manila envelopes and using the flaps to make a spinny thing with his pen. Okay, I'm sure it's a very boring job and I'm sure that he didn't have anything better to do. But still. And then he blamed FedEx customer service for not giving the message to the local branch. Look, I don't know whose fault it was and I don't care, but when you have an upset customer, trying to pass the buck to somebody else is a rotten thing to do.
After I'd been there about half an hour, the security booth got another call. They found the package, it wasn't on the truck after all, I could come to the waiting room to pick it up.
Which I did. And then everything was great except for me having to lug my package back through the industrial park, past the sanitation department, across a bridge, on a bus, and finally take the subway back to my apartment.
THE END.
And I resolved never to use FedEx again.
To recap from last time: FedEx sent my ARCs to my old address. I saw the door tag and tried to track the package down that way, but FedEx had put the wrong door tag on the door, though they fiercely denied this and insisted it must have been someone I know pranking me. The next two weeks were spent in a limbo of I Don't Want To Bother My Editor, after which I decided I'd better bother my editor anyway. She got the address corrected, FedEx attempted delivery to my house when I wasn't home, and since the door tag said "final attempt" I thought I'd better take things into my own hands. I called FedEx, they told me to call the next day just to make sure the package was available at their Maspeth location.
I took the subway and a bus to Maspeth. It's one of those really deserted industrial areas, and I had to cross a bridge, go into a little industrial park, wander around semi-lost, pass the sanitation department, wander around semi-lost again, and finally arrive at a little security booth between the road and the main FedEx building. I went there and showed my door tag and ID. The man at the security booth made some phone calls, at the end of which he told me, "It isn't here."
"WTF?" I said. "I called to make sure that the package was available. I called yesterday and then again today, and they said that it was available."
Eventually the manager was called in. He checked my door tag. "It was going to #OLDADDRESS, right?"
"No," I said, "That's the old address. The person who was sending me the package got in touch with you to correct it to my new address."
"It's on the truck," he said.
"How could it be on the truck?" I said. "I called to make sure that the package was available. I called yesterday and then again today."
"I'll look into it," he said, and left.
I sat down and started playing a spa game on my iPod Touch, which I had brought along to use as a map.
Some time later the manager called.
"It's going to #NEWADDRESS," he said. "Is that the right address?"
"It's the right address but there's nobody home."
"#NEWADDRESS, that's the right address?"
"Yes, but there's nobody home."
"When are you going to get home?"
My jaw dropped open. "I don't know." (Left unsaid: You expect me to leave here when I don't have any idea what's happening to my package?)
The manager called again some time later. "He's trying," the security guy said.
"But--what's he trying to do?"
During this time the security guy had been cutting the flaps off manila envelopes and using the flaps to make a spinny thing with his pen. Okay, I'm sure it's a very boring job and I'm sure that he didn't have anything better to do. But still. And then he blamed FedEx customer service for not giving the message to the local branch. Look, I don't know whose fault it was and I don't care, but when you have an upset customer, trying to pass the buck to somebody else is a rotten thing to do.
After I'd been there about half an hour, the security booth got another call. They found the package, it wasn't on the truck after all, I could come to the waiting room to pick it up.
Which I did. And then everything was great except for me having to lug my package back through the industrial park, past the sanitation department, across a bridge, on a bus, and finally take the subway back to my apartment.
THE END.
And I resolved never to use FedEx again.
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(no subject)
19/11/09 18:18 (UTC)I stopped using amazon.jp when they began using FedEx. Exorbitant shipping costs are one thing, but adding the shipping costs and the insurance value to the actual amount of the books, and then declaring it on the customs slip so I was charged GST for $200 on a $40 order, was the last straw. FedEx said the screw up was amazon's fault; amazon said it was FedEx's; I said a plague on both your houses.
(no subject)
19/11/09 18:20 (UTC)But! ARCs!
(no subject)
19/11/09 18:32 (UTC)We somehow managed never to have to go to Maspeth for a package (iirc, UPS' depot is there as well) tho'.
But yay galleys!!
(no subject)
19/11/09 22:49 (UTC)(no subject)
19/11/09 18:59 (UTC)But - YAY ARCS!!! :D
(no subject)
20/11/09 03:46 (UTC)Use bk1 (http://www.bk1.jp/) instead. Your choice of delivery method, including delivery company or airmail or SAL, and none of this '3000 yen automatic charge for handling plus 300 yen per volume for delivery.'