Friday, October 5, 2007

A Comedy of Errors

You may recall I bought a new purse when I was in New York. They only had a display in the color I wanted so mine would ship from the warehouse. Last weekend, a big box arrived, which I excitedly opened. I extract the bag and think to myself, “This is bigger than I remember. And where’s the cute lock hardware on the front?” They sent the wrong bag.

I call the store and the saleswoman explains that two numbers were transposed in my order. She tells me that they will set up a UPS pickup for the wrong bag and send the right one.

So Wednesday morning, I set out the wrong purse for the arranged pickup. Wednesday evening I come home from work to find the old package gone and a new package in its place. But there are also two UPS notices. One notice saying they tried to deliver a package that requires my signature. A second notice informing me that they made a pickup attempt. What?! Uh, if UPS didn’t pick up the bag, where is it?

I call UPS and the automated system tells me they have no information regarding either of the notice numbers. I speak to a human. She tells me she has no information and that I need to speak with someone at the local delivery hub, which is closed. She assures me that someone will be in touch by 10 am the next morning.

Someone is not in touch by 10 am. To make matters worse, the right bag is damaged. I am okay with the damage that I will inevitably inflict through normal wear and tear but I am not okay with one that is already wonky right out of the gate. I call the store again to explain that the right bag is here, but is unacceptable. The saleswoman offers to set up another pickup (great…) and is having a new bag sent from an actual store (versus warehouse) so it can be inspected first.

After several hours and many irritating phone conversations with UPS, I finally get the whole picture. It goes like this.

Morning – Driver 1 comes to the house, leaves the new purse (no signature) and picks up the old purse. Why she took the package, no one knows. That’s Driver 2’s job because he has the appropriate shipping labels and pickup request.

Afternoon – Driver 2 comes to the house to pick up the old purse. It is not there. He leaves a notice to that effect.

Later that afternoon – Driver 1 returns to the house to redeliver the old purse that she picked up from my house that same morning but will not leave it without a signature. Mind you, the package didn’t require a signature the first time around. Why she needed a signature to put the box back where she found it, I’m not really sure.

All’s well that ends well. My new handbag arrived today, beautifully packaged and in pristine condition. That’s better.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW! I hope the bag is all that you hope for and more - that is quite a lot of effort. But, it sure is cute.

Jodi said...

Very frustrating, but what a fabulous handbag! I followed the link to your blog after seeing your super-cute Baby Surprise Jacket over at The Plucky Knitter.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for writing this.