At least they only turned off your electric. There have been several instances of cops breaking in and shooting up the wrong house -- right number/wrong street, or right street/wrong number. How to put the bad guys on alert that you are coming for them.....
This must be the week for idiot delivery drivers. I will not name the website, because they outsource their delivery to local companies, so it's not an employee of the corporation who screwed up.
On Sunday, I ordered a printer on sale from a site which promises next day delivery. Their confirmation e-mail said to expect it on Wednesday. So, I rearranged my schedule to be around all day on Wednesday, and went to the Tuesday Farmers Market instead.
Thursday, I still hadn't received it, called to find out where it was, and was told they tried to deliver on Tuesday, and no one was home. There was nothing on the door or in the mailbox saying "we tried to deliver", and I was only out from 12-1, when most delivery drivers take lunch, so I'm rather skeptical they actually came on Tuesday. I was promised it would be delivered on Thursday.
I know they were not here Wednesday or Thursday, because I was here all day both days, and except for a few minutes was where I could see the front door.
This morning, I was assured it would be delivered today. At 2:30 they called to say "we know where your merchandise is", but it wasn't able to be delivered today, and said the delivery company told them this is a residential area. Well, in the sense that people live here, it's not entirely a business district, yeah. But both on my intersection and the next one down, 3 of the 4 corners are businesses. 3 blocks down, we have two huge government buildings and a factory/warehouse, so it's not a purely residential area by any stretch of the imagination. Apparently the delivery company wanted them to believe that I'm somewhere out in the boonies a zillion miles from any other delivery, and it was just too darned inconvenient to get here.
I have had it out with the delivery drivers before. There are many lawyers, doctors, shrinks, etc. who have their offices in old Victorian homes with a flight of stairs up to the main entrance, so I am not the only customer who requires them to haul stuff upstairs to make a delivery. But they have been quite surly and made it clear that they didn't want to bring it up; they wanted to leave it on the sidewalk and I could figure out how to get 50-pound boxes up the stairs by my disabled self. Based on my past experience with them, I bet that the guy drove past, saw the flight of stairs, and decided he didn't want to deliver here.
Well, now we have them caught in multiple lies. It was of much interest to the customer service rep to hear that I have an office building containing more than one business directly across the street from me. They do not have a large sign out front (they don't want to pay the sign tax, either) announcing they're a business, but their building looks like an office building, so they're an office. Whereas my office (like many other businesses in this neighborhood) looks like an old house. So it's clear that the delivery company wants to be the judge of who is a business worthy of delivery and who is just an individual too lazy to go to the store. Or at least that's what their current excuses sound like.
I was assured that this information was going to be relayed up the chain of command to someone with the authority to terminate the contract with the delivery company, since, obviously, the website believes that a customer is anyone who can pay for the merchandise, and doesn't say they only deliver to legitimate businesses that look like office buildings and are located in business parks with no residential buildings nearby.
You have that problem, too?
We used to live on Howe. I ordered a magazine and it somehow got into their system as Heow. Oddly enough, ALL the bills arrived and *none* of the magazines. Took me months to convince them that I was not paying a bill for a magazine that doesn't arrive, and that the magazines would probably arrive if someone would take half a second to change Heow to Howe.
"bungadora" ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with
It's incredible - with the advent of email, paying bills online you would have thought Canada Post would get smarter, but they have got worse if that is possible.
When I moved it cost $60 to officially have my mail (any that slipped through) re-directed, a service that used to be free because it was supposed to assist the PO and encourage people to see their mail went to the right place.
Not ONE thing was re-directed. Fortunately I had asked the people who bought the house to please give any that slipped through to my ex-neighbour. I picked up a parcel from Japan (that was pretty noticeable) from my ex-neighbour. At that point I called Canada Post and finally after getting all the way to the top, I had my $60 returned and relied thereafter on my ex-neighbour.
They are a bunch of idiots :)
I've moved about seven times in the last thirty years. Each time I've used the Post Office (UK) official "re-direction" service and each time it has worked very well. You can get "re-direction" for 6 or 12 months for a few pounds. On the subject of poor deliveries of correctly addressed mail, here in the UK we have a post code (e.g. KW17 2AR). Each post code represents about 6 or 7 houses. The Post Office delivery people rely on the Post Code and completely ignore the name of the person or organisation to which the letter is addressed.
Well e-mails for customer service are all very well, but they have to be answered not just disappear into the ether. There might very well be mechanisms chugging away in the background but I don't know if anyone has even read my e-mail. Talking to a customer service representative on the phone service is option 20 on the menu. And they aren't really able to tell you more than what is on the computer screen. Dora
"bungadora" ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with
I was meaning, or trying to say, that with the advent of email far fewer people are mailing letters and the PO should smarten up. Letters were an everyday thing to me, but not anymore, email all the way. I pay bills online, bank online and now, if the PO were to go on strike, I can't imagine it having very much effect on me!
Well not like it did years ago when they stayed out a few months and I had to pay people who were travelling to Maine to mail letters to my parents who lived on a small Mediterranean island with no telephone. I developed a hate for them at that time and remember being stopped at the red light opposite the main post office one day and the picketers approaching my car with placards saying "Honk if you support us" - so I flipped them the bird and they rocked my car lol
That's our Sheena. Stereotypical little old lady, no way! :)
I just read an interesting article about mail delivery in brownstone Brooklyn. Brownstones are the old buildings with usually 3 stories and a basement. The first (ground) floor is elevated about 6 steps from the sidewalk - the steps are called a stoop. The mailboxes for the building (most are converted into apartments) are inside the front door. The mail carrier has a master key that opens a special box on the outside of the building. The front door key and the key to the top of the mailboxes are in the box.
After this lengthy explanation, what the article said was that mail carriers are refusing to climb the stoops. They're leaving mail on the ground by the stairs. And the post office is trying to get rid of this type of delivery and want those multiple boxes on the sidewalk somewhere. My question is = where? It's not like there's a lot of free real estate in Brooklyn.
Alison
Alison ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with
No new houses here (Nova Scotia) get home delivery, it is all done to boxes now. I realize it is more practical but again I ask myself, how can Postal Services be so autocratic if they wish to survive ?
I often think that certainly Canada Post, and it sounds like yours too, is talking itself out of existence.
It's not only the brownstones that have that kind of mailbox. A lot of apartment houses have similar setups The two family house I lived in had the mailboxes at the top of 4 steps to the house and other dwellings in my neighborhood had anywhere from 4 to 10 steps to the entrance..
Those houses most often have some space at the bottom of the steps, or to the side, on street level and a mailbox could be put there on a pole.
I'm not sure I blame the mail carriers for not wanting to walk up and down steps, especially on a cold, icy Brooklyn winter day.
Lucille
Which is why they always strike before Christmas. I don't send much of anything by mail any more either. I'm still mailed my utility statements, etc. every month, but if there were a major strike, I would probably just switch it over to e-mail completely.
Not a unionista huh? According to my former neighbor, a posty, part of the problem is that they don't really have enough workers. Too top heavy with mba's and administration who don't know anything about the mail. I don't think it's that simple, of course, but I do believe it isn't that good a place to work if you're a peon.
Dora
"bungadora" ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with
I think that is probably true - they set out to break the union when the Inside Workers Union became too strong, and I thought, stupid. The Letter Carriers Union was sensible but once amalgamated, became tarred with the same brush.
The end came when, as a Crown Corporation, they allowed stupidmarkets etc. to have postal outlets in them. Prior to that one had to go to postal stations and be treated like dirt under their feet.
The letter carriers to this day are great, and your former neighbour is correct.. Our mailman here could not be nicer, more helpful and kindly in many instances but he can only be as good as the backup he receives, which isn't much as far as we can see.
Your last remark was one I was just about to make....our local carrier, Tony, is a gem. We live on a rural route so I can leave packages with checks and he will ship them for me. I can leave envelopes with checks and he brings me stamps - even brings me change if I make the check out wrong! He brings all our packages up to the front door. He is always cheerful and friendly and I make sure he gets lots of homemade cookies at the holidays and homemade jam during the summer :)
Because I can get most services I need at home I very rarely have to deal with the Post Office in person and thus my opinion is mostly based on the great service we get from our carrier.
Just don't ask me about my opinion of the US Postal Service when I was supporting them as a client - :(
MelissaD
Sounds a bit like the setup we have here. The island has just one sub postoffice run by an extremely pleasant and helpful lady. There are two people who take it in turns to deliver mail six days per week (and empty the mail boxes that are scattered over the island). Just one collection and one delivery per day. Anything that does not go by post will be brought over by the local carrier, Jim, who travels on the ferry to Kirkwall every morning and returns in the evening (that's at least 90 minutes each way). He takes everything onto and off from the island, even the mail bags from the post office, and is very cheerful and obliging.
sounds lovely - mail delivery by ferry...except of course when the weather is blustery - might not be so enjoyable then.
As I said, Tony gets lots of goodies - which he told me he loves since his wife isn't a baker .
Food bribes always work :)
MelissaD
I phoned Canada Post this afternoon when I saw that they were holding my parcel for verification again, and was told they had already returned it to the sender. According to the report, the driver said the street ended "in a hill". Not mentioning, of course, that there were HOUSES on the hill. Anyway, I contacted the sender and told them it was coming back. They got the parcel ready, but then when I got home I had to phone them again to stop them from sending it. My tulips were sitting on the doorstep.
Boy these tulips better be good.
By the way Sheena, got your magazine yet?
Dora
"bungadora" ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with
They will be lol I am glad they finally reached you. Clearly nothing about that parcel was meant to go smoothly for you!
No, I am off to the UK Wednesday night so I don't expect to see it before I leave. So I have not left any feedback for her and I have asked the super who will be taking in my mail, to email me when it comes and tell me how much the actual postage was on it. So I can fix her muffler for her if she is ripping me off lolol
$12 is a bit high. It's 250 pages though. I was reading it the other day. It has some good articles, and interesting to read how the magazine changed over time.
Too bad it's so cold and wet outside tonight. Otherwise I'd be out there planting. I'll be hauling in all my plants in pots instead, so they don't freeze. Dora
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