Crazy Day

Yesterday gave me a great thing to blog about, so here you go:

My parents sent me a package that was supposed to arrive yesterday via UPS (sorry La, I told them to send it via mail). I figured, early afternoon-ish it'd arrive at my apartment. My mom told me I had to sign for it when it arrived, so they wouldn't just drop it and leave it. I waited around the apartment all morning, already warning my roomies that I wasn't planning on doing anything but hang out till I got the package. Time goes on while I play some PS2 and watch a movie when I realize that 4pm has already come around. (That's 7pm Indiana time) So I get a little concerned, considering I haven't heard the bell ring for me to buzz in the UPS driver who is supposed to have my package.

I call 411 to find out the number of the UPS place here near Valley Village. They text it to me, connect me directly, and a lady answers the phone. Except it wasn't just a normal person, it was an automated system that was setup for voice recognition. Aren't those fun? So I read off my tracking number and she proceeds to tell me, "We attempted to deliver this package at 1:22pm. We will try again on Monday, January 19th." WHAT?! That's a bunch of baloney/bologna! I never got a buzz or knock at the door. So I hang up, call back, have to tell them my tracking # again, she tells me the same thing, and then I say "agent" to speak to a Customer Service Representative.

I get to talk to a real person and she tells me that they tried to deliver it, and that the status shows it will be re-delivered Monday. I didn't want to wait, so I asked if there was any way of picking it up today. She took down my number and told me within an hour someone would call to tell me what time.

One hour and twenty minutes goes by. No phone call. Amy and I had gone to Popeye's to pick up some late lunch/early dinner....Linner... and I called back. Got a different lady who tells me, "There is no notice here saying you requested to pick it up today. Who did you talk to?" Grrrrr... So I give my number yet again. This lady tells me she's SURE it's in there this time and someone will be calling me within an hour to tell me when to pick it up.

Fifty minutes go by. I call back. You can imagine how happy I'm not by now. A THIRD lady answers and I explain to her that this is my 3rd time calling and she doesn't know why no one has called me. And she said, "Well you could chance just going to the address we give you and hope that the driver is there, or you can wait till we call you and tell you when you can go pick it up this evening." I calmly replied, "So I have to wait ANOTHER hour for you guys to not call me?" She kindly said someone will be calling me.

All I want is this package from my parents.... Is that so much to ask??

Luckily, 20 minutes goes by and I get a phone call saying, "You can pick it up until 9pm tonight. They close at 9." THANK GOODNESS!!

When Kelly gets home from work, she talks to Amy a bit and I ask her if she can drive me to Van Nuys to take me to UPS to get my package. It's on Arminta Street. We get directions to Arminta Street, go right, and while we're driving down the street...guess what...we don't see a UPS anywhere. So we go the OTHER direction on Arminta, and before we get to the 16000 block of this street, it stops and turns into a different street where we're now in the scary ghetto. Kelly turns around and we drive around like lost puppies (if lost puppies could drive) and call her friend Chris. Chris's friend tells us to go to this corner near Arminta, that isn't Arminta itself, and tells us there's a UPS there. When we get there, there is no UPS, but there's a U-HAUL.

Seriously....? This is far beyond rediculous. We call Chris back and they cooperatively figure out where we're REALLY supposed to go, and they give us directions to the ACTUAL UPS store we need to be at. When we get there about 8:10pm, there is a LONG line of people, probably in the same boat we are, that doesn't seem to be moving at ALL. Finally as we wait till 8:30pm, a worker there starts yelling out addresses of packages and those people are to step aside because those are the packages they have handy. We wait...wait...wait...FINALLY! Our address is called. When I get to the guy, I start to hand him my Indiana Driver's License, and he makes a face and I knew what he was thinking...the addresses don't match up. I told him I just moved here and haven't anything with my new address on it yet. He then quizzes me about what number this package is under, as in my phone number, then asks me where and who is it coming from. Well it's coming from my mom in Kokomo, IN. After that he kindly gives me a lecture to tell me next time, make sure you have something with the matching address.

After all that, I'm home-free with the package. *Sighhhhhh*

I think my patience was being tested with all of this, and maybe this is a great lesson learned: UPS sucks! And their drivers are stupid. The End

(Sorry for the lengthy post)

Until next time...