A Comedy of Errors

[crfriend]

Caution: This is a bit of a ramble.

Sometimes things just go so wonky that you have to laugh because there's nothing else a sane mind could reasonably do.

And so it came to pass that I finally needed a new pair of shoes, having managed to somehow -- and I have no idea how as I was not injured in the process -- managed to put a hole in the inside edge of my left shoe. This is a nice clean V-shaped cut, and yet I have no idea how it happened and I am completely unscathed.

Time to order a new pair of shoes. The weather is also hot at the moment, I need to stay reasonably modest in my new living arrangements, and I had a couple other needs as well. So I placed an on-line order with a firm I've done business with in the past for a pair of shoes, a light kimono-style robe, and a few pieces of underwear. One would think this would be easy.

Wrong. What was supposed to be a 3 to 5 day delivery turnaround got out to about 4 days and the parcel hadn't yet left the origin point according to the carrier (I"m not naming names here because I have no clue who is at fault, just pointing up that sometimes things go hilariously wrong). In response to this, I called the supplier wondering what was up, and got an entirely charming and helpful young woman on the other end who realised that "something's wrong; that should have shipped by now" and went about fixing the matter, which involved cancelling the original order (save for the robe, which I had already received), crediting my credit-card, and resubmitting the order, this time with a promotional-code which should have saved me some money, and expedited the shipping. This was wonderful customer-service, and is one of the reasons I like these folks.

What happened behind the scenes is unknown to me, but here's what I see from assorted shipment tracking numbers I was provided with:

The original shipment somehow got unwedged and shipped a couple of hours after the telephone call.
The new order was confirmed as ordered, and two separate tracking numbers were sent to me via e-mail.

Since then, I've not received anything, but one parcel (the original order) is said to be at the Post Office in my town, the other order, being split in two, are both slated to be delivered tomorrow (along with the one that the Post Office has). Here's the catch: One of the two parcels from the new order is said to be in the town to my southeast and the other one is said to be in Sparks, NV -- having left Sparks, NV last night, likely by airlift, and arrived back in Sparks, NV this morning at 04:00 (and I have no clue on the time-zone). I know what's what by weight; both "big boxes" are very nearby, and I'll likely see those tomorrow. The other one, weighing all of 0.10 pounds (use your imaginations on the contents {snicker}) I guess flew out, managed to stay on the plane, and got checked back in again.

I watched all of this unfold, realised that the right thing to do, since supposedly the original order was credited back to me, is that I'll simply return one of the orders and that'll be (hopefully) that. So here I am trying to track three things at once, and determine what to do about it, and in what sequence.

The bit with the "little package" reminds me of the time one of my co-workers and I were sitting at Logan International Airport in a snow-storm waiting for computer parts to arrive from Virginia so we could fix a client machine that had been down all day due to a failed CPU component. Every half hour or so one of us would go up and ask the freight agent where the aircraft was. Oddly, nobody ever knew. We, on the other hand, were parked at the airport bar. Come about 22:30, I drew the short straw and wandered over to the freight office. "Hello, again. Any idea where flight such-and-such is?"//"Hold on a sec, let me look." -- I sensed a perplexed look//"What gives?" -- smiling//"Well, I have good news and bad news."//"Go on."//"The good news is that the aircraft is here."//"Wonderful!"//"The bad news is that it has to go to DC before it'll have what you're looking for, and then return here." Sometimes all you can do is laugh -- which is what I did, and that disarmed the whole affair. I can't blame the freight agent so there's no point in getting ornery. We both got a chuckle out of it, I was provided with a wild-arsed-guess as to when the plane might be back, and I wandered off to explain the situation to my co-worker, who'd managed to put another beer down in my absence. The actual repair-job was "interesting", as was the drive home -- in the snow -- afterwards in the wee hours of the morning. Such is the life of the Field Engineer.

[Fred in Skirts]

Sounds like it was all just one big pile of bulls**t that had to happen to you.
Been there had that happen to me!!

Fred

[crfriend]

Sounds like it was all just one big pile of bulls**t that had to happen to you.

Nah, it's nothing more than a classic cock-up. These things sort of happen when the humans become slaves to the machines. All one can do is laugh about them when (not if) they happen and carry on. To fret overly about them is to lead one into despair.

The usual term for things like this is the acronym "SNAFU" -- standing for, "Situation normal: all fouled up" most commonly expressed with another word beginning with the letter "f" replacing the word "fouled".

[Fred in Skirts]

The usual term for things like this is the acronym "SNAFU" -- standing for, "Situation normal: all fouled up" most commonly expressed with another word beginning with the letter "f" replacing the word "fouled".

Having been in the Military I am well familiar with the acronym. It got used quite a bit.

Fred

[Uncle Al]

Well, at least it wasn't a FUBAR!


Uncle Al

[Caultron]

P4SAR?

[Sinned]

Not a clue - doesn't google either.

[crfriend]

FUBAR I am very familiar with -- it was the SOP for the last place I worked. But P4SAR I must admit to not having the slightest clue about. What is it?

In any event, my stuff all showed up yesterday afternoon, and, as expected, in duplicate. I need to call the vendor to find out what to do about it since I was only billed for one shipment and received two.

[Uncle Al]

I had a situation with 20-30mMhg support P-Hose. Ordered 2 pair. Ended up with 2 different
lot numbers and the top or panty portion was 2 different types. After a few emails, via eBay,
a solution was found. I offered to send back the 'wrong' pair, after I washed them, but was told
to 'toss it away'.

• Anyway, at $39.00/pair, getting 3 for 2 is not bad

Now, for YOUR 'inconvenience', I hope they let you keep the duplicate items & shipments.
Great customer service is the best form of advertising for, and promotion of, their business

Uncle Al

[hoborob]

Closest I have come with 4 P4SAR is P4SR which is Predicted 4-Hour Sweat Rate. I don't know if that is even close but the best I could find.

[crfriend]

Now, for YOUR 'inconvenience', I hope they let you keep the duplicate items & shipments.

I suspect if it was only the "unmentionables" then that might have happened; however, the overall shipment came to north of a hundred bucks (due to a pair of shoes), and nobody's going to overlook that.

In any event, I drove the unopened box to the local mall where there's a store of theirs to return the parcel (having already decided to keep -- and pay for -- it). I've seldom seen so many perplexed folks. It's almost like they'd never met an honest man (to add bonus points, not only an honest man -- but an honest man wearing a skirt). I think I may have warped minds.

Confounding the situation even more, once it became plain that this was going to be no ordinary transaction, I gracefully stepped aside and let a few people who were behind me in the queue get their matters dealt with whilst the proper personnel could be summoned. To do otherwise would have been impolite.

I just hope the computers are all happy. (But I am saving all the paperwork. As the old movie line goes, "Trust in Allah -- but tie up your camel.")

Warping minds is so much fun.

[skirted_in_SF]

I've seldom seen so many perplexed folks. It's almost like they'd never met an honest man (to add bonus points, not only an honest man -- but an honest man wearing a skirt).

People with that level of honesty do seem to confuse others.
A couple of years ago I visited a spice store that had opened in my corner of SF to buy some blends and grilling rubs for my brother's Christmas gift. I was several blocks away from the store on my way to an appointment when it started bothering me that I hadn't been charged enough for the five items I had purchased. I had a few minutes to kill waiting for my appointment and pulled the receipt and the items out of my bag. Sure enough, they had only charged me for four. I walked back to the store, showed them the problem and paid for the fifth item. Now if it had been Safeway that had failed to charge me my reaction would have been different. Of course they charged me for four of an item that I only bought two of on a recent order, so they owe me.
Don't think I was wearing a skirt two years ago, I just started my full time weekends in skirts a year ago.

[moonshadow]

Generally I've found that people who live on the fringes of society or contrary to the status quo are typically quite pleasant and trustworthy... I would assume because they're trying to represent themselves well.

... that and maybe they're just nice folks too!

When I was working at my original store in Pulaski before I transferred to food equipment service, I purchased a gallon of chocolate milk. I decided to help the bagger by loading some of my groceries in the cart to take to the car. As I walked the cart to the car I hit a bump in the parking lot and the milk I had set on the edge of the basket fell over and a gallon of chocolate milk splattered all over the place.

Having a very strong craving for some chocolate milk I returned to buy another gallon. The store manager offered to replace it for free, but I insisted that since I was the one who placed it on the cart, I will bear the responsibility for it's replacement. After a few of his failed attempts to offer to replace it for free, he finally let me just buy another one.

The same thing happened when I left a pork roast on the kitchen chair when we were unloading groceries one night. Some suggested I return the roast to Walmart as it had clearly spoiled. Despite Walmart being... well, Walmart, I still insist that it's not right to make someone else pay for my mistake, even if it is a multi-billion dollar company. I purchased another pork roast at my next opportune moment.

[Kilted_John]

Been dealing with something similar, although not with duplicate items arriving. In my case, I'd sent in some struts in for warranty replacement, since they'd worn out and had a lifetime warranty. The shop I took them to accepted them, then ordered another pair. I picked those up, then, the company (Bilstein) mentioned that wear might not be considered a defect. For the past five years, I've been waiting to hear back from them whether or not the struts are considered a warranty replacement or not. I know, by now, the old ones have likely been disposed of, so I'd either not pay for the ones I have, or would get a bill for them. So, they sit in my parts bin, waiting until I hear about what the company says, before I install them. Beginning to think that they just don't care and have probably forgotten about it altogether. I'll call the shop up tomorrow and see if they've heard back. I seriously doubt they have.

-J

[Tor]

After five years, I'd be inclined to think if they wanted to say it wasn't warranty, and bill you, they would have done so, and figured that you assumed on not hearing that they were accepting it as a warranty claim.

Also at issue with wear, is how long should a lifetime be for the part, and was it used within normal usage and wore out before a lifetime expired? If so, then I would probably figure that either the materials or the engineering was defective, and the company deserved the warranty claim.