How is a normal human being that has a normal M-F job supposed to have a package delivered to them?  I mean, if they won’t leave a package at your residence, what possible ways are there to get the package delivered to you?  I do most of my shopping online, so there are always packages of one sort or another being delivered to my house, so this isn’t the first time that I’ve felt the need to vent my frustrations with the various shipping methods out there.  And okay, it’s not the second either.

So the story begins on September 21st, 2008 when I placed my order for my new computer.  A Lenovo S10 for anyone that really cares.  I’ll talk more about that in a post later, but this post isn’t about a happy process so I’ll save that.  With the S10 being a new netbook release for Lenovo, shipments were backed up and delayed so my expected shipping date at the time of order was set for October 20th.  No big deal, I didn’t absolutely have to have the computer; I’m just ready to stop using my work computer as my personal computer as well.

The 20th comes and goes and there’s no word from Lenovo about it being ready to ship.  I logged in to the website to get an update and my shipping date had been changed to October 30th.  Once again, no big deal.  I’ve been on the road for work a lot lately so I really haven’t even been around to use it.  Halloween rolls around and there’s still no word.  So I swing back by to check my order status and the ship date is now November 7th.  Now I know that these factors have nothing to do with the actual shipping companies, but it’s just a lot of what built me up to being really excited when, 4 days early than the new expected date, Lenovo shipped my computer to me.

That’s about the last thing that went right in the entire process.  I checked the UPS tracking number from Lenovo and was pretty happy that it was only going to take 2 days for it to get to me.  I came home from work on Wednesday (the day of expected delivery) to find a shipment notice from UPS.  I wasn’t too surprised about this one really and I was too worn out from the day to really be too upset about it.  I read the form which said that I could sign the notice to have the package left the following day.  So I did, slapped it back on the front door and headed off to work Thursday morning.

Nevertheless, Thursday was a long day of work and at the gym, but I made it through knowing that I’d have new stuff to play with in the evening.  So I rushed home from the gym with that “kid-at-Christmas” feeling to see some boxes on my porch.  Yay, right?  Well not so fast.  I take a look and there’s the box for the new hard drive for the computer.  And there’s the box for the new memory for the laptop.  And there, right where I left it, is the UPS notice that I signed to have my computer delivered.

A few WTF-based profanities later, I grabbed the notice and found another one stuck in the door jamb (why they weren’t capable of just using the sticky part of it to attach it to my door is beyond me).  This one’s a different form saying that I have to be there to take personal delivery on the final delivery attempt.  But have no fear, they left a time that they’d be there this time………Friday, between 12 & 5.  Right.  Thanks guys.

At this point, the options were getting to be pretty few, so I picked up the phone and called UPS customer service.  Now before I get into it, don’t get me wrong, the gentleman I spoke with at customer service was extremely polite and answered my questions while doing his job (very much unlike the heinous woman I had to deal with on the phone at FedEx today).  I explained the situation that I would definitely not be able to take delivery of the package today and would like to have it rerouted to my office instead, which happens to be about a mile from my house.  He took all of my information and started the process while chatting happily about something or other.

I finally figured I was getting somewhere at this point and the UPS man would be showing up at my office with my new computer the next day.  Who was I kidding?  When things go wrong with shipping for me, they go all out.  He comes back on the line to inform me that he was “sorry, but the shipper has requested that this package only be delivered to the original address”.  Well isn’t that just lovely.

After discussing my options with the customer service rep, I decided to go ahead and have the package left at the UPS dispatch facility and I’d go by after work today to pick it up.  A quick check of the map showed it to be about 6 miles away so it wouldn’t be a big deal to just grab it afterwards; at least the facility is open til 9pm which came as a real shocker to me.  So the day goes by and I leave work to head to UPS to get the package.  Well it was raining, people in Atlanta can’t drive, and when you combine the two, it took me 45 minutes to make that 6 mile trek.

But finally, there it was.  My new computer, signed for and in my hands.  I get back in my car to head home and start playing around with it.  Of course, on the way back, there was a broken down MARTA bus in the way that made the return 6 miles take just as long, but it really didn’t matter at this point.  Long story short, though I doubt anyone has actually read this far, if you have a normal job that works normal hours, it’s pretty much impossible for you to get a package delivered if there is a signature required.  Is it just me or should there be a much less painful way for this process to work?