Ex Bibliotheca

The life and times of Zack Weinberg.

Tuesday, 29 April 2003

# 7:25 AM

package delivery annoyances

I bought two gadgets on E-bay last week. One of them was sent by ordinary mail, and showed up in my P.O. box on schedule. The other one was sent UPS. UPS somehow got hold of what they thought was my street address, and tried to deliver it there. Except they had it wrong. So some random Berkeley resident got the "we missed you" notice and I had to call UPS and get them to reschedule the delivery and correct the address.

There are three separate problems here. The first is getting the package delivered properly. I am not confident that they have the address right now. If it doesn't show up tomorrow I'm going to have to go to the depot in Richmond and retrieve it, which I do not have time for. The second problem is that someone gave UPS the wrong street address and I need to find out who it was.

But the third problem, and this is the problem I'm most peeved about, is that I don't want packages delivered to my street address. I want packages delivered to my P.O. box. That was one of the main points of getting it; it was supposed to mean that packages would be delivered to a location where there's a guy whose job it is to wait around for UPS all day, and I could go get it at a time convenient to me. UPS claims that they are not allowed to deliver to P.O. boxes, which is (a) ridiculous, and (b) if true, the Postal Service should have that in big red letters at the top of their "is a P.O. box right for you" flyer. Which they do not. In fact, not one word is said about package delivery companies not being able to deliver to P.O. boxes.

Problem 3a is that I did not provide E-bay with my street address, because, once again, I don't want packages delivered there. So where did UPS get the (incorrect) street address? Whoever they are, they need certain things explained to them, with the aid of an implement suitable for breaking kneecaps.