December 18, 2020
Dear Everyone:
This will be the last
Letter of the year, the next two Fridays being Holidays.
It’s been quite a year, hasn’t it?
On the Down Side:
President Trump’s innate ineptitude manifested itself in his
absolute inability to comprehend that thousands of people dying was a
Bad Thing.
On the Up Side:
A record number of people got off their Rusty Dusty to Vote.
And they voted the Incompetent One out of office, something he
resolutely refused to accept.
According to him, it could only have happened because Somebody
Cheated. It’s the only
explanation. It couldn’t
possibly have been because they didn’t like his job performance.
Also on the Up Side:
Kamala Harris will be the first Vice President in history to be
female, African-American and Asian-American.
Three for the price of one!
And she’s from California!
In other news…
There’s been a whole lot of online purchasing
going on. I don’t mean just
me. “Everybody’s doing it!”
Consequently, things are getting jammed up.
Taking longer than usual.
And, of course, Covid-19 has become the “universal excuse” for
every delay.
Last month, on impulse, I ordered something
from a known vendor, one I’ve used before without any difficulty.
What I had ordered was not particularly significant, just
something I thought would make good “Stocking Stuffers” for Christmas.
The vendor chose to use a national shipping
company which, in turn, chose to use something they called “Mail
Innovations”. What this
means is the shipping company moves the item to a certain point, then
hands it off to the US Mail for final delivery.
I’ve become quite deft at following the
Tracking of purchases. This
particular item got as far as San Leandro, a city approximately 20 miles
from here. At that point,
the shipping company claimed to have “dropped it off” with the Postal
Service. In turn, the Postal
Service claimed to still be waiting for it.
I notified the vendor that my purchase had not
been delivered. No response.
After two weeks, the item was still languishing
in “Mail Innovations” Limbo.
Then I got one of those email surveys from the original vendor, wanting
to know how well I loved their product.
I promptly gave them only one “star” and stated that a “shipping
snafu” had delayed my receipt of the item.
Within minutes (!) I got a follow-up email from
the vendor, apologizing profusely, for the delay.
A few minutes late, another email from the vendor announcing,
breathlessly, “Your order has shipped!”
And pointing out that there was no charge for the second
shipment.
Within a matter of just days, the new item,
replacing the original item, plopped down somewhere in San Leandro.
Once again, the shipping company proclaimed that the item had
been “delivered” to the Postal System.
And, once again, the Postal System disavowed any knowledge of the
package, claiming it had not been received.
“All around the mulberry bush, the monkey
chased the weasel…”
Then yesterday, like magic, the Postal Service
seemed to have woken up to the fact that it did, indeed, have the
package. Not only that, but
it was “out for delivery”.
When I checked on it in the afternoon, the Postal Service declared that
it was sitting at my front door.
When I looked, there it was!!!
On the Plus Side:
We’ve discovered the advantage of the email surveys.
They get somebody’s attention if they get a low score.
It’s too late to ship the Stocking Stuffers off
to anyone in time for Christmas, of course.
“Marshall’s” present is currently stuck at the Fresno Post
Office, with the notation that the “customer requested” that it be held
there. Needless to say,
neither I, the “customer”, nor “Marshall”, the recipient, made any such
request.
This is another frequent “shipping snafu” that
I’ve encountered. In this
case, instead of blaming the virus, the Postal Service blames the
computer. Eventually,
they’ll get tired of having it hang around and will see fit to deliver
it. Or not.
Meanwhile, as stated
above, this will be the last Letter this year.
This is me, wishing everybody have a Very Merry Christmas and a
Safe and Happy New Year!
Until January…
Love, as always,
Pete
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