“Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from
the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
" ---The Unofficial Postal Worker’s Motto
A while back I purchased a bundle of beautiful coordinating
fabrics. I didn’t have a particular
project in mind but I knew from the moment that I laid eyes on the eye-catching stack there was a quilt hiding inside begging to be discovered. Unfortunately, I just haven’t had a free
minute over the last 6 months to even think about making a quilt for myself – so the fabrics just sat
on my cutting table….waiting.
At the end of August my final deadline for a two-year long project was approaching and I decided to celebrate by making this special quilt. We were going to be spending the Labor
Day holiday at our cabin in the Northwoods so I packed up the fabric and planned my
project on the way. Of course, when I arrived at the cabin and did the final calculations – I didn’t have enough fabric to complete the quilt pattern I chose. Since the fabric was
purchased a year ago, it was no longer available in the local quilt shop. Due to the magic of technology and the internet, I found the pieces I needed at a shop in New
England. Getting this fabric from them to me should have been an easy
process.
It wasn’t.
Here’s what happened beginning with some background information...
1.
We do not have a USPS mailbox or USPS mail
delivered to our cabin. It’s in a
remote area and since we are only here occasionally we decided that if we need
anything delivered we would use UPS or FedEx.
2.
When I placed my fabric order the order form gave
me the choice of USPS or UPS delivery. I
chose UPS 2nd day delivery and specifically stated in my
instructions that we were vacationing and if they were unable to ship the
fabric to our cabin with arrival within the next week to please contact me and
I would give them my home address.
3.
The following day after placing my order I received a copy of my order and
shipping confirmation. The fabric had
been shipped out USPS (United States Postal Service) Priority Mail (not UPS 2nd
Day Air). Knowing that the box would be returned to sender, I was hoping this was a
mistake so I contacted the shop.
Here’s
an entertaining synopsis of our e-mail exchanges:
My order instructions:
Shipping Method: UPS 2nd
Day Air
Special
Instructions: I am on vacation and will only be at this address until 9-7-11.
If it is not possible to ship this and receive my order by that date
please let me know via e-mail. Thank you!
From
Fabric Shop:
Shipping
confirmation via USPS (United States Postal Service) Priority Mail with Priority Mail Tracking Number
From Me:
I'm
concerned about my order - I paid for UPS 2nd day air (see UPS confirmation
below) and received notification and a tracking number for USPS. We cannot receive United States Postal Service mail at this address - everything must be sent UPS - which is why I paid for
UPS 2nd Day Air shipping. I hope this notice to track via
USPS was sent in error.
Please
advise.
Thank
you,
Mary
From
the Fabric Shop:
The package was sent out Priority and the USPS said three days max. to deliver. I only did
that because I know when I send to my daughter in Va. I send Priority and she
gets it in two days for the most part, and once in a great while if weather is
bad.....three. I was just trying to get it to you within the time frame
but at a savings to you in postage. Sorry to have caused undue stress. Praying
the USPS is good for the date they told me!
Sincerely,
Connie
From
Me:
Dear
Connie,
I
appreciate that you were trying to save me money on the delivery, but the
problem is that we do not have US mail delivery here at this address - it is a
vacation home and we did not set up mail delivery. We had the choice of
whether or not we wanted a box set up for mail delivery and since it's very remote
and we are not here very often, we decided not to have USPS delivery.
This is why I asked that it be sent UPS - not USPS when given the choice on
your mail order form. Unless the Postal Carrier decides to bring the package to us -
which we were told they would not - the package will be returned to you.
I'm
not sure what to do...
Mary
From
Fabric Shop:
No
response
Note: It was driving me crazy to think that I may not be getting my fabric. I decided to personally visit the Post Office to check on my options and here's what happened:
From
Me:
Connie
- I just spoke with the post office and they said they will not deliver the
package to our cabin since we do not have regular mail delivery here.
The postal worker said that it will be returned to you. I even
explained that it would be a package that would be too large to put in a
standard mail box but she said no - they still will not deliver it (since we do
not have a mailbox and are not on a regular mail route). This is very
upsetting as it was for a quilt I wanted to finish this week and I was so happy
that you had the fabric I needed to finish it. I will not be able to
complete it in time with the package being returned to you. Please credit
my credit card when you receive the package back.
Mary
From
Fabric Shop:
Mary,
In
reviewing the emails this am. it appears that we have not responded to your
email from August 31st. Please
accept our apology for the delay in responding. We do not like to leave
open-ended issues laying dormant, however I understand the store has been busy
with long-weekend visitors and I expect no one had a chance to check for
internets/emails in the last 48 hours.
In
reviewing your series of emails with Connie, I'm sorry that we did not get your
fabric to you with an appropriate delivery method that ensured it arrived
safely to you for your project deadline. The owner of the store has been in the
process of training some new staff and unfortunately some of the detailed
nuances of internet orders can be tricky. In your case, Connie was
focusing on delivery time and dollars. These are typically our
prime focus areas, however when we think it makes sense to change a delivery
method, we typically communicate with the customer first to ensure
that there is no conflict in our thinking - in this case, our
thinking would have been flawed and had we called you or emailed you back,
you would have been able to tell us about the delivery flaw and we
would have honored the UPS request. Unfortunately, Connie did not know
this extra step in our process as these situations are rare.
We are
sorry that we caused disappointment. Please know that we
will modify our processes internally to ensure this does not
happen in the future.
We will
credit your card immediately.
Sincerely,
Brenda
From
me:
Hi
Brenda,
Thank
you so much for your note and your explanation. I just couldn't stand the
thought of not getting the fabric and finishing the quilt - so here's what we
did. My husband and I visited the Post Office in town and the supervisor said
they would not deliver the package to our cabin without a mailbox at the end of
the road (about 1/4 mile from our cabin). This is a remote area and the
mailboxes are all lined up on a particular corner near a main road. He
told us to find one that looked abandoned and label it with our house number
and street name. The other problem was that Connie labeled the box
"Bologna" and my name is "Balagna" - so it was entered into
the US Post Office computer incorrectly. The supervisor said he would
watch for the box and tell the postal carrier that the name was incorrect and
that we did have a mailbox and to make the delivery. So - on Friday, we
bought some letters & numbers from Wal-Mart and put them on an old rusty
abandoned mailbox (that we pried open) that was sitting in a bucket of cement
amidst all the other mailboxes. On Saturday there was a knock on
the door from the local postal worker and she personally delivered the package and welcomed us to the route! Woo
Hoo!
I am
very glad to have the package - although, as you said - if it would have been
sent UPS it would have arrived at my door on Friday and not taken up so much of
our time trying to make our home "US Post Office accessible".
But, that being said - the fabric is here - it's beautiful - and I'm
working on the quilt - so all is well. Please do not credit my card as I
have received my order.
Thank
you so much,
Mary
From
the Fabric Shop:
Mary,
Well
thank you for making me smile this morning. Don't get me wrong, I
realize that you have really gone out of your way to make this fabric order
happen as a result of judgment and process errors on our end.
I'm smiling from the perspective that I don't think I've ever heard of anyone
being so creative to get fabric!
Thank
you for telling me the end of the story. I want to make sure that
my colleagues understand the degree of effort you had to put into this
situation to make it happen! My hope is all employees will remember
this file and your creativity and take the extra step to ensure that we never
cause this type of creativity again! We want to put our creative
juices into color design and beautiful projects.
Thank
you for your patience with us on this one!
I did
credit your card on Saturday. So when your credit card invoice
looks a little wacky this month, you'll know why. I'll put through
the charge today.
Enjoy
your quilt and have a great extended summer!
Sincerely,
Brenda
So –
all’s well that ends well! I have my
fabric and I’m working on my quilt AND we have a rusty old mailbox with our name in beautiful gold letters that we can now call our own! :-)
As I read the quote at the beginning of this entry - it reminds me of our Project Linus chapter coordinators and blanketeers across the country. “Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night stays these volunteers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds of making and delivering blankets to seriously ill and traumatized children." Although we DO have a Project Linus mission statement - we DON'T have an official motto. I think I like this one!
Happy Blanketmaking!
Mary
