HeiBlog

One day on DealMac I noticed a Bluetrek Bluetooth headset on sale for $30 shipped. This is cheap considering that these things usually retail for $80–100. I check some reviews and it seems that the headset is okay, but not great. Figuring I would enjoy not having to deal with a corded headset to my cell phone and I could mess around with some VoIP on my iBook. So I order it, get the email that it has been shipped. A few days pass and one evening when returning from a night of drinking I think I see a delivery notice from UPS. It’s gone the next morning, so I check the tracking info. An attempt in fact was made, but I can not get the tracking number from the online retailer, it is “hidden for my protection.” No problem I think, I just get the next InfoNotice number. I’m busy in lab anyway so I don’t think to just call the retailer for the tracking number.

For the second and third delivery attempts I don’t get a notice. So I check the tracking info thinking that it will just be held at the transfer station. To my surprise it has been reassigned a temporary address, was rerouted to Rhode Island and then to Somerville (normally my parcels come through Watertown), and a delivery attempt was made in Cambridge. So I am thinking that somebody is trying to steal my package. I call the retailer to put a trace on the package and get the tracking number. The woman I talked to was very helpful, she called UPS, but they would not know all the delivery information until the next day.

The next morning I check the tracking info and see that the parcel has been delivered a second time (both times it was signed for). So I call UPS. Their information shows, the address change, the station transfer, the two deliveries, and a hold at Watertown. Now this package is too large for quantum law to apply to it, so I’m wondering where it is. Talk to the Watertown transfer station, no dice, but I get the number to the the dispatch at the Somerville transfer station. The woman at the Somerville station traces it to a Cambridge address 32 Vasser St. I’m thinking “MIT? How the hell?”. She gives me the number to the MIT mail room. The women I talked to there had no record of the package being received and forwards me to the first delivery point, 400 Main St. (another mail room), though she was the person that was listed as signing for the parcel. The guy I talk to at the first delivery point is quite helpful and promise to get back to me. In the mean time I call UPS to put a second trace on the package. I get to the second tier of customer service and try to see if I can get UPS to take responsibility. The man I talked with was very careful with is wording and basically said MIT was responsible. I thinking “Okay, I might have fun with you later.”

Nearing the end of this sage I get a call that the package had been found. What had happened was the man the package was addressed to had changed his campus address, so the guy in the first mailroom bumped the package. Now I never got answer on why the recipient and address were changed. So, 8 days after the original delivery attempt I head over to MIT to get my package. After I wonder around the basement of 32 Vasser St. to find the loading dock I finally find someone who knows what I am talking about. Sure enough it had a second label on it. My only real consolation through this whole affair was everybody was just as confused about the parcels path as I was. Maybe I should just put my ethics aside and send things to work. Lessons: Nobody will do your work for you and persistence does pay off.