How close are you with your neighbors? Do you have community cookouts together? Do you share each other’s tools? Do you hope they never want to make eye contact? Are you still holding a grudge from 2007 about the mysterious dog poop that was left in your yard and was never cleaned up? By the way, if it is more the latter, unless you did a stool sample and hired the folks at CSI to analyze it (or saw it happen with your own eyes) clean up that lump of coal already. Sorry, got off on a tangent. No matter how you feel about your neighbors, my FedEx delivery person apparently wants to promote social networking even if it isn’t wanted.
I ordered a MacBook from the Apple Store (online) and FedEx is the shipper that they use. Unfortunately, I am not home this week to sign for the package (working with a customer onsite this week) so I anticipated having to defer delivery or pick it up from FedEx’s station later this week. Sure, I have anticipated my first Mac product with child-like excitement, but I need to earn a paycheck to feed my Disney/gadget appetite. I signed up for FedEx’s free email notification service as soon as I received the tracking number in the mail, so I knew where my little Mac was at all times. Around 6pm, I received an email that the package was delivered and signed for at the residence. Wha?!? Unless my cats learned how to hold a pen (they are smarties, but), I live alone and it wasn’t me.
FedEx initially told me that I signed for it. Well the geographical distance (and biology of my arms) limits that statement from being true. Then, FedEx told me (and Apple) that a neighbor was willing to sign for it. I have only lived at my address for about 10 months, and I didn’t recognize the name or signature. I panicked, rushed home and found the famous ‘sorry we missed you slip’ telling me they would try delivery tomorrow. Yeah, contradiction there, but here is the end of the story. I went door-to-door looking for who had my beloved MacBook. Someone that I didn’t really know at all signed for it. Thank goodness he was a good neighbor (in all sense of that term). He told me that the FedEx driver asked him to sign for it on my behalf. YEAH! He was recruited to be my delivery receiver by the deliverer.
Moral of the story:
1. FedEx is now part of the social experiment. If the driver thinks you want to have your delivery badly, they will leave it with some random person nearby knowing you will go retrieve it. Thank goodness there was not an ongoing “borrowed tools” or “keep your dog on your own lawn” issue there, or that my neighbor (or I) am not a crazed serial killer.
2. Hey FedEx, photo ID matched to the name or address of the recipient would be a smart practice. If I asked you to pick who I wanted to receive my delivery on my behalf, I would have chosen a police officer, politician, teacher, Disney fan… My choice!
3. I’m on a horse.
Now I am free to experience the joys of Mac ownership and become an Apple Fanboy! To my friends who have Macs, be prepared I will be soliciting your assistance in my transition : )
Until again!
WDWStevieB
You can find me here or at the source: http://wdwstevieb.posterous.com
That's a little un-nerving. I had a random package delivered to my doorstep a few weeks ago. The address was 46 Wodd Circle, I am 46 Penn Circle. I called FedEx and alerted them, they never picked it up. 2 weeks later, I ended up opening the box, calling the company, who then alerted the buyer. Before you ask--- they were curtains...very ugly curtains at that LOL!
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