Sunday, December 24, 2000

Merry Package Loss

My mother and sister Jan couldn't be here this Christmas. They're in Arlington, VA and we're in the Bay Area. Mom is 87 and flying out is getting too expensive and complicated. So this year they stayed home and sent us two packages for Chrismas morning. The packages went out on the 19th by UPS' Second Day Air. Only UPS offered guaranteed delivery.

The lesser of the two packages arrived on the 21st. The main package — the one filled with toys and goodies for Jeffrey (age 4) and the rest of us — is in UNLOADville. In other words, lost. It never got farther than D.C. SORT. Here's the current information from the tracking page on the UPS Web site:

PACKAGE PROGRESS Date   Time   Location   Activity Dec 20, 2000   3:37 A.M.   DC SORT, MD, US   UNLOAD SCAN     12:46 A.M.   DC SORT, MD, US   ARRIVAL SCAN Dec 19, 2000   9:55 P.M.   ALEXANDRIA SORT, VA, US   DEPARTURE SCAN     5:05 P.M.   ALEXANDRIA SORT, VA, US   ORIGIN SCAN

UPS says they can't run a trace runtil the 26th.

I suppose we should be grateful for the Miracle of Shipping. And, on the whole, UPS is a pretty agreeable operation. Things arrive in good condition, nearly all the time. The guys in the trucks are always cheerful and helpful. And they can find our house, which isn't easy. But right now we're all pretty bummed.

By the way, our package to Mom & Jan, sent on the 21st, arrived on the 23rd. The shipper was FedEx.