A rant

Uni starts again next week, so in readiness for lots of printing I decided to get a duplexer attachment from HP for our printer so I can do double sided printing easier.

The transport company (who's name sounds like a sixties sci-fi show) tried to deliver the part yesterday. They left a message to ring them as there was no one to sign for it when they came round.

I know roughly what time this particular company delivers in our area as I've had deliveries through them before. I know there's not going to be anyone available to sign for it at that time, so I asked if they could hold it until next Friday as Donna and I both have a day off then.

I could hear the operator hitting a few keys on her keyboard, then she said, "HP won't let us hold it for that long".

So I had a bit of a think and asked if they deliver on Saturdays.

"No".

I asked if they could deliver it to my work address instead.

"HP won't let us redirect."

Perhaps an ATL (authority to leave) then.

"HP won't let us do that."

I'm now thinking hard, trying to come up with another alternative and I can hear the keys on her keyboard clicking away. I started to suspect she was typing an e-mail to someone. It certainly wasn't a record of conversation as she was typing a lot more than what was being said.

I suggested they just try to deliver it again on Monday afternoon as there may be someone there then.

"We can't do that just on the off-chance that someone might be there".

In the end I told her to send it back to HP and I'll sort it out with them. During the whole conversation she never once tried to offer any ideas, just left it up to me to come up with something. So now I have to get onto HP and get them to try again, this time with a decent carrier, like Australia Post or AAE.

I make no secret of the fact that I hate my job. The people I deal with on the phone every day at work wouldn't know that by the way I talk to them. I always make an effort to be friendly and helpful. I'd put in a complaint to the transport company, but the only way I can do that is by ringing the same number I rang yesterday.

Incidentally, we use this same company at work to ship network spares all over the country. Not long ago, we had a part that needed to be shipped from Melbourne to Tumut, near the Snowy Mountains in NSW. The part had to be there the next day as we had customers off the air and there was no spare in the area. It went via Perth, on the other side of the country. That's like sending something from say, Los Angeles to somewhere near San Francisco via New York, or London to somewhere near Glasgow via Berlin. That's just one example, there are heaps more.

Anyway, rant over, back into happy mode, it's almost the weekend.