Every few years I need a new laptop. My last Macbook pro lasted 5 years til it started overheating and shutting down. So I bought a new one and decided to ship the old one back to get fixed. I was amazed to find that I still possessed the original cardboard package that came with it. The packaging on Macs is pretty phenomenal, but even I was astonished that I would let this box occupy precious room in a closet of my condensed house. So lo and behold I shipped it back to the folks who repair such items.

     3 weeks later I get a call, We fixed your Mac. Where do you want it sent. I told them to slow boat it to my house in Minny. I wasn't in any hurry and I was traveling for the next week. So was my wife. Apparently the freight company had tried to deliver the old computer cause when I got home 10 days later there was one of those sticky notes on the door.

     Of course by the time I got this message, I imagine the package had been shipped back to the sender. Because I didn't call the number on the sticky postit. Because I had no idea there was a sticky postit on my door. So I call the designated # and wait the obligatory 10 minutes on hold after I type in the tracking #. The agent informs me that I need to get ahold of the sender as they have signed the receipt that the package was returned. After I get the person's name and # who signed for the package I ask the rep if they have my personal info. They say sure, it's all right here.

      Do you have a phone # for me? "Why sure we do", comes the reply. Then I inquire why they did not call that # when I did not reach out to them. "That's just not how we operate sir, you would need to call us." I ask if they could put an asterisk next to my name for any future deliveries, to call my phone so I can let them know when I will get home.

"Sir, once again we do not provide any service like this". How about this then, can you arrange for all boxes to be delivered to my next door neighbor if I'm not home. She's 79 and rarely leaves her house? "While these are all commendable ideas, we do not provide such services or redirecting of packages over the phone". Come to think of it, they provided me with no service.

I called up the folks with my mac. 2 days later Fed Ex dropped it at my door. My fed ex guy knows me. He also knows my neighbor will sign for me and he doesn't have to come back twice.