FedEx delivers… sorta

The strange tales of FedEx continue.

As previously reported I have been waiting on a package from FedEx. Since it was Friday, I knew if I missed them today I would have to wait until Monday to get my package.

I asked the secretary to call me if it came before 3pm when the office closed. By 2:45 I started to head to the church. I posted my usual signs (“FedEx: I am here!”) and waited.

At 4 p.m. I had to make a visit. Tracey was still at the church so I told her to listen for the door. Then I left. I was only going two streets over, from 3rd Street to 1st street. As I turned the corner onto 2nd, I saw the FedEx truck. Immediately the theme from Mission: Impossible started to play in my head. I knew what I had to do:

Get to that truck.

I had already started to turn when I saw it, so I quickly, and possibly illegally, turned around. I looked down the street and saw he was turning. Aha! There’s a local drop off box for FedEx, I bet that’s where he’s going. So I headed that way.

I pulled down the street and saw him coming. I looked around: nowhere to park. Hrm… except in front of that fire hydrant. I would be in sight of the car at all times, and I could pull up enough that it wasn’t really blocking the hydrant (although there was a distinct yellow tint to the sidewalk edge where I was parked).

Jumping out of my car, I looked at the truck and saw the driver was already gone. Had he already gotten into the store? I took a chance that he was just in the back and went up to the truck.

“Hello!” I yelled in as friendly and non-“I’ve been following you for the past three blocks” way as I could manage.

He poked his head around the corner.

“I’ve been waiting on you… you’ve got a package for me,” and gave him the address.

“Oh yeah!” he said, and disappeared into the back of the truck. I hoped that they were not allowed to carry Mace.

He came out a few seconds later and handed me the box.

YAY!

There was a small part of me that thought it was a little strange he didn’t ask for my name or make me sign for the package, but I was happy to have the package in my hot little hands, so I just got back in the car and went on my way.

Later, I was curious to see how long it would take for the tracking page to be updated. I checked it about 2 hours later and here is what I saw:

The first thing that caught my eye was the 4:14 pm entry: “Given to customer” (which is true) and “Signature service not requested” (which is also true, as far as I can see from looking at the box).

What was more interesting, however, was the 1:37 p.m. entry: “Delivery Exception: Customer not available or business closed.”

As far as I know, the office was open until 3 p.m.

I do know that the information that the office was allegedly closed was not added until after 6pm.

So, had I not tracked down the driver and taken possession of the package, I could have found myself again waiting for the package, only to have it never be delivered and been told that the business was closed.

I think I am going to start only ordering from places that use UPS.

In other news: the iPod Shuffle is very cool and autofill is awesome.

How tiny is it? How’s this for size?