Stuff that's Stupid Again
I AM SO FRUSTRATED.
Incline Village is Stupid.
Specifically, it's stupid because the mailmen are either lazy or scared of the snow or too busy skiing/buying cheesy paintings of the lake/taking their dumb grandkids to play on the dumb lobster. Because for some obnoxious reason, the mailmen DON'T DELIVER MAIL to a lot of the houses and apartments here. You have to get a P.O. BOX if you want to get mail.
But you can't get other delivery services to put stuff in your P.O. BOX. No way. You have to get that at your house, a.k.a. your SHIPPING ADDRESS, where you can't get mail.
To further complicate matters, unless you want to pay $2 for an energy gel or unless you are buying cheesy paintings of the lake from local artists or ugly old-lady clothes at Christmas Tree Village where their big waste-of-electricity clock is perpetually wrong in different time increments, you are basically REQUIRED to purchase stuff on line and get it SHIPPED to you.
Everywhere else in this shoparific country, you can get both mail AND deliveries to your house. But not here in Stupid Incline Village.
So if you buy stuff online, for example health insurance or gels or clothes or cameras or DESPERATELY NEEDED SNEAKERS, the likelihood that that there will be a f@ck-up on the shipping end is pretty much 100%*** and someone will send your SHIPMENT to your PO BOX where you can't get SHIPMENTS, or your MAIL to your SHIPPING ADDRESS where you can't get MAIL. Frequently-used-by-customer-service explanations for these f@ck-ups include:
"Oh well it says your billing address is P.O. BOX XXXX so I guess that's the address we gave to UPS, rather than this shipping address."
or
"We usually don't use USPS so it probably went FedEx even though there is no indication of this on our website and I see we have an email here from you requesting that it ship via USPS, so it will get returned to us eventually, and then we'll send it to this updated address in about 2 weeks!"
or
"Well even though the zip code didn't match up UPS still tried to take it to Incline Village, Oakland California, so I guess that's why we got it back."
or the one I got today:
"I have no idea why they said there was no Apartment 24 in your building even though you are sitting inside Apartment 24 with a functional doorbell right now. They'll reattempt tomorrow."
Today, I hate it here. I want SF. I want a place where a girl can SHOP without idiots blocking her way and foibling her mail/shipments/boxes.
***Unless you buy from eBay or the used section of Amazon, where everyone uses USPS and you can go to your P.O. BOX to get your flat iron/shuffle/book club books/pedals/etc.
Incline Village is Stupid.
Specifically, it's stupid because the mailmen are either lazy or scared of the snow or too busy skiing/buying cheesy paintings of the lake/taking their dumb grandkids to play on the dumb lobster. Because for some obnoxious reason, the mailmen DON'T DELIVER MAIL to a lot of the houses and apartments here. You have to get a P.O. BOX if you want to get mail.
But you can't get other delivery services to put stuff in your P.O. BOX. No way. You have to get that at your house, a.k.a. your SHIPPING ADDRESS, where you can't get mail.
To further complicate matters, unless you want to pay $2 for an energy gel or unless you are buying cheesy paintings of the lake from local artists or ugly old-lady clothes at Christmas Tree Village where their big waste-of-electricity clock is perpetually wrong in different time increments, you are basically REQUIRED to purchase stuff on line and get it SHIPPED to you.
Everywhere else in this shoparific country, you can get both mail AND deliveries to your house. But not here in Stupid Incline Village.
So if you buy stuff online, for example health insurance or gels or clothes or cameras or DESPERATELY NEEDED SNEAKERS, the likelihood that that there will be a f@ck-up on the shipping end is pretty much 100%*** and someone will send your SHIPMENT to your PO BOX where you can't get SHIPMENTS, or your MAIL to your SHIPPING ADDRESS where you can't get MAIL. Frequently-used-by-customer-service explanations for these f@ck-ups include:
"Oh well it says your billing address is P.O. BOX XXXX so I guess that's the address we gave to UPS, rather than this shipping address."
or
"We usually don't use USPS so it probably went FedEx even though there is no indication of this on our website and I see we have an email here from you requesting that it ship via USPS, so it will get returned to us eventually, and then we'll send it to this updated address in about 2 weeks!"
or
"Well even though the zip code didn't match up UPS still tried to take it to Incline Village, Oakland California, so I guess that's why we got it back."
or the one I got today:
"I have no idea why they said there was no Apartment 24 in your building even though you are sitting inside Apartment 24 with a functional doorbell right now. They'll reattempt tomorrow."
Today, I hate it here. I want SF. I want a place where a girl can SHOP without idiots blocking her way and foibling her mail/shipments/boxes.
***Unless you buy from eBay or the used section of Amazon, where everyone uses USPS and you can go to your P.O. BOX to get your flat iron/shuffle/book club books/pedals/etc.
Labels: enjoy the blog, IV, outrage
posted by Courtenay at 3/19/2008
6 Comments:
Today I got a case of stuff from Gu, my wife got some shoes and a box of stuff from Under Armour came. I bet you get your triathlete magazine though - for some reason I have a subscription but have to keep buying it at the bike shop because who knows where it's going. I don't know why anyone would live in the snow when you don't train doing a single snow related sport. I'd start trying to answer that question.
I live in an apartment-style condo with a buzzer on the front door. UPS and Fedex can't get in the front door if I'm not home, and they won't leave packages outside. Therefore, I have them deliver to my office. For awhile, my office did not have USPS delivery, so I had to be sure of what carrier was being used when I ordered things. Now that my office does get USPS, I have everything shipped to my office.
there's a lot of people who've lived here many years but who don't care for the winters - they say the 8-9 non-Winter months here more than make up for the cold and snow. Tahoe has perfect Summers, climate-wise, but then there are a lot more tourists and 2nd home owners around...so ask us for a more considered opinion about living here around Sept/Oct.
But then there are lots of great locations that suffer from tourists/2nd homers. Coastal Maine is one. But every summer is an opportunity to meet new friends!
Rural mail can be difficult--but not as difficult as what you are describing Court. They are willing to leave boxes in front of houses at least! And we know the ups and fed ex guys. . .small town bennies! Hang in there--you'll appreciate your purchases even more when you finally get them!
AEB
That sucks. Incline Village Oakland, CA?? WTF? Well...at least it's beautiful there...right?
By the way - hi, I'm Sarah, just another triathlete/cyclist blogger browsing the blog land and found your and greg's blogs through loren's...whose I found randomly. :)
Hope you get your stuff you ordered soon!!
Tahoe has FOUR seasons...June, July, August and Winter!
I lived there nearly 40 years and the mail system totally still sucks.
Oh well, the Lord giveth and the TRPA taketh away.
BTW, there's a Kingsburry Hill Climb on your 30th birthday which is an NCNCA race.
The 7th is also my son the climber's birthday so he can win the men's race and you can win the ladies'!
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