08:18 – Yesterday, for the first time ever, someone filed a complaint against us with PayPal for non-delivery. I checked the USPS tracking number and found that USPS had attempted delivery on the 18th and left a notice. I submitted that tracking link to PayPal and emailed the customer to let her know that the package has been sitting at her local post office since the 18th and that she should contact them to arrange pick-up or redelivery. We’ll see what happens.
13:26 – We just made a Home Depot run to pick up some shelf brackets and 6-foot 1×12 boards to add more shelves to what used to be my work room and is now a storage room. We also picked up five 56-quart (53-liter) Sterilite storage boxes for $5.97 each. What’s odd is that they also had 28-quart Sterilite storage boxes that were otherwise identical for $5.98 each. Let’s see. A penny cheaper and twice the size.
I also grabbed three of the 5-gallon “Homer” orange plastic buckets with lids for about four bucks each. They’re not listed as “food grade” but they look fine to me for food storage. Buckets and lids are both polyethylene. What surprised me is that although the tops of the buckets appear to be threaded, the lids are not. They’re snap-on, and once they’re on you have to destroy the seal to open them by pulling a tab to remove the perforated strip around the circumference of the lid. Still, they look like they’ll work fine for bulk food storage for items like sugar, rice, beans, flour, and so on.
Seems strange that she didn’t contact you first…
A lot of people are … not exactly non-confrontational, but cowardly.
Not exactly the same thing but a common example is in the workplace. You’ve probably seen it at work, back when you had an office job: someone brings in a stinky lunch, or whistles while he works, or something else mildly annoying to co-workers. But the co-workers, rather than mention it to him and get a “Sorry, hadn’t realized.” response, don’t want to confront him and possibly be made uncomfortable from the necessity of telling him he’s doing something annoying. So instead they take it to a manager, who then has to follow “procedures” and it becomes a big stinkin’ thing.
Yep. I’m assuming that she didn’t get the notice that USPS left, but I’d certainly expect her to contact me before filing a complaint with PayPal.
SteveF wrote:
“…someone brings in a stinky lunch, or whistles while he works, or something else mildly annoying to co-workers…”
Amen brother. A guy I sat next to once, who I’d know for 10 years, complained to the boss that my backpack sometimes encroached into his floor space. Geez! Why couldn’t he have just asked me to move it?
I’ve had to open a dispute over an item I bought off eBay. If you follow Paypal’s own instructions for filing a dispute, they recommend opening a dispute and NOT contacting the seller directly. Opening a dispute DOES contact the seller, but puts all the dialog between the buyer and seller in Paypal’s system, so they can track the issue IF it gets escalated to a claim. You have only 45 days to dispute an issue, and if you go past that you are SOL.
So she wasn’t being cowardly or non-confrontational, but was following Paypal’s instructions to resolve the issue. Bob should be happy she did it this way, because Paypal’s protection goes both ways. They will isolate him from unjustifiable disputes, just as they protect buyers from unscrupulous sellers.
As for the notices the post office puts in the mailbox, they often get missed. I’ve found them caught up in the pages of catalogs. Canada Post’s missed delivery notices are printed on white paper, which is the same as all the other mail. They should try yellow, or pink to make the notices stand out.
I used to work with a guy who continually adjusted his “package” while in my office. I, in a non-cowardly way, asked him to stop touching himself in my presence. He didn’t, so I complained to my boss, who complained the guy did it in his office, too! It helps to not have a cowardly, non-confrontational boss. I resolved the issue by informing the perp that his continued “adjustments” were going to result in me adjusting his package with the toe of my boot.
BBC’s Front Row Daily‘s latest show (MP3 link) is on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with Joss Whedon and others.
You can get very similar buckets and lids at your local diner. They’re originally used to hold pickles, so they’re “food grade”, and the lids generally have a gasket. Pay the manager $1 each to save them for you, rinse them with hot water, and you’re all set.
I hear that Obummer is working on his 2014 new year resolutions. Here is a partial list that his staff is floating around the Hawaii right now:
1. national gun registration of all hand guns and long guns
2. voluntary turn in of all gun magazines above six cartridges
3. get those idiots in Congress to pass a Single Payer Plan when they finally realize that Obamacare was designed to fail
4. get the EPA to enact a fifteen dollar per ton tax on CO2 emissions
5. a mandatory turn of all gun magazines above six cartridges when the voluntary turn in fails
6. Get my choom on when Michelle and the girls go on vacation
7. a mandatory gun purchase waiting period of one month
Gee, Lynn, couldn’t think of 12???
You don’t want to know the other five.