Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Monday Monday

So 2,000 envelopes were supposed to be delivered to Cambridge over the weekend so that our team would have them for the event taking place there tonight. (Monday night.)

This delivery date was discussed last Tuesday.
Confirmed on Thursday.
And then I was assured with an Oh My Goodness, YES I SAID, they will be there today or tomorrow, Jane, on Friday.


Today at noon I got an email from L, "Jane. They are not here."
So I emailed our supplier with a reminder that we absolutely had to have them there for tonight's event. He called me back, promising to get to the bottom of it.

Meanwhile, whilst waiting for him to get to someone's bottom, I went to the courier's website and entered the tracking code. Where I was told in big bold letters it would be delivered tomorrow.

Which would be 12 hours too late.

My supplier, in Delta, called me back, very apologetic. His person had keyed in the wrong address "Only was out by one number... she added an extra zero at the end", so when the courier tried to deliver on Saturday, they obviously couldn't find the correct house. And seeing my supplier doesn't work on Saturday, and seeing Ontario is 75 time zones away, it wasn't til 1 pm eastern time that they got the correct address, and by then it was too late to try again today.

First thing in the morning then.


So.

While on their site, I saw a nifty little link to an online chat.
I pressed it.

And got Sophie.

I asked her if there was ANY way we could PLEASE get that package today. We needed it for an event that evening.

She put me on hold.

The package was in Guelph. The recipient was welcome to pick it up there. He'd need to bring ID.

The recipient however, was not available, as he was setting up for the event in Cambridge. So I asked about sending an alternative person.

Sure, that was a possibility:  The original recipient would have to prepare a legal document assigning the new person the right to pick it up.

HAhaha.
That was not going to happen.

Meanwhile, I'm emailing L in Cambridge, who is with E the original recipient. She suggests, maybe S can pick it up. He was at the airport picking up our President.

And then she stopped emailing, so I couldn't get any further details from her.

I've got my supplier on the phone and he is wondering what he can do to help.

I've got Sophie in New Brunswick on chat advising me that if the sender forwards a fax to the main office in Toronto, advising them of the new pick up plans, they will release it to S. How soon could he get there?

I don't know. I told her I was in Vancouver and S was just arriving in Ontario. She'd have to give me a sec to track him down.

So I wander around the building checking to see if anyone knows S's cell phone number and home address. This is the information that must be on the new shipping document. (Yes, the parcel is sitting in Guelph with a new address, FROM ABBOTSFORD on it.)

I track down his phone number and call it.
His wife answers.
(I assume he's left his phone at home, and she's answered it from Abbotsford. I am incorrect in this assumption, so there's that to sort through.)
Eventually. I talk to S via his wife (he's driving) who confirms they can go to Guelph. Could I text them the information.

So I call my supplier in Delta and ask him to change the shipping instructions, which is when he advises me, they originated in Winnipeg, and someone from THAT office will have to prepare and fax the info. Could I forward all the numbers and details to Suki?

Meanwhile, L in Cambridge gets back online and sends me an email wondering what's happening.

So I send her a complete summary assuring her that the envelopes will be at the event by 6:30. PLENTY OF TIME before the 7 pm start.

Two hours, 4 time zones, 8 people, 7 texts, (actually 14, because the first batch I sent went to the wrong number) 2 faxes, 18 emails, 3 very long chats, and a dozen phone calls later, two thousand envelopes were dropped off at the church.


Boo yah.

Three things I'm thankful for:

1. Technology.
2. Businesses with chat options.
3. The willingness of so many people to help.

4. Also thankful for the opportunity to meet amazing people. Had dinner tonight with a Facebook friend and blog reader who I'd been saving my purple, green and yellow sweet tarts for. We'd never met before, so this was a stretch. But not really. Because? People are generally awesome and have fascinating stories.


1 comment:

September said...

Sorry, wow, crazy story.
Also read the Paris post and feel that same sense of what do we do?