Cat Tree Drama concluded...

Ok, we last left you with our not knowing if and when we were going to get the cat tree. As you can see...it has arrived.

On Monday morning, we received a phone call from Sylvia Black, the administra-tive assistant to the president of FedEx! Clearly the email sent on Saturday did get through. She was all apologetic, and had been in touch with the management at the warehouse where our package was sitting (it sounded like they had had an earful). She assured me that the package would arrive that day - and she was going to watch the tracking and make sure (and if it didn't, she would call back the next day).

We checked the tracking web site, and sure enough, the package had finally been scanned again (so, it wasn't lost). But the drama still wasn't quite over. Later in the afternoon, we received another call from someone in the trace department (since a trace had been started, as the package had been suspected to be lost). He informed us the package had been found (probably just saw the same scans we had seen), but he said it would be delivered on Tuesday, because the home delivery department was closed on Mondays. We informed him of the promise made from the executive office, and he could only speculate that maybe the package had been turned over to the "Ground" department, instead of the "Home Delivery" department.

So, we waited out Monday, not sure what to expect. But then, around 4:30pm, Steve happened to look out the window, and saw a big box on the porch. It had arrived! But adding one more frustration, the delivery person seems to have just snuck it up on the porch and left. It would have been nice to have a knock on the door to let us know it was there. At least the USPS mail carrier offers that courtesy.

It all sounds quite confusing, and sounds like FedEx needs to make some improvements to their system. First, if they are behind schedule (due to bad weather in this case), they should be using their usual days off to catch up. Second, they need to fix their tracking site so it stops telling lies (if a package on a truck isn't delivered, it needs to be rescanned to show where it is now so it stops claiming it is still on a truck for delivery when it is not). Third, having so many separate departments in FedEx, that don't know what each other are doing, doesn't help when there are problems like this. Finally, they should ALWAYS knock or ring the bell when they make a delivery, even if a signature is not required. So, even with the quick response and help from the executive staff at FedEx, we will probably still avoid FedEx ground shipping in the future if we have a choice.

Thus ends the Drama of the Cat Tree, almost. PETCO had already shipped a replacement, so when that arrives, we will let them know and they will have FedEx come pick up the duplicate. Hmmm, I wonder how long it will take them to make that pickup...???