Customer Disservice

I don't find the Post Office to be particularly reliable these days, given the amount of times that they do not deliver the mail on our street at all, and the amount of times we get mail intended for people somewhere else in our Zip Code. So when it's time to send our tax information to our friend who does this sort of thing for a living, I am loath to send it via USPS.

For quite a little bit of money (but for the feeling of confidence in the people whose slogan is “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight”) I sent it via FedEx. This is not a long ride, where it's going: 13 miles via the Beltway, and 11 miles via air, in case FedEx hired some carrier pigeons. I dropped it off on a Thursday afternoon and the receipt said it would be delivered by the next afternoon.

The middle of the next week, our friend texted to ask where our envelope was. I was not able to speak to a human at FedEx; apparently all their employees were busy losing packages. But over the next 5 days, I was able to track the wayward pack and see it take an amazing trip from Baltimore to White Marsh, MD, to Sparrows Point, MD, to Hagerstown, MD and back to Sparrows Point, and finally it arrived at its intended destination (Pikesville) in a mere 11 (eleven) days. 

Next year, we will drive to where it goes and hand it off personally and still treat ourselves to a nice lunch with what we save in money, not to mention the aggravation (so I won't)

But speaking of lunch, I went to the deli at a supermarket near us - not my usual place, but just needed some ham and cheese for ham and cheese sandwiches. The cheese was not an issue, but when I told the counterman what kind of ham I wanted, he said he couldn't find that brand in his pile of cold cuts or in his walk-in cooler in the back. "No problem," I offered, "there's one right here in the window, all fresh and new." 

This is the best deli ham around,
if you can find someone who will sell it to you.

He said he wasn't allowed to cut that ham until he had sold all the "old-fashioned" ham he had sitting there nearby. I said I wanted the new-fashioned ham and he insisted he could not sell the new ham to me until someone bought all the rest of the old ham.

I told him to send me half a pound, sliced thin, via FedEx. It should be here by Easter.