My mother and sister Jan couldn't be here this Christmas. They're in Arlington, VA and we're in the Bay Area. Mom is 87 and flying out is getting too expensive and complicated. So this year they stayed home and sent us two packages for Chrismas morning. The packages went out on the 19th by UPS' Second Day Air. Only UPS offered guaranteed delivery.

The lesser of the two packages arrived on the 21st. The main package — the one filled with toys and goodies for Jeffrey (age 4) and the rest of us — is in UNLOADville. In other words, lost. It never got farther than D.C. SORT. Here's the current information from the tracking page on the UPS Web site:

PACKAGE PROGRESS
Date		Time		Location		Activity
Dec 20, 2000		3:37 A.M.		DC SORT, MD, US		UNLOAD SCAN
		12:46 A.M.		DC SORT, MD, US		ARRIVAL SCAN
Dec 19, 2000		9:55 P.M.		ALEXANDRIA SORT, VA, US		DEPARTURE SCAN
		5:05 P.M.		ALEXANDRIA SORT, VA, US		ORIGIN SCAN

UPS says they can't run a trace runtil the 26th.

I suppose we should be grateful for the Miracle of Shipping. And, on the whole, UPS is a pretty agreeable operation. Things arrive in good condition, nearly all the time. The guys in the trucks are always cheerful and helpful. And they can find our house, which isn't easy. But right now we're all pretty bummed.

By the way, our package to Mom & Jan, sent on the 21st, arrived on the 23rd. The shipper was FedEx.

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The good news is that the outsourced Customer Service folks at Sony ("we're not Sony employees. We're not supposed to tell you where we are. I can tell you we're in Missouri, but not which town.") did lessen the shipping fee, since I certainly didn't receive it on the overnight basis I'd ordered.

In fact, it was sent via UPS!

This is good. UPS explains that an air traffic control delay in Kentucky delayed my shipment from California, and the package would not arrive at the depot near me until too late to deliver it that day. This was from a person on the national 800 call in number. I gave them my number here and asked to be appraise of the progress of the package.

Well imagine my surprise when a local rep called from the nearby depot! She explained where things were, what would and could be, and gave me a "drop dead/date certain" for delivery.

Then she gave me the local number to call, and made sure I had the correct tracking number.

As promised, the part arrived the next day.

I was pleasantly stunned by the open, direct, and interactive communications offered, and in part initiated by, UPS. They were forthright, honest, and gave me no BS.

What a pleasant surprise. I am amazed, though, that Sony uses them. Must be an error there somewhere.

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