We've had terrible luck with mail this year. Not having a fixed physical address for "home" we instead have a mailbox at a small copy shop in West Seattle. West Seattle is not particularly near to any of the places we ever keep the boat or lay our heads, but the shop owner is a terrific guy whom we have both used for various business services for years and his flexibility and service are well worth the extra distance when it's time to collect.
One of the services he offers is to bundle up your waiting mail and forwarding it to wherever you happen to be, a handy thing if you happen to be in Canada or some place unusually distant from West Seattle. Or at least we thought it might be handy when we headed north this year, so after about the first month we'd been gone, we had him package up our stuff and send it general delivery to a Canada Post office in a city we planned to be visiting in a few days. That was in late July. When did we finally get that mail? Yesterday, after the package finally cleared Customs both ways and skulked back to its point of origin, here in West Seattle. Turns out that mail to or from Canada isn't all that reliable, and isn't even remotely predictable.
The Canada Post folks told us a package could be held for up to two weeks in Customs, and that they would then hold something another two weeks in general delivery before returning it. If you do a little math on that, you will quickly realize that you have a window of about a month during which you must be near the place you hope to collect the mail from; if it comes through immediately, you only have two weeks to pick it up before it gets sent back, but if it gets hung up in customs, you may have to wait two weeks before you can pick it up. If you're only going to be gone for three months, that is not tremendously useful.
In the event, it seems like it got held up far longer than two weeks in Canadian customs, so it's a good thing we didn't hang around waiting for it.
Besides that, we tried sending a gift back from up there which never arrived (or hasn't yet, at any rate; maybe it come through in another three months).
But it's not just Canada; we're having as many problems here in the States. We sent a birthday card ahead from Friday Harbor which never reached the intended recipient, nor has it yet been returned. Maybe the mail boat sunk and we didn't hear about it.
And I've been having a run-of-the-mill streak of bad luck this past week, missing by hours or days a series of important letters or packages that have come in. Either Mandy or I have had to go collect the mail just about every day this week for something that came in the previous day that we need, only after we had already checked in. Twice, we've gotten the call that it showed up less than an hour after we had been there.
At least my e-mail is still getting through. I think.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Ordinary scams
But lately, it's just the sneaky, downright dishonest stuff that is bugging me. The Ballard Safeway commonly offers items that are marked down on special of some sort or other, but then does not honor the discount at the register. Because of the way the Safeway discounts work (you have to plug in a member card or number before the discount is given; the price rings up initially as the regular price) it is more difficult than usual to notice when this happens, and over the past year I have gotten home and gone to plug the receipt into our budget spreadsheet many times to find that I have paid more than I intended and more than was advertised for certain products.
It's possible that this is simply oversight of some sort, but I increasingly think that it is an intentional scam. When I have caught the discrepancy at the register, the managers make a production out of stopping everything, marching back and personally verifying what the price tag says on the shelf. Considering how often this happens, you would think they would either be aware, or be willing to take your word for it, instead of treating you like you are the guilty party, and not they. I am not much of a conspiracy theorist, but I do believe that where incentives are in place, employees will follow them, and corporate officers are well aware of how that works. I think that even if they haven't explicitly designed this system (and who does, these days? everything is more subtle than that... "will no one rid me of one troublesome priest?") it's not in their interest to fix it. Most people probably don't notice the discrepancy; those who do, and complain, are probably discouraged by their treatment, and don't bring it up again. Hey, it's only fifty cents, right?
I used to laugh at my mother for running down her credit card statements and comparing the charges against bills from gas stations and such. She said sometimes she found that the receipt she would get from the station wouldn't match what they actually charge the account. I am not laughing anymore; that seems like exactly the sort of thing corporations would do to squeeze a few extra cents per transaction out of people.
Overpromising and underdelivering seems to be the new norm. Mandy and I talk about this all the time with respect to boating gear. It's twice as expensive as anything else, and half as reliable. Money just doesn't buy quality anymore. Perhaps nothing does; maybe there just isn't quality. Planned obsolescence works for the corporations.
It often seems that you can't win, and maybe you really can't. The only way to come out ahead in such a system is to try to scam it yourself, but then you are just as bad as all the rest. I freely admit that I have long since joined those ranks. I try to conduct myself honorably and forthrightly with other individuals, but when it comes to large, or even mid-sized organizations, all bets are off. It's a business relationship on both ends. But it has to be asymmetric; I will only ever lose on their terms, and they set all the terms. So I have to take my advantages where I can. With Safeway, I don't have a lot of control over it, but you had better believe I won't be mentioning it if they happen to ring something up for less than it's marked; and I fully intend to check all my receipts while standing their in line, right in front of the checker, holding things up and generally inconveniencing everyone until I am satisfied they are correct. If they start losing more money because people are tying up their checkers than they are making by scamming us on prices, maybe they'll have to look for another scam.
It's possible that this is simply oversight of some sort, but I increasingly think that it is an intentional scam. When I have caught the discrepancy at the register, the managers make a production out of stopping everything, marching back and personally verifying what the price tag says on the shelf. Considering how often this happens, you would think they would either be aware, or be willing to take your word for it, instead of treating you like you are the guilty party, and not they. I am not much of a conspiracy theorist, but I do believe that where incentives are in place, employees will follow them, and corporate officers are well aware of how that works. I think that even if they haven't explicitly designed this system (and who does, these days? everything is more subtle than that... "will no one rid me of one troublesome priest?") it's not in their interest to fix it. Most people probably don't notice the discrepancy; those who do, and complain, are probably discouraged by their treatment, and don't bring it up again. Hey, it's only fifty cents, right?
I used to laugh at my mother for running down her credit card statements and comparing the charges against bills from gas stations and such. She said sometimes she found that the receipt she would get from the station wouldn't match what they actually charge the account. I am not laughing anymore; that seems like exactly the sort of thing corporations would do to squeeze a few extra cents per transaction out of people.
Overpromising and underdelivering seems to be the new norm. Mandy and I talk about this all the time with respect to boating gear. It's twice as expensive as anything else, and half as reliable. Money just doesn't buy quality anymore. Perhaps nothing does; maybe there just isn't quality. Planned obsolescence works for the corporations.
It often seems that you can't win, and maybe you really can't. The only way to come out ahead in such a system is to try to scam it yourself, but then you are just as bad as all the rest. I freely admit that I have long since joined those ranks. I try to conduct myself honorably and forthrightly with other individuals, but when it comes to large, or even mid-sized organizations, all bets are off. It's a business relationship on both ends. But it has to be asymmetric; I will only ever lose on their terms, and they set all the terms. So I have to take my advantages where I can. With Safeway, I don't have a lot of control over it, but you had better believe I won't be mentioning it if they happen to ring something up for less than it's marked; and I fully intend to check all my receipts while standing their in line, right in front of the checker, holding things up and generally inconveniencing everyone until I am satisfied they are correct. If they start losing more money because people are tying up their checkers than they are making by scamming us on prices, maybe they'll have to look for another scam.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Home
On a boat, when the boat travels with you, there is a dual concept of home: the dwelling, and the location.
Scott and I arrived back "home" in Seattle last Thursday. It felt good. Homey, you could say. As much as I try to not whine about the physical smallness of our boat, I will say I was really happy that, almost immediately, we'd be off for a few days of house/dog sitting for a friend. Their home is comfortable, and possibly even comforting, since we know it well. And we were still in the general area of Seattle, so we were still "home," if home is a location.
The first night of house sitting I developed an incredible headache. I went to bed early, and as I was laying down on a very plush, dry bed with my eyes closed, something unexpected happened: I began longing for the v-berth. The cold, damp, uneven, small v-berth. I wanted to go "home." I craved my most comforting nook in all the world.
Once I woke up the next morning, sans headache, I was more than happy to be anywhere but the boat once again. Tomorrow (Tuesday) night I'll be back on the boat, staying for much of the rest of the month. I have a presentation Wednesday and it will make the logistics of ride-sharing with my assistant much easier if I am at Shilshole and not in Burien. (Scott will come back to the boat Wednesday, since he'll have a late-night airport pickup to make.)
We have two upgrades to home (the boat), now that we're back in the land of big-box stores like Target. Both should make it more comfortable: a new heater (one that hopefully stays ON when it is turned ON, and turns OFF once it is hot enough) and a new 100% polyester blanket. The old comforter is going to the dumpster. Even with a bathtub to try cleaning it in, there are still mildew stains in the corners, and I simply cannot make myself crawl into a mildew-y blanket one more night. So, with prospects of being warmer (while not worrying that the boat will catch fire) and the feeling of a clean bed, I'm looking forward to home once again.
I suppose the boat being in Seattle makes it doubly home. It's good to be back :)
~M
Scott and I arrived back "home" in Seattle last Thursday. It felt good. Homey, you could say. As much as I try to not whine about the physical smallness of our boat, I will say I was really happy that, almost immediately, we'd be off for a few days of house/dog sitting for a friend. Their home is comfortable, and possibly even comforting, since we know it well. And we were still in the general area of Seattle, so we were still "home," if home is a location.
The first night of house sitting I developed an incredible headache. I went to bed early, and as I was laying down on a very plush, dry bed with my eyes closed, something unexpected happened: I began longing for the v-berth. The cold, damp, uneven, small v-berth. I wanted to go "home." I craved my most comforting nook in all the world.
Once I woke up the next morning, sans headache, I was more than happy to be anywhere but the boat once again. Tomorrow (Tuesday) night I'll be back on the boat, staying for much of the rest of the month. I have a presentation Wednesday and it will make the logistics of ride-sharing with my assistant much easier if I am at Shilshole and not in Burien. (Scott will come back to the boat Wednesday, since he'll have a late-night airport pickup to make.)
We have two upgrades to home (the boat), now that we're back in the land of big-box stores like Target. Both should make it more comfortable: a new heater (one that hopefully stays ON when it is turned ON, and turns OFF once it is hot enough) and a new 100% polyester blanket. The old comforter is going to the dumpster. Even with a bathtub to try cleaning it in, there are still mildew stains in the corners, and I simply cannot make myself crawl into a mildew-y blanket one more night. So, with prospects of being warmer (while not worrying that the boat will catch fire) and the feeling of a clean bed, I'm looking forward to home once again.
I suppose the boat being in Seattle makes it doubly home. It's good to be back :)
~M
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