I'm angry right now. Not because it's usually -70 degrees here in MN, not because I always spell the word "definitely" or "asparagus" wrong, and not because we never get to know how many licks it really takes to get to the center of a lollipop. No. This is much more then that.
So let's start at the beginning, shall we? I was at ALA Midwinter and sent 5 boxes to my house. It was scheduled to arrive on January 30th. Two of my boxes got there on time, and the other two got here around February 5th. Where was my last box? No one could tell me until today when I got a letter from the Post Office in the mail:
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS?? NO?? It's pieces of the box I sent to my house at ALA. They found it at the warehouse and sent it to me saying "We found this. Want us to keep looking for the box? Oh, and by the way, package your box better next time." First: What the fuck? What do you mean you found the most important pieces of the box lying around? Second, did you just have the audacity to tell me that I didn't package my box correctly?
It's beyond obvious someone ripped those pieces to the ground and stole my box of 40 books. 40 FREAKING BOOKS DO I NEED TO REPEAT MYSELF? WELL I DID ANYWAY. This also happened in New Jersey, which is like 20 minutes away from where the convention was.
Why am I making this blog post? Because I'm not the only person this happened to. Five of my friends sent 13 packages and 3 went missing. The fourth box was ripped open and someone stole books INSIDE the box, then taped it back up. I can't… I just… I feel… THE PAIN! If you're going to any convention in the future I say this:
1. tape the boxes up so not even a tornado can rip open your box (though in the end it really won't help anyway)
2. Buy tracking. It's only like 90 cents
3. BUY INSURANCE!
On my first convention at TLA I found my box like this:
Someone ripped open my freaking box and took books out. This is beyond insane and I can't believe it happened again. In my opinion the fault is not only on the Post Office but American Library Association. Most of the boxes were "lost" in NJ, where the first warehouse is. That being said, ALA needs to make sure that our boxes are safe. Having this many packages not get to our house is something that needs to be looked at.
Good luck to the people that ship when going to book conventions. Hope they don't slam you like they did us.
4 comments:
So really it's the shipping company that sucks right? It's not really the convention.
Did you all ship through the USPS? Did anyone shipping w/ FedEx or UPS have problems?
Don't you think it's odd that the boxes missing where all book related and taken at the same place? I believe some blame has to be on American Library Association.
ALA had a post office inside the convention floor. It was UPS shipping. I don't know people who shipped via FedEx... it would be worth looking into to compare.
I've had two book packages, of only one book each, that have disappeared and never shown up at my house. One had a tracking number, and showed it was delivered. The delivery guy said he delivered it. He also told his boss that the packages always fit in my mailbox and I get one or two a week. Not true. And they don't always fit in my mailbox. He has even rubber banded them on the outside of the mailbox!!! So, I don't know if someone in my neighborhood is stealing them, or if the postal guy is. It makes me so mad! They were both ARCs that aren't things I can replace. How sad is it that people are stealing books? If anything, I always figured that would be safe, that people wouldn't want to steal books. So sorry that happened. :-( The post office is so much cheaper with media prices. But having UPS or FedEx might be better for the extra price? Not sure.
I won three children's books and when my package arrived, I noticed that it was already opened. My first thought, "****, don't tell me somebody stole my books!". Luckily they were all there. I don't know why the package was opened. All I know is this has never happened to me before and if someone did open it to check the contents, I hope they get a very very bad paper or cardboard cut the next time they open someone else's mail!!
Thank you for the heads up on the stolen books! I never even thought that stuff could happen. Sounds a bit like someone knew that the convention was happening and they knew full well what was in those boxes.
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