Every Wednesday in the comic industry is known as “New Book Day”. It’s the weekly street date that new titles and product are released. We used to get our packages delivered on Wednesday’s which would complicate things. Nothing worse than your UPS delivery arriving midday on new book day. Turning away business was a regular occurrence...until Tuesday delivery was offered through our distributor....for a small fee of course.
So for years now, we’ve been paying extra for that Tuesday delivery which usually works out great. It allows us time on a typically slower day to properly go through the new product, inspect for damages and shorts properly, snap pics for our social media, and pull the titles for those who request with a reserve list...all without having folks breath down our neck. Well...this week didn’t go as planned.
I took off that day as it was my last day with my pup Bindi. So my business partner had to deal with the nonsense on Tuesday although he was sure to fill me in every step of the way which was...well...annoying to say the least. We had 17 packages set to arrive from our distributor Diamond Comics...all arriving through UPS as per the usual. All packages showed “Out For Delivery” when searching the tracking numbers.
Things got off to a hairy start when the holiday fill in random UPS driver attempts to drop off 4 of the 17 packages but none of the others. He informed us that although the packages state Out For Delivery, that it wasn’t the case. He said there were thousands of packages that just never made it onto any trucks despite what the incorrect tracking updates were displaying, and were sitting in bins and stacks back at the hub. He couldn’t give us any more information than that and according to my partner, was a real asshole about it.
Over the next couple hours as he was trying to find out just where the hell our product was and when it might arrive, 2 other interesting things happened.
An auto parts store down the street called us up to inform them that they have one of our packages that a driver mistakenly gave them.
A random woman in a small car pulled up and dropped off one package as well dating she was given wrong packages and was helping to deliver them to the proper recipients.
Both things...very nice of those folks to help with. But how the hell does that happen in the first place?!? Our business names and address are plastered all over these boxes in several spots. The tracking numbers fit the 17 packages should be all connected...it’s all so baffling.
Anyway, hours later...what we were told was that the rest of the packages were scattered throughout the hub and that they would pull them all together for us. That we could go pick them up Wednesday morning at 10 am so that this madness didn’t happen again. We agreed. It was less than ideal as it now meant a ridiculous rush to comb through the books as we are open, but most of our Wednesday morning regulars are cool and understanding so it wasn’t the end of the world.
Wednesday morning hits and I’m ready to leave to head over to UPS to grab the packages. Just one problem....they aren’t there and nobody knows where they are as the tracking still displays the previous days incorrect information. Yay!
Who likes turning away business?!? Well we had to do just that as the droves of eager Wednesday Warriors stormed the shop looking for the new releases. Once again, luckily most of these people will be back but a few will just go to the other shop in the next town over and grab their books.
Hours later we finally hear back from UPS and are told that the packages should be at the store in 10 minutes. Yay!!! Customers there decide to wait it out. So about 40 minutes later...in walks the same asshole (according to my partner) UPS driver who came yesterday....this time in a U-Haul truck.
The packages in the truck were absolutely thrown around in no order and in total disarray. My one customer Phillip was watching the debacle unfold outside and laughing his ass off. We snapped a photo as they lazily looked for our packages and threw them out of the truck without a care in the world. Of course after a few minutes we were told he couldn’t find 2 of them. So my business partner went out with them to look and found the 2 boxes within seconds. Awesome effort fellas... 🙄
So Over the course of about 30 hours, we had packages go lost while a handful were delivered. Some arrived via random women in an old Hyundai...some via an Auto Parts store...while others through an old U-Haul truck....all the while nobody knew where they were exactly as the tracking...ya know...that silly thing that is supposed to let you know where your packages are?!? Yeah, that was all incorrect information.
So we ended up having to relive the old Wednesday delivery madness once more as eager nerds grabbed their copies of books just as quickly as we popped them up.
Oh...and for the record, as of last night the tracking still showed “Out For Delivery”...
