Changing expectations

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Expectations are a funny thing. They can dictate happiness.

In days of old (during the cave man era) I used to mail order some clothes. I especially loved Lands End. Dependable quality and sizing. Lots of color choices. I would etch my order on a stone, send it off with the nearest dinosaur and maybe a month later a box would come. It would be like Christmas.

Dinosaurs morphed into brown trucks and stones morphed into thin slices of trees they called paper. Still it took a month to get a box.

I was happy. It was a joyous day (mostly because I didn’t remember what I had ordered!)

Fast forward to now. Mysterious transmissions through air and almost simultaneous boxes appearing on the porch. It was a miracle. It could get addictive. In those old days it wasn’t just a touch. It required real work. Using pen and words. Being sure to get the sizing right. Deciphering if the color midnight was navy or black (and what on earth is pumice?). We worked hard for this miracle.

I recently ordered something from one of my old standbys. It’s been fifteen days and there is no box on the porch. I don’t live in a porch piracy area so it’s unlikely that it was stolen.

Every day I click on the magic “track it” button. It was transferred from the brown truck people to the USPS people. What could possibly go wrong?

I reset myself back into the days of yore when I wouldn’t be expecting it yet to keep any annoyance to a minimum. I don’t need it so all is good.

I’m keeping an eye out for a big dinosaur laden down with packages. If you see him in your neighborhood send him my way.Image result for dinosaur clipart"

Author’s note: Lands End did not pay me anything to mention them in a good way but I am always open to free gifts! (Hopefully not by dinosaur)

 

73 thoughts on “Changing expectations”

  1. Pingback: Cute Faces for Healing | Luanne Castle's Writer Site

  2. It is interesting how our expectations are set! Pre-FedEx, who expected 2-day shipping, let alone 1-day shipping? And now, if it’s “only” same day shipping and doesn’t materialize on the welcome mat in less than 2 hours we’re disappointed? 🙂

    Did you ever end up getting your order?

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  3. Uh oh…sometimes those brown trucks fall off the face of the earth, despite the so-called tracking feature. I ordered a replacement yoga ball recently and the tracking button was connected to some location in Australia. And here I thought everything ordered anymore came from China!

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  4. Once again I really relate, Kate. I ordered from a specialty catalogue in early December just certain the gift would arrive by Christmas. I’m no longer at all confident. I know I’m completely spoiled with instant deliveries, but I’m not likely to use this company again. I’m altogether too impatient at this point. 😒

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  6. Amazon has broken us. I had an unreasonable irritation ar being told 7 to 10 days before they even give it to the brown truck. And they wanted a ridiculous amount of money to make it happen. That used to be normal but now….

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  7. Oh my gosh – I remember the old days of mail order. Remember having to mail in a check? Then then waiting weeks and sometimes months for things to show back up. You’re right – it was always such an event when your thing came, often because you totally forgot about it!

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  8. I don’t do much online shopping, but did on CyberMonday because the discounts were so good. Because it was so late in November this year, my packages were a long time coming and I was beginning to worry that I wouldn’t have them in time for Christmas. So yesterday I was driving down my street to the corner mail box and lucked out and caught the Purolator guy just as he was leaping out of his van to walk up my driveway – good catch! Another few minutes and I would have had to drive into town to the depot and pick it up. I get confused with which ones (UPS, FedEx, Purolater) will leave stuff on the porch and which ones don’t. Afterwards, I thought, he was very trusting as I could have been anyone driving down the street saying hey I live here, that’s my package! I’m sure that scam has been tried before.

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  9. That “Mail Innovations” of UPS to USPS is never trackable and a real pain isn’t it? Also when you opt for a two-day order from Amazon and it’s an independent contractor so you have a 10 or 12-hour window for delivery. I’ll put a note on the door that I am here and ask for a courtesy knock but they don’t do it. Signing up for e-mail tracking is the best bet as it goes off and makes a ding and I can race to the porch. We DO have porch pirates here in Michigan and they just passed a law on Monday that the first time caught, it is a warning and the next time caught, it is a felony and you’re facing five years in jail. So many people have surveillance cameras and they post B&W grainy pictures in the City Crime Forum, hoping to get a firm I.D. I just heard on the news we had 17,000 piracy incidents in 2018 – the pirates tail the UPS and Fed Ex drivers.

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    • I live on a dead end street and the homes are farther apart. It’s also a long walk to the front porch. All this deters pirates from my area. I still keep an eye out though. I’m not so trusting. The package I wrote about didn’t come yesterday but another one did. I got the email that it was delivered. We couldn’t find it. We had a snow squall with high wind and it blew it into the bushes. I was glad I got the email so I knew to look for it.

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      • My friend Carol lives in NY and they get whopper snowstorms – she got some of what you got (she’s in the snow belt she says) … she had a similar issue and her house/porch is far from the street, and they just left her package at the post mailbox yesterday. She was stunned to look out and see it there, and it was squalling and snow was piling up. She was pretty mad about it … another package was delivered to a neighbor who did NOT go out in the storm to deliver it to Carol. She knew it was there as the courier took a picture of it and sent it to Carol and she recognized the neighbor’s porch area.

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  11. I really have forgotten how long those orders took back then. It really was about a month, wasn’t it? Now people get upset if it’s not here the next day, which in the case of many of my wife’s Prime orders, that actually happens. I can still recall ordering records from Columbia House with at least a three week turnaround. – Marty

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  12. I love your first sentence. I know you meant it to be about the expectations in receiving your order, but it applies to just about everything.

    Maybe the extra shipments due to Christmas is causing the hold up of your order. Hope it arrives soon.

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  14. I recently ordered something and it was stuck in California for 12 days. I contacted the “Help Chat” and they reordered it for me. Two days later, my jacket arrived and the next day the original jacket arrived. I was told to keep both, so I donated one to my friend’s daughter.

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  15. I recently was expecting a package. And due to the inhumanity of porch pirates I was madly tracking it. It seemed to be taking a long time. Called the Vendor and was told because I choose the free shipping option it would take longer! Mind you I had spent a ridiculous amount to money to get that free option! Package arrived at the Bethlehem facility…was going to be delivered the next day…next day arrives and package is not going to be delivered because of Severe Weather…Um I live in the area…there was NO severe weather. So I feel your frustration. Hope your package has finally arrived. Mine did.

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  18. I had a package coming, supposedly to arrive on a certain day. USPS made a delivery, no box. About 9:30 at night I about jumped out of my skin when there was a loud knock on the door. Turning the porch light on I found the package on my step and could see someone walking down the drive to where a truck was parked in the middle of our snowy country road. Yesterday same truck, earlier delivery. Hope your package arrived. Another day had the post lady bring a package to my door. Never know how things are going to be delivered these days. Rarely see a brown truck any more.

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  20. I’ve been transcribing letters written between brothers in 1903 – one is from up here, in Northern Ontario, the other was in New York. The southern brother complained about the postal service from Canada because one letter took an entire WEEK to arrive, when he was expecting it in two, three days at most.

    Plus ça change, eh?

    Hope your post has inspired the USPS to deliver today.

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  21. It is true that modern technology can fail – and when it does, it is miserably. Even when we do everything right, fill out the right forms, make sure of the right size and color, and punch in the right numbers, the “system” falls short. The worst part of it is the loss of control and the inability to fix things or make them happen the way we wish. Good luck with that delivery Kate…. my guess is it will finally arrive. Merry Xmas and may all your best dreams come true. 🙂

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  22. I’m amazed how quickly we receive ordered packages most of the time. How do they do it so fast? I’ve gotten so spoiled about free shipping (also on returns). I won’t order anything that doesn’t provide that service. I know the “free” shipping is hidden somewhere in the price but it hurts my frugal soul to pay $$ on top of the cost of the item.

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    • I agree with you. I get my skin care from an on-line store. Not only is it cheaper than doc’s offices but there is no shipping! Makes me wonder just how much profit there is in that stuff. I get Chewy deliveries the next day. I finally got curious and found out they have a warehouse maybe 2 hours away.

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    • It has been in our local post office for 4 days. It’s not even a box but one of those plastic bag mailers. Not very big but they are busy now. I just hope they didn’t deliver it to someone else. We get a lot of wrong mail these days.

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  25. I’ve always liked that “TRACK” thing most sites have now so I just know to keep an eye out. I’ve also been fortunate in that I’ve never “not” received anything I’ve ordered but this time of year – anything goes!! If I see a stray dinosaur I will definitely send it your way. I’m thinking maybe that “GIANT PARCEL” that Katty and Mark from Easyweimaraner helped the postgirl take to the neighbors might have been your wandering dinosaur though – you may need to make a trip to Brittany to pick up your package!

    Hugs, Pam

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  26. I use a similar analogy when my computer takes forever (around 10secs) to find a file. I usually only have to wait 2 or 3 secs so 10 is unacceptable.
    Then I have to think how long it used to take me to go to the filing cabinet;open it up; scan through the tabs to find the one I wanted; pull out the folder; rifle though it to find the document and, assuming it had not been misfiled, there it would be! By comparison, 10 secs of no effort suddenly doesn’t seem so bad! 🙂

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  27. I like landsend too!!! maybe we got your parcel? today the post truck came and carried a giant parcel … but it was not for us… the postgirl sighed and was near to death, but Mark offered her help and together dragged it to the neighbors… wonder what’s inside…

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