Several series around in tv got in these days to their midseason break. A lot of sports finish a circuit in their seasons too, and red before the Playoffs. People plan their winter vacations, their holidays, and all sorts of new things come into view. Maniac Christmas decorating, heated declarations in favor or against it, a rush for buying gifts and planning huge dinners that will yield nothing but heartache and sorrow when someone doesn't show or they eat too much and their dieting efforts are tossed once again into the trash can.
For those of us who have gotten quite addicted to the online purchases, this is also the season when our Internet usage paramethers change. We don't spend so much time on the Twitter, or the Facebook, on google, youtube, sites of books on line and all kinds of magazines, but we are phisically and virtually glued to tracking sites. UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL, you name it, and for some of us, constantly checking the site of the Smart Address company, minute by minute tracking our Black Friday purchases. In these days, for those of us who have to pick up our purchases at a counter, lines in the cold, easily going over one hour are expected. Worn out, tired clerks whose manners fray rapidly surround us, along with all the other customers from the horde. Here and there a newbie tries to strike a friendship with one elder customer, a seasoned online-buyer, and ask the most innocent questions, like "which sites are safe for buying?". Dude, do you remember those days? When the biggest worry was to have your card stolen?
You count your days, youwait for that specific checkpoint after which it will be in your hands in 24 hrs, only in this season, packages multiply and burst through the roof. There's no waiting room, and behind the counter you can no longer see the logo of the company. Everything is brown boxes and tons of friendly Amazon.com smiles.
Two of my three packages have arrived, with my beloved Colts' scarf landing in my hands yesterday after a 90 minute waiting in the cold, outside the counter in a tent that the wind was boxing into. My JCPenny coat is still in Miami. Hell, what's this doing still in Miami? Get it here right now!
Packs of customers reach out through every single available channel of communication, collapsing the entire system, with calls and messages sticking out like arms reaching from between the bars. Twitters load the different companies with questions and requests. The usual messages change. Now people hardly care about who's who and what's what, and the "I hate Los Intrusos" and "I love The Jonas Brothers" change for tracking numbers and "where's my order?".
For a courier company, it's a big season, for a courier employee it's hell, and for the customer a veritable nightmare we continue falling into over and over.
From our orders three packages are still on their way here. Located, thanks Hyne, tracked, and we know where they are, but still, they are still to get to the counter. And so the tracking game is still on.
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