I was reasonably happy with "The Corporate Center" in Ogdensburg, NY, until yesterday...
I have a regular day job in Ottawa, so I can go to Ogdensburg only on a Saturday, and then only once every 4-8 weeks. Four weeks ago, I went to The Corporate Center to pick up an audio speaker [subwoofer] for my car. Staff there were unable to find my package, so I was forced to returned without it. Once home, I gathered the tracking information proving that the package had been delivered to Ogdensburg, and I emailed this information to The Corporate Center. The following day, I received a reply saying that the package had been found.
Yesterday (Saturday) I drove from Ottawa to Ogdensburg to pick up the once-lost speaker, plus several other packages that had arrived in the interim. When I arrived, the owner, Marlene Chapple, appeared flustered - perhaps overwhelmed by the volume of customers and their packages. Nevertheless, I was handed 8 packages fairly promptly.
But wait a second, where among these 8 packages is the speaker? The speaker weighs 2kg (5lb) and none of the 8 packages had sufficient heft to have possibly been holding my speaker. I told the owner that the once-lost speaker was still missing.
The owner disappeared into the warehouse and returned with a folder containing the hand-written entries corresponding to packages that The Corporate Center had received on my behalf [and beside each entry, a note indicating whether the package had been picked up by the customer]. The folder clearly indicated that I had already picked up the package, which was not true, of course. Strange. The owner then told me that no more time could be devoted to my case, because a queue of customers had developed during the previous 5 minutes.
Thinking that my case would be alternated with arriving customers, I politely waited for staff to resume the search for my package. Staff took 1, 2, 3, and then 4 other customers without once coming back to me. When I saw that staff were about to take a 5th customer without assisting me, I finally spoke up for myself and I insisted - in front of all of the other customers - that someone should search for my speaker.
Not surprisingly, everyone is annoyed. I'm dissatisfied with the service I'm receiving and staff are dissatisfied with the vocal customer. Nevertheless, they do begin the search in earnest.
As I'm waiting, I begin to examine the packages that had been handed to me. Lo and behold, among the packages is an empty box that *should* have contained my speaker - a large rip in the box being the only testament to what may have happened to its contents. Who knows when, where, or how the speaker exited the box, but clearly staff should stop looking for the box, because I was holding it in my hands.
I stopped one of the staff who was familiar with my case and showed her the box. "Here it is.", I said, putting my hand into the gaping rip in the box. "The speaker must have fallen out.", I said.
"That has nothing to do with us.", she responded curtly. Dumbfounded by this ridiculous response, I wasn't sure what to say. Finally, I said "Don't you think that your co-workers should be told to stop searching for this box? "
Eventually, the owner came by and examined the box. She had no explanation for why her records would show that I had already picked up the package in her hands. She said "You know, you are far too complicated for us to deal with. You send us too many packages and some [packages] you take away with you and some you don't. You can take your business elsewhere."
"You send us too many packages..."? My god. Does Starbucks complain when you buy a lot of coffee? Does Tim Horton's complain when you buy a lot of doughnuts? Is The Corporate Center doing me a favour, or am I paying for their service? I think the latter - they were happy to charge me $27 on my way out.
There are dozens of outfits offering better service than The Corporate Center. Costs may be slightly higher, but they have more convenient hours of operation [e.g. 9am-3pm on Saturday; 9am-12pm Saturday and Sunday] I'm moving to myusaddress.ca read more