Texas BBQ and FedEx

There's just something about Texans and their BBQ. You just can't really split us up, and you can't convince that the BBQ is just as good or better anywhere other then Texas. 

See, for example, tonight there will be a birthday party at my apartment for the husband and for our friend Holly.

They are both April babies. His is on the 18th and hers is on the 24th (which happens to be Easter Sunday 2011, if you're wondering). And, because I love both of them, we had to celebrate with a big party. 

And because it is a special occasion, BBQ must be had. So, I emailed our friend Eddie who creates the most delicious brisket and ribs and sausage. And he mails them to boot. He FedEx'd the deliciousness to us and said it would be here Thursday. So, I rescheduled a couple of meetings and hung out at home waiting for the knock on the back door alerting me that our BBQ had arrived. 

And I waited, and waited, and waited. 

Then my email made it's cheery, "You have a new message!" beep. And I looked at it was from Eddie and something to the effect of: 'FedEx just emailed me and said you weren't there. Just wanted to let you know. You can probably pick it up from the distribution center if you call them.' 

Eff my life. I have been home!! Turns out, the note that I leave on the front door telling delivery guys to come to back was gone. So, I pulled the door tag and called the number and spoke with a lovely woman who said that I could pick up my package between 6 and 8 that evening, and wouldn't I just have a great day! I smiled and said thank you and wiped my hands and headed to school. 

Then, the husband called and we were chatting (this is around 5:30) and I said, "oh, by the way, I'll need you to go get the BBQ tonight." And he groaned, because he's played with FedEx before and they just irked him. 

So, he walked into the front door at 5:56 and started calling FedEx. See, Lincoln is small, but it can literally take you 45 minutes to get from one side of town to the other because there is no way past traffic lights. And he wanted to be sure it would actually be there when he was. 

This resulted in talking with 4 "customer service reps" who all sounded like we were inconveniencing them. Apparently, when the husband called, he was told that the shipping place was only open two hours a day, wouldn't have the package until late that night, and no, they can't contact the drivers. Sorry about your bad luck, should've been home. This took about 45 minutes. 

Finally, he somehow managed to get a hold of a Customer Advocate* named Mary. And she was truly on our side and got all the information we needed calling regional managers and a guy named Joel. She told us what I had been told earlier: The package is waiting happily for us at McCormick Dr until 8pm. And wouldn't you know it, but the husband walked into the warehouse and they knew exactly where the package was and they smiled and told him to have a nice night. 

Phone time: took an hour.

Drive time: 45 minutes. 

If you're counting, this This whole process took almost two hours and really made us decide we would never, ever ship with FedEx. 

But! The brisket, and the ribs, and the sausage are sitting in our refrigerator, ready to be consumed by friends celebrating awesome lives.  

 

And we now know how much we will put up with to get Texas BBQ.