The saga of the lost Desk

This is a story of a desk, not just any desk, it was a special desk. This was the desk into which would be placed the mixing console, outboard equipment, and power controler for a sound system installation that will haunt me for the rest of my days. But I'm getting ahead of myself. For those who are not technically oriented, this mere "desk" is what would be the central control point, the brain if you will, of the entire sound system. So it wasn't as if we could just do without it.

Ordering the desk was easy enough, I contacted my vender down south and payed them painlessly enough. I recieved emails that the order had been recieved, and further emails informing me that it was being processed. The problems started once the desk went out their doors and was no longer under their control. I recieved an email informing me that the order had shipped and that I should be seeing it sometime the following day. This was two days after placing the order, and the item in question was being shiped to New York from a Southern state via truck. So far so good, right?

       RIGHT????

I should have known better. In the end, when I finally got the desk delivered to it's proper location, it's path of travel went something like this:

From the deep south to New York State- 2 days traveling

From a warehouse in Brooklyn to it's destination in Brooklyn- 1 week, 3 days, just sitting there gathering dust...

Hmnnnn. Something must surely be amiss. My partner spent a week on the phone with them trying to sort out the wereabouts of my package. First they claimed that no one was there to recieve the package when an understandably upset individual who had taken a day off from work to be there very obviously was. Then they claimed the package was already delivered, which left us puzzled as to where it could have been dropped off since we certainly didn't have it any were. When pressed further, they claimed it had been signed for at an address up in the Bronx. I need not tell you the manner of phone conversations which resulted from this revelation. Eventually they accepted their mistakes and admitted to us that they just simply did not know where it was.

At this point I will ask you to look at the photograph at the top of this blog posting. This is a desk with a roll down top, doors on front and back, which weighs close to 270lbs, and comes wrapped, packed, and planted on a skid that is approximately the size of a refridgerator laying on it's side. How exactly does a freight forwarding company that supposedly has experience in dealing with large packages of this nature,....

 .....LOSE ONE?!?!?!?!?

Ahem, Sorry for yelling there. It's really not your fault. It's just that this was trully exasperating when you consider that I was simultaniously dealing with the PayPal fiasco that essentially ground the cash flow of this job to zero (see previous posts), a fact that on one hand produced much sympathy from PayPal's customer support representatives but in the end had little bearing on how long it actually took to resolve the matter. As with PayPal, the mystery of the lost desk's wereabouts would simply be solved in it's own time and refused to be rushed. Such would be the patern of most troubles that sprouted forth in the completion and afterwards in maintaining this installation.

When I finally managed to locate teh desk, have it delivered, and was able to put my hands on it, an additional week had passed, and PayPal was in the process of finally coming to terms with the facts of running a business- You provide a service, and the client pays you for that service. THAT WAS WHY THEY SENT SO MUCH MONEY TO MY PAYPAL ACCOUNT, ok guys? [*sigh*]

The desk, likewise found it's way to the client's installation site in it's own good time, and once more it looked as if things were coming along. ..

Almost...

Now if only we could find the electrician that the client preffered to use over our own (presumably on grounds that he would price the work cheaply). Now I must explain that I really don't care if my electrician or one recomended by the client does the work, as long as he is licenced and installs the wireing exactly as I specify in the system installation specifications. That having been said, were exactly is this electrician? Traveling here from Guam, perhaps?

We shall continue with this endless tale of woe, in due time...

So long folks!

email me: [email protected]

my web:   http://amssound.com