Argh! I came home with a huge headache tonight, then I poured myself a glass of sherry, which did a lot to improve my outlook. Here’s the story:
I’m an administrative assistant (what used to be called a secretary… :)), so of course I’m used to doing clerical duties. However, it really irks the hell out of me when I’m called on 30 minutes before the end of my day to undertake a task that’s going to take much longer than 30 minutes. There were 12 packages that needed to be mailed out, overnight of course, which also entails taking them to the mail room. The call came at 3 pm; Fed Ex picks up from my agency (fed. govt.) around 4 pm, so all this is rush-rush, last minute. We’ve been using this FedEx online program to make the package labels for almost a year now, but there have been many problems with the program, and unfortunately the person in charge of it at our agency does not know their *ss from their elbow about computers! When I got the call asking me to mail them out, I explained that the last time I used the FedEx program, I got an error message (which I had reported, btw), and couldn’t use it on my computer. I also explained that it appeared to be either a software or hardware problem (the error message mentioned drivers, so I suspect it’s software on my machine, although I was able to use the program less than 6 weeks ago, no problems), but I was willing to give it a try.
Naturally, the packages were -not- ready to go; it was another 20 minutes before they brought them down! Then, they didn’t have phone numbers for where they were being shipped to–and the FedEx program won’t print out your “routing slip” (that’s what it’s called–it’s got the bar code so that the package can be traced if necessary) if you don’t have a phone number for the recipient. So I had to look up each site’s phone number. Okay, so I put all the information in, click on routing slip, and -whamo- same error message I got two weeks ago! I call the person who handles mail/FedEx (that’s another whole rant in itself, btw … !), the same person who already knew I was getting this error message two weeks ago, mind you; their answer was for me to “log on as me (they gave me their user name and password!), and it should work for you.” 
Well d’oh, it’s something on my -computer- that is not working right, but I actually did what they told me; it still did not work.
I looked all over the FedEx online site–there was no contact number or information; the help file, when clicked on, gave me an error 404-file not found. The mail room will not take FedEx packages without this online routing slip, beside which by now it’s almost 3:45 pm. And my head is pounding! I called our computer support help desk, but they couldn’t really help me–the FedEx program is on a separate server, and none of them know anything about it. I also tried logging onto the site from Internet Explorer (my default browser at work is Netscape); that still didn’t work. There was nothing I could do to get the packages out for them. I ended up leaving a little after 4 pm. I did find out later that there is an 800 number to call at FedEx, which I will call in the morning, and give -them- the error message.
The kicker is this–I really shouldn’t be having to mail things out for the computer support staff! What happened was that the administrative assistant who does was leaving at 3 pm, and I -think- she told them to contact me! I won’t even go into that they knew all day that the packages would have to go out–they could have given the names & addresses to either of us much earlier in the day. But why should -I- have to stay and go through the wringer just because someone else wanted to go home on time?! Argh, I’m still angry about this… guess I should just let it go. I don’t know whether or not the packages got off today, but I suspect not. I think I need to talk to my boss tomorrow.
tarragon
