Okay. That’s twice in one week, you losers. I’ve been putting up with this on and off for the last 15 years, and I am now totally and completely disgusted.
I am a resident of the state of New Mexico. For the second time this week, when trying to make a purchase of a computer accessory from a company on the east coast (this time it was New Jersey) I am informed by the sales person that they will have to charge me the international shipping rate to get my part to me. International Shipping Rate?!? Why?
New Mexico, last I checked, is one of the 50 states of the United States. We’re the 47th state. We’ve been a state since 1912. We’re located in that (apparent) hole in the U.S. map between Colorado, Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma.
And yet, despite all this, some ignorant fuckwit in New Jersey, and another one in Indiana, don’t seem to realize that I’m calling from within the same fucking country. And no, they didn’t just mis-hear me and think I said ‘Mexico’. I had given them my full mailing address, U.S. zip code included. And they just don’t seem to know where New Mexico is on a fucking map. And then I try to calmly and rationally explain that NM is one of the 50 states. And they refuse to recognize it as a possibility. And then they get offended when I ask to speak to a manager. I mean, come on people. It’s not that tough. NM is where Los Alamos is…you know, where they built the first atomic bomb…but I guess people who are that ignorant about the geography of their own country aren’t any more informed about the history of the country. I thought it was bad enough 10 years ago, when people came to my then-home town of Santa Fe, and asked me what the peso exchange rate was. But at least most of those tourists were from other countries…but not all. You people disgust me. I can’t believe that you are so incredibly, unbelievably, totally ignorant. Why don’t you quit your nice, cushy sales job, and go back to grade school. Just don’t take any more of my calls, and tell me I’m living in another country.
I have spent most of the last 5 years attempting to convince the “customer service staff” (yeah right) that New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska are indeed part of the United States, and do not require extra postage, or international shipping rates. And that despite what they may think, everyone “over there” does not speak the same language, and it does indeed matter which distributor things are sent to.
Of course, around here, the great wall of China is in Germany, or it used to be, until they knocked it down on television.
Revisionist geography is just one of the happy gifts these morons bring to my life.
(and if it was my company you called… I apologize, the science staff really is not stupid, it’s just the morons they hire to answer the phone)
I understand a similar situation arose during the Olympics in Atlanta when people were buying even tickets and such. “New Mexico, old Mexico, I don’t care, sir…”
Stiletto, I once had a friend who lived in Alaska for 3 1/2 years. Her husband was in the Air Force and stationed in Fairbanks. His next duty station was in San Antonio, Texas. So my friend goes to the Texas DMV to get a new driver’s license and they tell her that she will have to take tests, including one for driving, because her current license was foreign. Huh? As has been said, last time we all checked Alaska, although not attached to the lower 48, is an American state.
<Simpsons>
“Well, you shouldn’t have been charged for international shipping. Our rates are the same for the entire United States, except Alaska and Hawaii-the freak states.”
</Simpsons>
When I was visiting a friend in L.A., I saw a great present that I bought and wanted it shipped back to ND. After giving them the address, I was quite firmly infomed that they don’t ship to ND!!
Did they eventually believe you? Did you get a manager that laughed at their employee’s ignorance? Because, damn, how can you not know that New Mexico is a state?
Well, in the last case, I managed to convince them that it was a domestic package, and that they should address it correctly as within the US. But it still sounded to me like the manager didn’t really believe me either. shrug If I don’t get the package in a few days, then I’ll know that he didn’t. :mad:
No reason Stiletto but she wasn’t being rude. She showed me her thick book of codes to put for each city and North Dakota was blank. I guess they didn’t use UPS. It probably was a copy error and nobody caught it since I was probably the first to request it to ND. Anyway, I just took it with me. I wanted to ship it so I wouldn’t have to carry it around all day till we got back to the car.
You know, I liked Mexico, it had been around for a long time, and I was very comfortable with it. Then they had to go screw with everything and make New Mexico which just sucked. I mean, everyone hated it. Finally they came to their senses and gave us our old Mexico back, but now their calling it Mexico Classic, as if that’s supposed to make it all better. It’s probably not even the same as the old Mexico, but their counting on us not noticing, bastards!
Stil, I used to live in NM, too. Are you familiar with the classic book (and the column from whence the book came) called “One of Our Fifty Is Missing?” It covers this whole topic in what you might call rigorous detail, featuring tons of tales of people being, you know, asking what language New Mexicans speak, what currency we used down there, etc.
As for the computer parts company - are you 100% sure you WANT to buy something from a place that doesn’t even have a decent map, never mind of those customer-tracking computer programs that automatically calculates shipping and city and state based on zip? I mean, if something goes wrong, are you going to have to talk to the same set o’ morons?
