The Day Before The Ride

The Indiana State Capitol, in sunny conditions

No, I didn't take this shot today.  But that's only because I don't own an underwater camera.  This is from last year's archives.  It's been raining so heavily and so steadily that at 11:00 this morning, we all received emergency flash flood warnings on our cell phones.  As many of us were already hanging around in the lounge area of the hotel, watching today's segment of the Tour de France, the simultaneous warning alerts on everyone's phones sounded like a badly tuned orchestra.  This line of storms and rain are likely to continue for the next few days.  Just glad it wasn't today that we were starting on the ride.

But the bigger news was the arrival (finally!) of my bike.  I will categorically state here for the record that I will never again use the delivery services of UPS.  Knowing that we had a holiday weekend that would be blackout dates for union work, I shipped my bike earlier last week in order to have it arrive here at the hotel this past Friday.  The hotel was fine with me leaving the bike here while I arrived on Monday.

Checking the UPS tracking website on Friday, I was informed that my bike had been misplaced.  The actual terminology was that it had been "improperly sorted" and, therefore, would not be delivered on time.  "This will cause a delay in delivery and you should expect that it will take at least one additional business day."  Okay, no probs, I'm figuring.  So it gets there Monday.

But what was only a slight inkling of a detection of seriously flawed customer service was soon to become a flood akin to the lake that has formed outside my window where the parking lot used to me.  UPS made not attempt to alert me to the fact that my package would not arrive on time.  It was only when I went to the website that I found out about this delay.

On Monday before heading to the airport, I once again checked the tracking website.  It said that my package was "on route for delivery."  Feeling relieved that they found the mislaid package and that it would arrive sometime on Monday, I boarded my flight feeling good.

But when I checked into the hotel, there was no package waiting for me.  No bike.  And, according to the website, it was still in route.  At 8 PM, with no signs of a UPS truck, I checked the website again.  Now it said that the package had been left on a truck.  I didn't know what the hell that meant!  Aren't their trucks loaded with packages every morning and drivers drive around town all day delivering and unloading those said packages?  Isn't that the basic business model for UPS or any other delivery company?  Load, drive, deliver?  Was I missing something?

I called the customer service line to get an answer to that question.  Apologies abounded.  But no answers.  I saw that the bike box was, according to their tracking site, somewhere in Indianapolis.  Could I possibly speak with someone at that field office?  Maybe, I could come by and pick up my bike if them dropping it off was a problem for them?  "Sure, I will make sure someone calls you back within the hour."  Two and a half hours later, and after checking to ensure my phone wasn't on mute mode, I called back customer service.  "Oh yes, Mr. Beitler, we have it down here that you'll get a phone call sometime tomorrow morning."  But what about the promised call back within an hour?  "Oh, we don't have any record of that."

This morning, there was still no bike.  And still no calls from UPS.  Once again, I called them.  Once again, they lacked any vestiges of proactive customer service.  Yes, they were full of apologies, but no, they made no attempt to actually know where my bike was or when it might be delivered.  And, when I posed the $64,000 question, "but aren't you a totally computerized company?  so wouldn't you know exactly when a package was put in a specific truck?  and, therefore, wouldn't you be able to call the driver of that truck to determine an approximate delivery time?"  "Oh no sir, we don't have that capability."  So much for automation.

I won't go further into details, other than to say that, by then, we had already come up with a Plan B which entailed Michelle [rider leader] driving me to the best bike shop in Indianapolis [I bought a jersey from them last year so I already knew the place and liked the staff] to buy a new bike, assuming that my bike would never show up and was lost in the ether.  As luck, or fate, would have it, twenty minutes before arriving at the bike shop, I got the call from UPS that my bike would be at the hotel shortly.  Twenty minutes later, a call to the hotel confirmed the arrival of my bike.  But the trip to the bike shop wasn't a total loss.  As it was pouring outside, I did buy a new rain jacket since the one I brought was leaking horribly all day today.  It had served me well over the past ten years, but it's time had come.  Now it's in the donation pile at the bike shop and I have a new waterproof jacket.

An hour later, Gene put together my bike.  Ordinarily, I would have gone out for a 10-20 mile shakedown ride to check to see if everything felt right after the re-assembly.  However, given the flood waters all around the hotel and the constant rain, I chose the drier option.  I rode the bike across the street into a stacked parking lot.  Not exactly the mileage I was hoping for, but at least I got to check out the bike in drier conditions.  A few adjustments later and I'm all set to head out in the morning.

Just not sure if we'll be pedaling or paddling in the morning.

Market Square, downtown Indianapolis