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Aethian's thread reminded me of this. I rarely meet customers on my paper route, and when I do meet them they have all been really nice folks. All but one...
SC had a newspaper box attached to their mailbox, allowing me to simply pull up and deliver the paper. Which was fine, except on trash day, because both SC and her neighbor would drop their bins right in front of the mailboxes. If it was just one or the other, there was usually enough of a gap I could maneuver my car in, but if they'd both put their trash out, I couldn't reach it.
My rule in this case is that the newspaper then gets bagged and delivered to the driveway. I have a lot of customers; I do not have time to get out of my car for each one. If it's a sucky neighbor who parked in front of their mailbox, I may make the extra effort to get it in their box (especially if it is a customer who tips well), but willful blocking of your own newspaper box gets your newspaper in the driveway.
Well one morning it was trash morning. My car was SOL for whatever reason and we were running late in Hubby's clown car (an older CRX) which is just a pain to crawl in and out of. (Also, when this particular incident happened, it was not too long after my car accident and my foot was still messed up, making getting in and out of cars even more difficult and painful, just to set the full scene here.) The tube was blocked by bins as usual, so we delivered to the driveway. After going to the end of the street and turning around to work out way back up the other side, I saw SC in her driveway. She had a major catbutt face and she stomped her foot and pointed at us.
So I rolled down my window.
SC: "I have a box!" *points at box*
Me: "It's blocked by your garbage bins. If you move them so we can pull up to it I'd be happy to deliver there."
SC: "You are supposed to deliver to the box! You get it every other day except Friday!"
Me: "That's because we can't reach it because your bins are in the way." *thinking: how can you not see the correlation?*
SC: "That's no excuse! I'll have your job!"
I rolled my window back up and told Hubs to just drive-on before I said something I regretted. I also called my supervisor and let them know what was up.
For about three more weeks, she and her neighbor continued to block their mailboxes/newspaper boxes, and she even called in complaints on me on Fridays.
However there's a happy(ish) ending. I'm guessing the post office got on them, because all of a sudden both her and her neighbor started putting their bins out on the other ends of their driveways, away from the mailboxes. Both suddenly switched so fast, that's the only reason I can think of. So now SC gets her paper delivered to her tube on all seven days of the week. (Though I am still not confident she understands the connection on why this is.)
SC had a newspaper box attached to their mailbox, allowing me to simply pull up and deliver the paper. Which was fine, except on trash day, because both SC and her neighbor would drop their bins right in front of the mailboxes. If it was just one or the other, there was usually enough of a gap I could maneuver my car in, but if they'd both put their trash out, I couldn't reach it.
My rule in this case is that the newspaper then gets bagged and delivered to the driveway. I have a lot of customers; I do not have time to get out of my car for each one. If it's a sucky neighbor who parked in front of their mailbox, I may make the extra effort to get it in their box (especially if it is a customer who tips well), but willful blocking of your own newspaper box gets your newspaper in the driveway.
Well one morning it was trash morning. My car was SOL for whatever reason and we were running late in Hubby's clown car (an older CRX) which is just a pain to crawl in and out of. (Also, when this particular incident happened, it was not too long after my car accident and my foot was still messed up, making getting in and out of cars even more difficult and painful, just to set the full scene here.) The tube was blocked by bins as usual, so we delivered to the driveway. After going to the end of the street and turning around to work out way back up the other side, I saw SC in her driveway. She had a major catbutt face and she stomped her foot and pointed at us.
So I rolled down my window.
SC: "I have a box!" *points at box*
Me: "It's blocked by your garbage bins. If you move them so we can pull up to it I'd be happy to deliver there."
SC: "You are supposed to deliver to the box! You get it every other day except Friday!"
Me: "That's because we can't reach it because your bins are in the way." *thinking: how can you not see the correlation?*
SC: "That's no excuse! I'll have your job!"
I rolled my window back up and told Hubs to just drive-on before I said something I regretted. I also called my supervisor and let them know what was up.
For about three more weeks, she and her neighbor continued to block their mailboxes/newspaper boxes, and she even called in complaints on me on Fridays.
However there's a happy(ish) ending. I'm guessing the post office got on them, because all of a sudden both her and her neighbor started putting their bins out on the other ends of their driveways, away from the mailboxes. Both suddenly switched so fast, that's the only reason I can think of. So now SC gets her paper delivered to her tube on all seven days of the week. (Though I am still not confident she understands the connection on why this is.)
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