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How do you not know where your own damn building is?!?!?!

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  • How do you not know where your own damn building is?!?!?!

    OK....I'm warning everyone up front that if youexpecta logical answer to the following conundrum, you'll be waiting a looong time. This would make any Vulcan's head explode.

    So, The Company just opened a new location......but no one knows where it is.

    Well, they know WHERE it is, insofar as you can point at it and physically see that it's there, but they can't define where it is.

    Why not? Because this particular location has no street address listed. Which is puzzling, because before it was acquired by The Company it used to be a different store, and there was a perfectly valid address for said store. In theory, this new one should have inherited that address. But it's as if someone took the change of ownership to mean "completely wipe this property off the map" so that the address comes up as invalid.

    So it's supposed to be at 1234 South Notafake Street, West Anytown ST, 09876.

    But depending on who you ask, it mght actually be at 1234 NORTH Notafake St, or maybe 1232 South Notafake St. It would also be in Anytown (as opposed to West Anytown), or in LAKE Anytown! And each of these towns has a different zipcode.

    Not one of the possible permutations of the address properly validates on USPS.com, and every one we've tried to ship to has resulted in the package being returned as undeliverable, or worse, being sent to some random incorrect address!

    The Company has inquires out to the post office, UPS, the town planning board, and the freaking FIRE DEPARTMENT all trying to resolve the address. This has been ongoing for THREE WEEKS!!!! IT still isn't settled!

    And the craziest part of all this is they managed to get through acquiring the property, demolishing the old building, building a whole new store, stock the store, hire and train employees for the store, and OPEN IT FOR BUSINESS, all without having a valid address on file.

    I don't understand how that is even possible. I mean, there's got to be REAMS of paperwork and permits associated with all this activity, and right there at the top of all them would be the ADDRESS!!!

    Je ne comprends pas

    The net effect on my job is I know have an entire pallet worth of returned packages that I can't ship.

    And it's not even just a shipping issue. I've been told they can't get high-speed internet access at this store for the same reason.

    Oy vey!!!!!
    "We guard the souls in heaven; we don't horse-trade them!" Samandrial in Supernatural

    RIP Plaidman.

  • #2
    Quoth Dave1982 View Post
    And the craziest part of all this is they managed to get through acquiring the property, demolishing the old building, building a whole new store, stock the store, hire and train employees for the store, and OPEN IT FOR BUSINESS, all without having a valid address on file.
    Part of this I can answer - real estate transactions are based on legal description, not physical address. And I expect that the demolition/construction companies can either use the old address or a description of where the property is. The rest, though...

    Isn't there a tool that USPS uses on certified mail that verifies the address? I assume you've tried that.
    "I look at the stars. It's a clear night and the Milky Way seems so near. That's where I'll be going soon. "We are all star stuff." I suddenly remember Delenn's line from Joe's script. Not a bad prospect. I am not afraid. In the meantime, let me close my eyes and sense the beauty around me. And take that breath under the dark sky full of stars. Breathe in. Breathe out. That's all."
    -Mira Furlan

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    • #3
      When I was a teenager (circa 2001), we moved into one of the first condos to open in a brand new subdivision. A few days after we moved in, our fire alarm went off late at night because of some dust that was still in the air from the construction going on around us. We couldn't smell any smoke, but out of an abundance of caution my grandmother called the fire department to check it out.

      It's a good thing there wasn't a fire - it took them half an hour to get there because we weren't on their map yet and they couldn't figure out where we were.

      Comment


      • #4
        The title struck me as hilarious because of a memory it brought back. I once worked at a downtown Toronto site of a BIIIG Bank, and I travelled by subway. There was also a massive underground concourse in that area, with stores and restaurants and whatnot.

        So one day a friend gave me a ride to my job ... and I had NO IDEA which building was "mine" -- because I'd never seen the outside of it!

        As for UPS ... they recently dropped off a sticky note for me, regarding a parcel from my sister. I wasn't home so they said (insofar as I could decipher the handwriting -- and seriously, it wasn't that bad, just a couple of letters that were ) that I could pick it up at "Dutch Cheese & Sweets." I'm always on the lookout for new local shops, so I thought "Cool!" I went to that vast internet resource (Google) and typed in the name, and ... nothing.

        Not. A. Damned. Thing.

        So ... is this place somewhere in Narnia? Hogsmeade? In another dimension -- so I need a wormhole to get to it? I have no idea.

        Finally called the UPS main number and they said they'd hold it at this city's main UPS dropoff/pickup point ... which I still had some fun locating, but at least it was actually THERE.
        Customer service: More efficient than a Dementor's kiss
        ~ Mr Hero

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        • #5
          ERROR 404: Store Not Found. Please check the address of the building and try again. If you need help, hang up and then dial your operator please ask your buildings administrator for assistance.
          Goofy music!
          Old tech junk!

          Comment


          • #6
            WOW I remember some of the documents when I bought my house. On these docs were a detailed description of exactly where my house/property was including the actual street address, X feet from Y point, Z feet from point T, D feet away from plot 12346, block # 5, plot #12345 in XYZ section of the city (maybe a official survey of the property) land sold to the city in <some year>

            Where were those type of docs for this building? I could go to my county property search site and get these details.
            I'm lost without a paddle and headed up SH*T creek.
            -- Life Sucks Then You Die.


            "I'll believe corp. are people when Texas executes one."

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            • #7
              Here's the problem in a nutshell: The old building got demolished, and USPS updated their data to reflect that there was no building there. The new building got built, and USPS has not yet updated their data to reflect that.

              Contributing to the problem: the building is almost certainly large enough to take up several parcels of land. So it has the possibility of having several different addresses.
              You have probably seen a commercial block where the addresses went 402, 414, 432, 466. That's because each of those buildings took up multiple parcels. the one numbered 402 probably contains 400, 402, 404, 406 and so on. Which address it gets assigned depends on a whole lot of things: it might be largely up to the building owner, but it may follow rules that will vary from city to city. Perhaps it is the lowest possible number, or the center number, or the number of whatever parcel contains the main door. Or the end of the driveway for the parking lot.

              I have seen the plans for the building I work in, and there was considerable confusion about what the address would be well into the building process: the parcels form the corner of two streets, so which street it would get an address on depended on which street the building entrance faced. So of course the building was built diagonally with the main door facing directly into the corner, making it a coin toss.

              Comment


              • #8
                I've surprisingly dealt with this before. The answer is, go to the city and say "I want my address to be so-and-so". This will set them on the correct track. They may come back and say "no, your correct address is such-and-such," but at least then you'll have an answer.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Quoth TheSHAD0W View Post
                  The answer is, go to the city and say "I want my address to be so-and-so". This will set them on the correct track. They may come back and say "no, your correct address is such-and-such," but at least then you'll have an answer.
                  Wow, a similar strategy is how I would figure out something on an MMO back before you could easily look up the answer. If you asked how to finish a quest, for example, you'd either be ignored or yelled at. But if you randomly said "hey I figured out the way to finish the quest, it's to do XYZ" you'd get a dozen people self righteously yelling "NO it's ZYX!"
                  Replace anger management with stupidity management.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Quoth notalwaysright View Post
                    Wow, a similar strategy is how I would figure out something on an MMO back before you could easily look up the answer. If you asked how to finish a quest, for example, you'd either be ignored or yelled at. But if you randomly said "hey I figured out the way to finish the quest, it's to do XYZ" you'd get a dozen people self righteously yelling "NO it's ZYX!"
                    Also known as "the fastest way to get correct information out of a forum is to post wrong information".

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Quoth Smapti View Post
                      When I was a teenager (circa 2001), we moved into one of the first condos to open in a brand new subdivision. A few days after we moved in, our fire alarm went off late at night because of some dust that was still in the air from the construction going on around us. We couldn't smell any smoke, but out of an abundance of caution my grandmother called the fire department to check it out.

                      It's a good thing there wasn't a fire - it took them half an hour to get there because we weren't on their map yet and they couldn't figure out where we were.
                      This was a bit of a fear on my end when we moved into the place we're at now. It's a little granny flat at the back of another property. I have no idea WTF the last tenant did, but when I went to update my address with the post office and the DMV, both of them had to put it in manually because the system didn't recognise said address.

                      This however, worked in my favour because when it came time to update my address with the federal government AND with the electoral roll, all I had to do was put my driver's license number in and they could confirm it that way.

                      Quoth AdamAnt316 View Post
                      ERROR 404: Store Not Found. Please check the address of the building and try again. If you need help, hang up and then dial your operator please ask your buildings administrator for assistance.
                      I love it!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Quoth Racket_Man View Post
                        WOW I remember some of the documents when I bought my house. On these docs were a detailed description of exactly where my house/property was including the actual street address
                        I know, right??? My wife and I just bought our first house this year, and pretty much every piece of paper had the address on it.

                        Quoth SpyOne View Post
                        Here's the problem in a nutshell: The old building got demolished, and USPS updated their data to reflect that there was no building there. The new building got built, and USPS has not yet updated their data to reflect that.
                        I don't think this building occupies multiple parcels, but it's literally on the other side of the country from I am, so I wouldn't really know. If this is a USPS cock-up it's a doozy.

                        Quoth TheSHAD0W View Post
                        I've surprisingly dealt with this before. The answer is, go to the city and say "I want my address to be so-and-so". This will set them on the correct track. They may come back and say "no, your correct address is such-and-such," but at least then you'll have an answer.
                        Not my department
                        "We guard the souls in heaven; we don't horse-trade them!" Samandrial in Supernatural

                        RIP Plaidman.

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