ABF drops the ball

Well, my move to Colorado is not off to a very good start!

The day started off well. I was up at 5:30 to resume packing up stuff in my apartment.

At 8:30, I headed to the KCI airport to pick my son up. He had decided to take a week’s vacation to help me move! We dropped his luggage off at my apartment, ate a quick breakfast and headed over to my mechanic’s shop. He had agreed to lend me his pickup truck for the weekend.

When we got there, he was unloading it so we hopped out to help him. 20 minutes later, I got into the truck and realized that I had left my phone in my car. No big, right…

Wrongo!

I picked it up and saw that I had missed a call. The ABF driver had called and left a message telling me that he was already at the storage facility ready to drop off the trailer!

What??? No warning call to let me know that he was on the way! Even if I had answered the call, I was still 20 minutes away.

&*&&$^$#!!!…

I called the number back. It was the driver’s personal cell phone…

No answer…

I left a message and headed straight for the storage facility. By the time we got there, he was gone.

But, he had told the facility manager that he was going to get a bite to eat and be right back…

OK. That’s fine. That’s why I like this company.

An hour later, we were still waiting.

How long does it take to “get a bite to eat”?

I called ABF. I was connected to dispatch. When I asked  where the trailer was, I was told, “I told him to bring the trailer back.”

You guessed it…I argued, but to no avail. In fact, he even threatened that they could charge me an extra fee! 

He said they would deliver the trailer between 1:00-5:00 P.M.

“Are you going to call me when the truck is on the way this time or am I supposed to sit at the facility all afternoon waiting?”

“We’ll call you. But if you don’t answer, we’re going to turn around and come back.”

At 4:15, I started to get nervous. I checked my phone…No, I had not missed another call.

I called the ABF dispatch…

“It’s going to be between 5:00-5:30.”

We arrived at the storage facility at 4:55. There was no way I was going to let this greased pig escape again.

At 5:35, I called the ABF dispatch…

“I called at 4:15 and was told  5:00-5:30. I have been at the facility since 4:55 and the truck isn’t here.”

Now it was going to be 6:30.

We went and got a “quick bite to eat.”

At 6:15, I still had not received a call…

Now it was going to be 7:30!

We headed back to the storage facility at 7:15.

At 7:35, I called the ABF dispatch…

It was a new guy. I let him have it. He apologized profusely and told me that the truck was in fact on the way.

It arrived at 8:05.

At 8:15 P.M., we headed home having loaded exactly nothing!

Not quite the way that I had planned it!

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