January 5, 1997
War of wills leaves packages on doorstep
ROBERT MOHL
Herald News Editor
ROANOKE RAPIDS-- Everybody likes to get packages.
Frank Coulman of Roanoke Rapids wishes somebody would take his away.
Since Christmas Eve, Coulman, 29, of Roanoke Rapids has been pleading with
UPS to pick up two packages mistakenly left on his doorstep.
"I've called five times and nobody's come to get them yet," said Coulman, a
rehabilitation services manager at Guardian Care.
Coulman said he's called on Dec. 24, 26, 28, 30, 31 and Jan. 3. And has
always gotten the same response.
"They are always friendly," said Coulman. "Each time they said it was
definitely a mistake and they'd send somebody out to pick up the packages."
Nobody came.
Coulman even had a UPS supervisor call him and say he'd pick up the package
on his own time. Nobody came.
Why not deliver them himself?
"UPS has people sign for a package, so there has to be a liability problem,"
said Coulman. "If the contents are damaged that person could sue me."
Coulman also isn't sure who the packages are for. They are addressed to
different boxes on Route 5. No street address is listed.
He did call up a number on a return address to let the sender know the
package was missing, but said he didn't think of tracking down the packages's
rightful owners using the phone book. (A esDaily Heraldxe effort to do so was
unsuccessful.)
There's also the principle of the thing.
"I don't want to deliver for UPS," said Coulman. "UPS drivers get paid a lot
to deliver packages. I don't."
Coulman said he never signed for his unwanted packages, which were left at
his Cottonwood Road home on Christmas Eve.
"He (the driver) didn't knock. He just left them on the porch. I'm sure he
was in a hurry."
Could the holiday rush be at the bottom of this?
"We get this type of thing at this time of year," said Curtis Taylor, a
supervisor at UPS's High Point call center.
Taylor confirmed that UPS was notified of the errant parcels, and said a
driver was ordered to pick it up.
"I wish I had more to tell you," said Taylor. "Our percent rate for errors is
less than 1 percent. It sounds like he was the victim of one of our errors."
While some may scoff at the parcel service's alleged success rate, Coulman
doesn't.
"I'm a satisfied UPS customer," he said. "I always get my packages."
(
geocities.com/rjmohl)