Mail Order Mayhem (long and rambles a bit)

[Javarod]

Tell me about it. The town I grew up in was established in the 1600s. Suffice to say, the streets are not made to handle the amount of traffic it gets now, and being a historical area, there aren't too many options for widening streets or anything like that.

Actually this was more complicated when I delivered. Say you had two housing developments next to each other, one might have the house number 10,20,30,40 and so on, while the next one might be 100,120,130, etc, even though the houses are effectively side by side. Basically the only rules in the county for number were south to north and east to west, otherwise, anything goes, I even new a neighborhood where in about the middle of the neighborhood odds and evens swapped sides of the street.

[Reyneth]

Odd housing numbers.....I know your pain well. I live in a 6-apartment building that was part of a complex that absorbed into a bigger complex with 20-50 apartments in a building. Except my building had the *same* number as a building in the other complex. So whenever I order a pizza to 601 {smith} street, they go to 601A {jones} street. 601A being on the corner of {smith} and {jones}. Even though it has been like this for *years* and the pizza place that I order from should know better by now. Sometimes it takes the drivers 20 minutes to go the 300 yards or so between the buildings because they keep looking for my someone in 601A.

Of course, I did get a free pizza out of it once.
Another time it was an hour late - and no discount and no new, hot pizza. The next time I order, I am going to make sure there is a HUGE note in with my info in the system about which building I am in.

[Kittish]

About them existing or that he wanted to get some from a gourmet food company?
Pickled pig feet, pig knuckles, pig lips, pig ears, pig skin, lamb tongues, beef tripe, and on and on and on. Yeah, they're all available, even at the big name stores if you know where to look . . . and live in the right areas.

One of the really good Chinese buffets here in town has a small "oh dear God what is that?" section. Tripe, chicken feet, and other "goodies."

I'm not at all surprised about such things existing, I've encountered both before. What surprised me was that he asked if the particular company I work for had them. While the company does have a nice variety of products of mostly excellent quality, the actual products to tend to be more along the lines of what you might consider to be 'mainstream'. Probably the most 'offbeat' thing we carry would be the duckling breast, and even that isn't TOO far out of the ordinary.

That farting teddy bear just cracks me up! Did she say it without laughing?

Yes, actually. Her tone was more of a long suffering 'I married him so now I have to put up with him' sort of sound. I couldn't help snickering a bit myself tho, when she first mentioned it.

Regarding addresses: Our computer systems are set up so they REQUIRE a number followed by anything else (So the 1K Farmington would be acceptable), and we've got some weird sort of tie in to the post office that throws up a flag for non-standard or non-existant addresses. Rural route and box number addresses are also acceptable to our system, as well as PO Box addresses (though our system won't let us set up a POB as a shipping address). But anything outside one of those formats, just forget it. For major syntax errors on addresses, the system won't let an order be completed and sent thru until 'the error is corrected.' Some days I'd love to do just that.... with a sledgehammer (our system is, of course, buggy, and occasionally throws fits insisting that a non-existant error be corrected).

Hey-

If the first name of your company matches that of a certain boy wizard, I just love your red velvet petit fours !!

Other than that, don't let the morons get you down.

Alas, no, it's not that one. Though I'll agree that red velvet petit fours are yummy!

[Enigma]

Weird Questions: Trust me, there IS such a thing as a stupid question. As well as oddball and just outright goofy ones. We keep an unofficial list of weird questions people call and ask us. Off the top of my head, some of the contenders are:

People just don't think. I remember being asked:

"How much is the $19.99 Package?"

"How many channels come in the Top 60 package?"

[Jacen]

"How do you cook hotdogs?" This from a senior citizen. I refuse to believe that anyone in the United States could live such a sheltered life that they could reach retirement age without learning how to cook hot dogs.

So... How do you cookhot dogs? I'm serious by the way. I know it's done differently then sausages (which look very similar) but I don't know how to cook them.

[Shengirl]

So... How do you cookhot dogs? I'm serious by the way. I know it's done differently then sausages (which look very similar) but I don't know how to cook them.

Well, hot dogs are precooked enough that the question becomes: How CAN'T you cook hot dogs? You can put them on a grill, put them on a stick over a campfire, boil them, microwave them in a teensy bit of water, fry them. Hell, wrap a Pillsbury breadstick around each one and bake them! It's delicious.

[Jacen]

Really, I don't understand why people consider such things gross. (Though, no, I haven't eaten them.) What's grosser about pickled pigs feet than good ol' dead flesh, milk from another species, the curdled or even molded product of that milk, or a bird's menstrual product? If you're willing to eat that, what's so wrong with the rest of it?

I think I just became a vegitarian with this comment.

Well, hot dogs are precooked enough that the question becomes: How CAN'T you cook hot dogs? You can put them on a grill, put them on a stick over a campfire, boil them, microwave them in a teensy bit of water, fry them. Hell, wrap a Pillsbury breadstick around each one and bake them! It's delicious.

Ah, never knew that. Thanks

[ShinyGreenApple]

On the topic of the pickled pigs' feet, they're actually not all that unusual down here in the south. I still refuse to try them, but it's not rare for me to sell some variation of pig feet on a daily basis

[Captain Kidd]

While not on the scale of pigs feet, I swore I'd never try boiled peanuts.
. . . then I did. they're actually kinda tasty.

I'm not at all surprised about such things existing, I've encountered both before. What surprised me was that he asked if the particular company I work for had them.

Yeah, that's what I thouoght you meant, then I went off on that tangent anyways.

Probably the most 'offbeat' thing we carry would be the duckling breast, and even that isn't TOO far out of the ordinary.

That sounds good. Great, now I'm hungry and I can't eat for another 6 hours.

[DarkProwler]

in missouri where my sis used to live, she took me to see this one road...cuz i didnt believe her when she told me the name: "The" street

i wanted to steal the sign, and then come back to texas and steal the sign for "Crow" road and hang em in my room...but i never got around to it

and when i was livin up by my sis...we had a weird address...i dont remember the actuall address, but it was somethin like:
6B RR1, city, state, zip

Down south from where I live, I come across both That Road and Needmore Rd.