By Jo Mixon
Most everyone in Angel Fire is aware you may drop UPS and FedEx items at the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber offers this “drop off” service as a courtesy to the community. Let me emphasize the words “drop off”. We are not employed by either one of these companies. If we didn’t offer this service, everyone would be forced to drive to Taos or further to take their letters and packages. We like being a drop spot for Angel Fire. We like seeing the drivers and we like visiting with people. However, I am daily amazed at the unkindness endured by the employees and volunteers of the Chamber, by people utilizing this service. It’s hard to understand. When someone offers a service or does you a favor, why would you think raising your voice and demanding to get your way would change the situation? First and foremost let me explain a few things. The Chamber is not equipped to do any of the work of a FedEx or UPS employee. We cannot accept an item unless it is pre-paid. We cannot weigh or package your items. We cannot track your items. We try to have envelopes and labels on hand, but FedEx does not supply us with them. (I try to pick up packaging when I am in Santa Fe on my own time…again as a courtesy.) You cannot have an item sent to our address and expect someone at the Chamber to sign for it. I am sorry but we cannot accept the liability. Your packages must be sent to your home or business addresses.
It seems this summer we have had more than our share of rudeness over the service we offer. I am thinking about canceling this service to eliminate the office staff from being the target of such meanness. I’ll be the first one to say I don’t appreciate a teacher who punishes the entire class over a wrong committed by one or two classmates, but this has gotten way out of hand. I have received nasty letters from people in the community complaining that the staff in our office are not educated in their job (referring to the FedEx process) and how upset these people have been when they didn’t get the appropriate answers or packaging they wanted. One person was upset that we didn’t have a kiosk set up like they have in other FedEx stores, and they added in this email, we should be ashamed. Really? In my response I explained, as the girls in the office had tried, the Chamber is not an official FedEx store. FedEx will not allow a kiosk in our office. They actually would just as soon we stop being a drop spot. Over the years, I have had numerous conversations with the FedEx supervisors in the Santa Fe office. They tell me, Angel Fire is too rural to expect the same FedEx service they provide for non-rural communities. In the summer of 2011 the Chamber, once again as a courtesy to the community, wrote and sent a petition to FedEx. It was signed by more than a hundred and forty residents asking FedEx to reconsider and guarantee us overnight service. (After all we pay the same prices) FedEx never even acknowledged the petition. The employees in the Santa Fe office tell me that FedEx is a delivery service, not a pick up service and that if our residents want guaranteed overnight service they must drive to a “real” FedEx store in Taos or Santa Fe.
In summary, if you truly need your item to be arriving over night, please do us the courtesy of taking it to the appropriate location. If your instructions on a return are to take the item to a FedEx store to be weighed and scanned, please follow the directions. We do not have one of their scanners. Nor can your item be left at the Chamber for the driver to do this for you. (He can not, it will be left at the Chamber.) And please don’t yell at our staff and volunteers when they try to explain to you we are only a courtesy drop spot, like a mailbox. Please take care of your items prior to bringing them into our office. We don’t mind offering this service. Fact is, we are happy to do it for you. But instead of trying to make us feel inadequate for not meeting your FedEx or UPS needs, try smiling and saying thank-you for offering this service that saves you more than an hour of your time, because if we didn’t you’d be on your way through the canyon to get it done. Thanks!
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