Was in W1 at lunchtime, having just about nicked £50 already on a busy day and was feeling well chuffed. Got an Allen & Overy, gave it five, then got a Scrutton Street on a double-rush. Then got an EC2 and two EC4s from an account 100yds away. (On three separates! Piss take or what?) All three pick-ups were from the top of W1. Did the Zetland House double-rush first, then the A&O. Came back to drop the London Wall. Address was 129. Firm called Pictet. I was sure that 129 didn't exist but reckoned someone had misheard 125. No dice. No one on reception or in the postroom at 125 had heard of the addressees and 129 didn't exist. Rang the client. The bird who booked the job was at lunch, but they eventually sussed it was Moor House, which is 120. Goods lift stuck on the 16th floor for ages but I delivered it. Next of the three drops was Facility at 28 Cannon Street. Credit Lyonnais in the middle of the road is 30, so the smallish black building just west of it had to be 28. No it didn't. It was 20. No sign of a 28. Rang the client again (I don't use office staff - almost all fucking useless.) Relevant bird still at lunch. Turned out it was 25. Last of the three was a bunch called Newton at 187 Queen Victoria. That's the building on the corner of Blackfriar's Passage, right on the bridge. Except that it ain't, because everything near that corner's been demolished. Didn't have the heart to ring the client again - I quite like the twats - so I googled the firm. They were at 160 Queen Victoria. 0 for 3. That has to be some sort of record. Next job was another double-rush from Fleet Street to Crawford Street. 75 Crawford Street on the XDA, 75 Crawford House on the parcel. I was sure Crawford House didn't exist, but had a sweep of Crawford Street and Crawford Place anyway. Couldn't find it. Couldn't find 75 Crawford Street either. Another long enquiry to a client. Turns out 75 Crawford Street is McCready House. It only has about 100 flats in it. Another wait while the client tried to find out which one. Eventually I got the addressee's friend to answer her fucking phone and got a flat number. Next job was a W1 to the Iranian Embassy W&R, submitting a visa application. Addressed to Prince's Gate. Consular section ain't at Prince's Gate, it's at Kensington Court. Went down there. No instructions on the wall, no ticket machine. See a bird on reception, then queue to see a bloke at a counter. They don't do applications in the afternoon, only the morning. Like the Yanks, they don't let agents or couriers submit applications either! Rang the client, took it back. They's apparently logged-on to the Embassy's website but couldn't finda button to switch from the Persian page to the English page. They had fuck all idea what they were doing, so they just guessed on opening hours, arrangements and fees and sent a courier anyway! I was very glad to collect a virtual van job from Nat Mags for Bond Street for my next docket. Are clients getting more useless by the day, or is it just me?
Iran..yeah thats an obvious, your mistake as well. Most visa lodgings are in the morning for most embassies, your company might not have known this either so you could of easily blagged a W&R with waiting time without even heading up there.
125 London Wall is that bank(Chase??). Maybe a newbie fail but again, another obvious wrong address. That should have been sorted before you left the collection address.
Nothing worse than having the courier ring back reception trying to find an address because of my mistake. If that happens where I work, I would probably fuck your company off and use some other muppet outfit.
Pornomike, please don't say that there are actually companies out there which don't let couriers add waiting time to dockets. There aren't, are there? Really? I don't think I'd stoop so low as to work for a firm that had that low an opinion of me. I stick my own waiting time on dockets. Didn't do it yesterday as I thought three separates was taking the piss a bit and, as I said, I quite like the twats. Always used to amuse me at SD when they had that stupid fucking rule that you didn't get waiting time unless your sheet was in the office by noon the following day. Unless I had almost no alternative to passing the office, I made a point of not handing the sheet in. The controllers used to bleat! "Waah! We can't charge the client waiting time if you haven't handed your sheet in!" What the fuck was that about? Why not? The client obviously knew there'd been waiting time and most clients were billed monthly, so why the stupid rule?
Glib, there are several firms at 125 London Wall. Not even I'd have the balls to say to a client, "This addresss doesn't exist, you bitch! Sort it!" before I'd checked it out, unless I was 100% sure - something like 23 Fulham Road. It had a full postcode and 129 could have been an office in the Pizza Express that sits above the road. Not likely but possible. As for blagging a W&R without going anywhere, that's just the type of spiv attitude that keeps us on rates from the 1980s and wages lower than that... and keeps the owners of firms like Vanguard, Pegasus, Churchill's and Courier Systems in palatial mansions. Yeah, most visa lodgings are in the morning, but most embassies aren't Iran - a place where the government has some original ideas.
Incidentally, why the fuck does ANYONE go through control to sort out a problem when they've got the relevant contact name and number on their XDA? Anybody would think you wanted to give agencies an excuse to employ even more staff and take an even bigger percentage of your wages to pay them.
If I cant find a place - happens to me sometimes with the state of bookings, my lack of knowledge on tucked away entrances etc and between mis-spelled addresses and silly descriptions given by clients to telephonists on the phone, the first thing I do is ring control to sort it. At least I then get WT, and keep my job.