The Undelivered

Day 1: Friday, Oct. 15. The club's supply room head Sandy, aka our 1st Vice President, put in an order to our usual wholesale supplier, Rio (for short). The club now has a policy, due to income falling way off during our year long covid shutdown of the jewelry store, of ordering only what is really low and regularly bought by our members for their projects, or special orders by any member who wants the unusual and is willing to pay half price for  it up front. This day's order comes to around a thousand dollars. Not all is sterling, whether wires or findings or even sheet metal, but would include copper items, our second most used metal, and whatever we are low on in brass, bronze, even nickel. Sandi didn't mention any glass in the order, but I don't think anybody has started doing glass fusion in the club yet this season, and our snowbirds are just filtering back in.

Day 2: Wednesday, Oct. 20. Supposedly the order was delivered. Sandy was busy elsewhere that day and planned to open the box the next day and restock the supply room with its contents then.

Day 3: Thursday, Oct. 21. I was in the club in the morning, serving on the jewelry selection committee and training our newest volunteer on the paperwork I usually do, since Steve will be having his first eye surgery during our next week's meeting. As we are finishing, a flurry of activity starts up in another part of the club. Sandy can't locate the box from Rio. The normal process is for the UPS driver to get a signature from whoever is sitting at the front desk as greeter/monitor if the supply room head is not present to sign. The box then gets placed into the supply room, giving limited access to anyone not working there. 

Everything in the room is locked up, from cabinet doors to the room door itself, except when it is occupied by someone selling to members during set hours and days. Even the keys themselves are locked up in a tiny wall safe, along with the keys to the jewelry sales room, also supposed to have everything inside in locked cases and itself be locked when not in use. Of course nearly everybody knows the combination to  that safe and which keys are for what. That's why we have 11 cameras around the club with video recording equipment in the club office.

The box in question cannot be found, not by Sandy, not later by the rest of us who participate on the hunt throughout the club, in various rooms, behind cupboard doors. I even head down to check both the our neighboring club and the rec center's front desk to see if anybody received our box there yesterday and tucked it away, but no.

Sandy has been on the phone to Rio who checked their records and had been informed that it was signed at the front desk, at 11:57, by somebody named Vega. Who? Nobody recognizes that name. We even go to the club office computer to our membership list to see if perhaps we have a new member by that name, but no. The person monitoring at that time yesterday is called - no answer so voicemail and we wait - to find out what she knows. Who's on the desk and what times are kept track of because we require volunteer hours by all club members in order for them to be able to use club equipment, take workshops, or sell in the store. By the time I leave, we know that nobody who is there today and was also there yesterday at the appropriate time recalls any delivery. On my way out I stop to call our club president, informing her of the problem, and agree to meet with her later in the day to (attempt to) rewind the video feed and see what actually happened. It would not be the first time something has "walked out" of the club, though nothing of this value or size.

Later that afternoon, as the regular club hours are ending, there are 5 of us who are sticking around, now including myself and the club president, trying to solve the problem. Yesterday's monitor during the time in question has arrived, and more phone calls are going back and forth between Sandy and both Rio and UPS, working to track down the package. A tracking number has been provided to us. Both companies insist that the proof of delivery information remains the same, but we now have the monitor joining other club members present in affirming no delivery occurred. The president and I have gotten the video system working enough to figure out which camera has the angle we need to establish whether any delivery occurred, and zoom in or out on that camera, but for live feed only. We cannot figure out how to rewind to the proper date/time stamp. We need to find out who has previously used the system and is still available to contact as well as willing/able to teach us how the system works. 

Finally we all leave, agreeing to meet back at the club Friday morning, Sandy starting the claims process via the club computer, we other two officers tracking down possible help with the video system. I have two possible people in mind but need club records for their phone numbers to start that process. UPS will have to check on the driver involved, seeing where their other deliveries occurred, whether the times and locations claimed are actually possible or if, as many in the club suspect, the driver just dumped stuff  willy-nilly in order to claim they were performing their job in a timely manner. Nearly everyone there either had their own packages go astray recently or knew someone else who had, and tracking them down showed they'd been delivered miles away or simply "vanished". We all agreed that only Amazon takes a photo of the delivery site as proof.

Day 4: Friday, October 22. I arrived at the club at 9 and nobody is there who agreed to show up. The check-in computer shows they weren't there earlier either, and the woman who opened up confirms it. It's up to me. That's a problem. I still don't know how to do what needs to be done. But things get better. 

Our previous president called me and passed along the name and number of the person who last updated our video recording system, and he agreed to show up to help when his schedule cleared around noon.  Our treasurer arrive a bit after that phone call, got filled in on events, and noted she now knows not to pay that particular bill, something she otherwise does promptly. Having her available for several hours comes in handy later once the video guy shows up, since the information - such as we know it - for various club passwords is in a notebook in the safe that she holds the key for.

It turns out that what we think is the password to access the system is not recognized. Nor is what is thought to be the previous one, crossed out right below it. As system administrator and employee of the Rec centers administration, the video guy can access it with his own user name and password, and he writes it down for us to put in our records for future use. Once in, he rolls the date/time stamp back and we watch together, the screen split into 16 different views, though the only ones with actual pictures rather than black squares are ones which have been motion activated. It saves space on the hard drive. Curious about storage space, we discover later we actually still have video from back in April. As slow as it's been, we figure that translates to maybe three months of normal club use. Good to know.

It's fascinating to follow people from one view to a different one to yet a different one as they move around the club. Several of them I can identify from the tiny pictures, but if necessary we can single out one of the 16 sections and make it full screen. It turns out we don't have a direct view of the entrance - that camera points at the floor for some reason. We adjust, utilizing other camera views by seeing though this doorway, catch a corner of what we want from another angle, and so forth, figuring out which routes people take via our camera views to get where. We wind up with 4 partial views of the area we need, and any one entering or leaving the club must go through at least two of those scenes, depending on their route and whether a particular door is open or not. We wind up doing that three times, about a 20 minute span each time, because we discover later the time stamp is off from real time by about 27  minutes. So we rewind and watch again, then figure out he compensated in the wrong direction and have to do it yet again. In that process we cover a full hour from before and after the claimed delivery time. We have proof no delivery was attempted or completed. Being UPS, I know they bring a hand-held unit with them for PODs so any signature is accurately time stamped. It's not a case of get a signature, hit the restroom and three more stops in the building on your way out, and enter it once back in the truck. So the video guy inserts a thumb drive to record over an hour from before to after the alleged delivery so there is proof it never happened should we need more than our simple word of the loss of a grand worth of jewelry supplies.

Before he leaves, he corrects the time stamp and properly aims one of the cameras to cover the entrance from inside the club, in case this happens again. Both agree the shot of the floor really just isn't that useful. Notes or voicemail are left for the officers who need to know and/or take action, and I finally leave just before 2:30. Definitely lunch time. Let others take over now.

Day 6: Sunday, October 24. Club is closed, but I receive a call at home from Sandy. First piece of news is she's been sick for four days, and for the second time in a couple weeks. She thinks she ought to go get a covid test.

Oh goodie. I've finally been going to the club without being religious about wearing a mask, now that I'm boostered and there are still fairly few of us inside at a time. Of course, we do cluster, like for jewelry selection, or discussing problems like a missing delivery or figuring out the security cameras. Yes, I feel fine, but I'll be paying attention for a week or so now.

The big news item is the missing box has been located. Because Sandy was sick she didn't get in to the club to work on the claims process, but now it isn't needed.  The driver lied "just a little" about where the box was delivered to. It was dropped off at the library inside the rec center. Since I don't use it, to me it's just a space between front doors where one could turn right on the way in instead of going straight through, into the main large lobby, then either left to the pool or right to the club. Out of mind, out of sight. 

Much remains to be answered. Why there? Why claim a different room number? Why did the library folks even sign for the box, plainly addressed not to them and from a non-book company? And once signed for, why did nobody notify us or just drop the box off? We're not hard to find, and the front desk of the rec center is always staffed by people whose job is it to know where we clubs are and how to contact us.

Its contents need to be sorted and put in their proper places. Prices need to be attached, as we get a great discount from Rio, then add a small percentage back on to our "wholesale" price for our members. If Joe Anybody wished to purchase some of our supplies, they can but for a yet higher price since they're not members. 

If one of our members has placed an order, that needs to be pulled out, priced for what they still owe on it, and set aside with their name on it. Lots of work. One did, and has been waiting for her supplies, the same member who's been looking for a place they can afford to rent in a few months. They are leaving here Monday morning, and I'm not sure if Sandy will be well enough to go in, organize her merchandise, and meet with her so she can take it with her.

Or even if Sandy should meet with her. Again, this is something I can't step in for. Supply room is pretty complicated and fairly arcane, with a portion of what is needed written down in a place or places to be hunted for by those who know what they are even looking for. At least those people would actually know that they need to find the information! Untrained people wing it and the club usually loses on the deal. I'm certainly wishing Sandy a speedy recovery from whatever bug she caught.