31 Comments
Oh, the humanity!
In case no one loves you enough to send you mail you haven’t been to Lerner lately, this is a PSA about the package center. It is a madhouse. Bwog has received photos of some monster package center lines, and below are some of the worst stories we’ve heard. Please stop ordering things from Amazon until this public hazard is under control. (Ed. note: The package center was open for extra hours this past Sunday; no word yet on whether or how long this will continue.)
Money troubles:
“I need my passport so I can get paid at my new job. It was supposed to be here LAST MONDAY and it is still not here and I still can’t get paid.”
That’s why you never buy textbooks:
“I only needed a book for one class of the semester for my seminar, but it took 7 days to process it once it arrived at the package center so I wasted that money :(”
“oops”:
“I went there last week because I got an email notification. Waited in line for like 30 mins and then when I got to the front they told me they couldn’t find my package and to come back later….so I came back the next day, waited again in the monstrous line only to have them tell me I never had a package and the notification was a mistake. oops.”
The Kevin Chen affair:
“They gave my books to one of the other four Kevin Chens at Columbia. It took weeks to track down who had them since I’ve only met two of them.”
Mixed messages:
“I was told I had to go the Manhattanville Post Office because they wouldn’t redeliver my package to Lerner. After waiting in line for 30 minutes the post office told me that they didn’t know where my package was and I had to wait til it got to Lerner.”
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31 Comments
@Anonymous Like everything else run by Columbia, the package room is complete shit.
@OhmiGOD, GUYS! I had to WAIT IN A LINE!
@Intelligence There is a reason why some people are going to Columbia and some are working for Columbia.
@Not Cool Ignoring the fact that this comment reeks of classism, the package center staff is nothing but nice and they work really hard. If you actually talk to them instead of just shoving your id in their face, it’s easy to have a good conversation with them.
@Anonymous 1) Not always, Amazon mucked it up in the 201x range.
2) their contractors do this for their entire business, and other shit vanished durning the holidays. Fewer people are sending out overnight contracts the week of Christmas, freight is vastly less at the end of the year because everyone’s fretting over next year’s budget, and columbia can’t add and then drop employees like H&R block because the localized knowledge is weird.
@Turring test results are in and this comment was written by a computer.
@Alan Turing Is “Turring” a pun that I didn’t catch?
@spoiler other spoiler: manpower doesn’t have to be fixed. they can easily hire temp workers for the first 3 weeks.
@Anonymous kevin chen you’re adorable
@Hopeful But which Kevin Chen??
@Eeeeee You’re the reason I have trust issues.
@Eeeeee The above comment was in response to ” I found my package in one of those bins while waiting on line today so that was kinda cool. FYI its really easy to go through those 50+ bins of everyones packages while you wait, pick up some new goodies” by anon
@Eeeeee Really there should be multiple package centers designated on the basis of where someone lives, ie: everyone from Broadway, Hogan & Frat Row could receive packages at one location, etc OR it could be on the basis of class year. I mean isnt there an overflow center in Carman? Really though why do we only have one main package center for 5k students? Of course it’s a madhouse…
@anon I found my package in one of those bins while waiting on line today so that was kinda cool. FYI its really easy to go through those 50+ bins of everyones packages while you wait, pick up some new goodies
@Aren't you glad you moved off campus?
@The biggest idiot ever I live off campus. Yet I still send my mail to Lerner. Why haven’t I realized the stupidity of this until just now? I mean I’ve been waiting for an hour in a line when I have a perfectly fine mailbox in my building. I should probably hand back my admission letter…
@CC'15 If I recall correctly, the package center had extended hours at the beginning of each semester last year…or was this ’12-’13 when the kiosks were first installed and the package center was pure anarchy?
All I know is I want my mail-order dildo NOW.
@humor police bad, forced joke at the end does not salvage boring post
@misanthrope Dear humor police, you’re a dick.
@Anonymous i feel like it hasn’t been this bad in previous semesters. it’s already been more than two weeks since school started
looking on the bright side, standing in line two times definitely curbed my online shopping urges
@Anonamoose I mean, there’s only so much you can do when you’re getting 2K packages a day…
@CC'10 It’s always a disaster at the beginning of the semester, and they’ll never fix it. Building a system to handle x amount of packages 50 weeks out of the year and 100x two other weeks requires spending the same amount of money as doing 100x all the time.
In other spoilers:
Graduating seniors – Columbia WILL turn off your swipe access early, I think midnight on the day of move-out, rather than later at noon like they say they will. This has happened every year since time immemorial.
The VShow will pick mostly their friends, or maybe the theater people are all just friends already because they do theater, etc., and everyone will be very upset.
The first weekend it isn’t 30 and sleeting will be Days on Campus.
Some part of the LitHum exam will leak.
That’s all I can think of, but those are the annual surprises.
@CC '16 I don’t remember it being this bad before, though.
@?? “Building a system to handle x amount of packages 50 weeks out of the year and 100x two other weeks requires spending the same amount of money as doing 100x all the time.”
What?? This math doesn’t check out.
This is a systems design question not algebra. Example: Amazon manages to get (most) christmas time packages delivered on time and they sure as shit don’t operate at that load all year.
@J Yeah, but Amazon has evil labor practices. Not that those for Columbia package center workers are much better.
@your robot overlord Hey, robots deserve fair labor practices too! I’m starting a union.
@Another alum “It’s always a disaster at the beginning of the semester, and they’ll never fix it. Building a system to handle x amount of packages 50 weeks out of the year and 100x two other weeks requires spending the same amount of money as doing 100x all the time.”
Untrue. Barnard, for example used to have extended hours the first couple weeks of school (including opening on Sunday). Paying all your mail employees overtime for 2 weeks is a reasonable compromise to hiring twice as many staff to process packages year-round.
Also, you’re ’10 so you probably never saw it this ridiculous. Since the advent of Amazon prime, CU package center has become TERRIBLE in the first month of school.
@Anonymous good post.
@usps i sent my comment to the package center — it should be posted here soon…
@PSA everybody needs to get in on amazon locker – you can get your packages delivered to rite aid and skip the shitshow that is the package center
@Anonymous you’ve ruined our secret…what have you done?