Undeliverable

A few years ago, I went to Reno to exhibit at a large national conference. My company had a big, bulky booth display we shipped. Unfortunately, the exhibit hall loading dock closed early on Friday, and the expo started on Sunday. The shipping company attempted delivery, but no one was there to accept the boxes, so they shipped them to a warehouse in Utah for storage. When I arrived on Sunday to set up, I had a bag with a few brochures and a tablecloth with our company name on it.

My boss's boss happened to decide to go to this event. He wasn't happy. We took our tablecloth and put it up as a backdrop using big binder clips. When I opened the package of brochures, they curled up like paper towel cardboard tubes because the fulfillment department had not let them dry and cure after printing. So, there we were, no booth display, no materials, no giveaways, and a tablecloth that looked like a wrinkled sheet behind us—just us and our smiles, plus a few business cards. Our boxes and display were shipped back to the office…two weeks later. Now we take it with us.

Mark Roberts

Manager of National Accounts

Careington International Corporation & Careington Benefit Solutions

Lots of delays

A while back, I was traveling to the BWI airport from the eastern shore of Maryland. Google Maps didn't warn me about traffic when heading west to the airport across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Consequently I missed my scheduled departure.

I caught the next flight just as weather arrived in Chicago. The plane loaded an hour late, pushed back from the terminal and then sat for an hour and a half before taking off. Upon arrival in Chicago, we sat in a plane parking lot. We were on the plane for two hours and finally made our way to the gate at midnight. We'd spent 3.5 hours parked on two different airport tarmacs and only been in the air for two hours.

I raced through the terminal to get to my car and get home. But the delay wasn't over yet. Everybody was delayed, and at midnight, there's one cashier available to pay for your parking. It took another hour and a half to get out of the parking lot. I'm just glad all the delays didn't force me to miss a client meeting.

Jon Duczak, Vice President, Fringe Benefit Group

swarming with swat

We returned to our hotel one evening after a business dinner only to find our hotel swarming with SWAT officers. Apparently the officers were responding to calls of a woman wielding a gun and running through the hotel. Of course, we couldn't pass up the opportunity for a photo with the fully armed SWAT officers (who would believe us without evidence?) and we requested a personal escort up to our rooms for safety reasons.

Amanda Franklin, Product Portfolio Manager, New Benefits

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