"Gotta go, " the Belmont UPD store manager said as he hung up the
phone. I had called to complain that my Mother's Day gift had not, in
fact, been delivered to my mother in time despite his promises and
the fact I had shipped it five days in advance.

There was a sad saga attached to it, including the fact my mother had
stayed in most of one day with an out-of-town- visitor awaiting
delivery at a promised time, which never happened. Including the
fact that UPS wouldn't leave the package in the lobby of a secure
locked building despite my mother asking them to do so. Including the
fact that my mother had to call UPS to find out another delivery
attempt had been made (at a time other than the promised time), as
there was no notification and she stayed in all day waiting for it.
When she at last was able to speak to someone from UPS she was
told that it would be delivered Monday. And the person she spoke to
was not interested in her story either. "Company policy, " she said,
and hung up the phone on my mother.

The UPS man in Belmont didn't care, either: his store is a franchise.
"Nothing to do with us." He didn't have time for my story about my
mom waiting in vain for her mother's day gift.

The Belmont UPS store didn't care about whether the company's
delivery policies weren't working. My last encounter with UPS was
shipping a gift to my son: after what they claimed were three
delivery attempts (although they left one notification), UPS
returned the item to the manufacturer and my son never got his gift.
I didn't have a chance to tell the Belmont UPS manager that story
either. He hung up on me before I could tell him.

I'm telling this story to the internet because no one else will listen.