Now that I have a place to live, I need to get my stuff delivered. Both because I just plain want it, but more importantly, because my social security card and/or passport are in there and I need them in order to get paid at work.
I took the liberty today to call ABF, the company that shipped my U-Pack cube, and find out how much advanced notice they need to deliver said cube. I needed to figure out a few details about were in the hell I can have it left here, if I need a permit, etc., but I was hoping even with short notice I could get it here this weekend.
I checked last week to see that it had actually made its way to California. When I arranged the shipment, I told them I’d likely move to Mountain View. That’s the town I spent most my time in and really enjoyed, plus the majority of the friends I have in the area live there. I was rather surprised that with such a large state, the nearest terminal ABF had was in Bakersfield, 4 hours south. That’s the main reason I figured I had to give them a bit of notice.
Today when I called and told them I’m actually in Sunnyvale. I wasn’t expecting any price difference, because Sunnyvale is actually a whopping 2 minutes closer to Bakersfield. When I was told that it would have to be re-routed to San Jose, the actual main city in my area and cost about 200$USD more, surprise was no longer adequate. I was forced to resort to astonishment.
I’m closer, and they’re charging me 200$USD and making it come out of a terminal that would’ve been less than 20 minutes away from either location?! What the shit?
The rep. I spoke with on the phone said there appears to have been a miscommunication, and there are apparently two Mountain Views in California. That’s right, I’m told there are two, and that while ABF should have known to ask, it was also my responsibility to research where I’m moving to and make sure it goes to the right place. Two Mountain Views.
To help me out, she said that since it’s a miscommunication on both sides, I’d only be charged 70$USD and ABF would eat the rest. I’m going crazy looking around on both Google and Yahoo! maps, trying to find this elusive second Mountain View with no luck. She’s explaining where she’s seeing it, and I’m following along the highways and seeing nothing. After a bit of this and explaining to her that this move has already cost me practically every cent I own, she finally just said not to worry about it and that I wouldn’t be charged any extra. Great, thank you. It’ll be probably another week before I see any of my stuff. Nice.
After this pleasant conversation ended, I continued looking around with no luck finding this mythical second Mountain View. Then I remembered she mentioned using MapQuest, and tried that. Yahtzee! Search for Mountain View, CA on MapQuest and it asks if you mean Mountain View in Santa Clara County (here) or San Bernardino County (way down south). Interesting.
I headed over to Wikipedia, as it’s actually quite helpful for looking up information on towns, and pulled up the entry for Mountain View to see if there was any mention of a second. There I discovered CDPs (census-designated places), which are basically a statistical census point. There is indeed only one city called Mountain View, but there is apparently both a Mountain View CDP and a Mountain View Acres CDP, both fuckall south of here. Apparently ABF thight I was moving to some theoretical place that only exists in numbers, and calls this a miscommunication. I’ve asked people at work as well as my roommates both how long they’ve lived in California and if they’ve ever heard of a second Mountain View. Each one said they’ve lived in California their entire life, and have never heard of a second.
It’s a damned good thing I was told not to worry about the cost, because I’d have half a mind to file a complaint to the BBB. Ha! The other half would just point out how much of a waste of time that would be, but I digress. That’s for my book.