Almost Delivered

The DR brand self-propelled brush mower arrived at the nearest delivery depot they use today.  Its a Fedex depot.  I chose that because DR ships stuff freight and the options were (since a freight truck can't back up into my driveway and get out in my dead end residential street):  I offload a 250 pound crate from the truck (yeah, right) at no charge or the truckers uses the tailgate to lower the crate to ground level and pushes it off (on the street) for $99.  I considered that, as the mower is probably mostly assembled and it would mean I mostly had to break the crate apart (we are not talking cardboard boxes here).

For no charge, I could have it delivered to a depot and pick it up or arrange redelivery into my garage.  Well, it was a Fedex depot, and they deliver stuff in trucks that can manage residential driveways.  And I could pick it up for free if I drove there and they would load it on my hauling trailer.

So I called Fedex about residential delivery.  I should have called them before I ordered the brush mower.  The depot is out of my delivery area.  They can have it redelivered by a contract company though.

But the Fedex person asked a question I did not expect.  "Do you have permission from the shipper to have a 3rd party pick it up and deliver it to you"?  I had to admit I did not specifically have such permission.  So they are emailing the shipper to receive that permission.

When you get a question you did not expect, it can be hard to think of follow-up questions on the spot.  So I said, yes please email the shipper.

Afterwards, it occurred to me I should have asked why permission was needed.  After all, the shipper had completed the delivery (to the Fedex depot).  Why would they be involved in any further movement of the crate? 

In my working career, I was very good at asking follow-up questions to surprises like that.  These days, not so much.  It might be age, experience with the subject matter at work, less frequency of experiencing surprise questions these days, etc.

But anyway, now I'm waiting for a company to give me permission to have a 3rd party pick up my crate at a depot and deliver it into the garage.  I expect they will grant such permission as a routine matter.

I could drive 40 miles to the Fedex depot and pick it up at any time.  But towing a heavy crate on a 5'x8' trailer is not the safest thing in the world.  And I really hate driving long distances.  40 miles with a trailer is "long" to me.

Everything will get resolved successfully eventually.  I can't WAIT to cut down that 1/8th acre of blackberries, plant some specimen trees and get that part of my back yard back!