We had the first snow of the year today. Not much, just 2" followed by rain in the afternoon. However, it proved 2" too many for one FedEx driver who dropped off a package around 1:30pm. When leaving, instead of simply going
further down the driveway to the large area in front of the garage where she could easily turn around (tires
tracks were visible there, so it was obvious that was part of the driveway) or simply pulling up another 20+ feet to the house
before backing out so she had more room when reversing (she walked it, so she knew it was paved), OR using the
roundabout directly in front of where she became stuck, OR just knocking on the
door and asking for advice/help, she inexplicably decided to reverse fully onto
our front lawn and then accelerate until her tires dug through the turf and she had become well and truly stuck. She seemed genuinely surprised when I explained that I don't have a vehicle capable of pulling out her van, and a bit nervous when I told her she needed to call in the cavalry because I couldn't help. About 45 minutes later 3 other FedEx guys arrived, but they determined their truck wasn't up to the job of van extrication, so we waited another 30-40 minutes for the manager to arrive with his 4x4 truck.
The damage to the turf is pretty significant with two 7"deep divots dug by the rear tires, and then 2 patches of smeared turf from there to the driveway. I'll have a better picture once the snow melts, but it won't be pretty. Although FedEx will cover the repairs, apparently I need to obtain 3 estimates in order to file the claim. I have no idea how difficult it will be to get 3 different companies to make a house call to provide an insurance estimate for a $100 job, but I anticipate it will be a time suck. This is particularly annoying given I paid for FedEx to come to the house in the first place. Unfortunatley for them, I plan to make their lives a living hell if they don't make it right -- and do so quickly and painlessly.
The funniest part of this -- and something I will point out when I escalate -- is that UPS arrived with another package while we were waiting for the FedEx manager to arrive. That delivery person told me that given the weather, they had decided to simply leave the truck at the end of the driveway and walk the package in. His parting words were "My driver is going to have a good laugh when I get back to the truck and tell him about this."
The damage to the turf is pretty significant with two 7"deep divots dug by the rear tires, and then 2 patches of smeared turf from there to the driveway. I'll have a better picture once the snow melts, but it won't be pretty. Although FedEx will cover the repairs, apparently I need to obtain 3 estimates in order to file the claim. I have no idea how difficult it will be to get 3 different companies to make a house call to provide an insurance estimate for a $100 job, but I anticipate it will be a time suck. This is particularly annoying given I paid for FedEx to come to the house in the first place. Unfortunatley for them, I plan to make their lives a living hell if they don't make it right -- and do so quickly and painlessly.
The funniest part of this -- and something I will point out when I escalate -- is that UPS arrived with another package while we were waiting for the FedEx manager to arrive. That delivery person told me that given the weather, they had decided to simply leave the truck at the end of the driveway and walk the package in. His parting words were "My driver is going to have a good laugh when I get back to the truck and tell him about this."
