Yes, this is post five in a series.
We”ll start with the end result, and then detail how it got here.
(Yes, I know an unboxing post is supposed to save the final result of the unboxing until the end, but I got excited. I’ll repeat this picture at the end to keep the story straight.)
I created tangible collateral
As I detailed in the third post in the series, back on August 9 I was preparing to attend my first in-person event in a long time.
I’m going to an in-person event next week. For my younger readers (i.e. those who developed awareness after 2019), an “in-person event” is something where you are actually in the same room as the people that you are meeting, rather than looking at them in boxes on your computer screen
After registering for the event, I realized that I had never printed business cards for Bredemarket. So I designed one on Canva and ordered it that same day, August 9.
I waited for tangible collateral
Canva filled the order and turned it over to a delivery service on August 10. I won’t name the delivery service, but it does business with the federal government and has an express business in addition to its ground business.
And the delivery service provides some good tracking of all the packages that it handles. I’d simply reproduce the tracking entries, but the most recent stops are first, which doesn’t lend itself to storytelling. So I’ll just reproduce selected stops on the way.
| Tuesday, August 10, 2021 | ||
| 8:30 PM | HENDERSON, NV | Left FedEx origin facility |
| 6:32 PM | HENDERSON, NV | Shipment exceptionBarcode label unreadable and replaced |
| 6:05 PM | HENDERSON, NV | Arrived at FedEx location |
| 3:06 PM | HENDERSON, NV | Picked up |
| 8:05 AM | Shipment information sent to FedEx |
That’s actually pretty nice, I thought at the time. The order was fulfilled within a few hundred miles of Bredemarket’s world headquarters in Ontario, California, and would certainly arrive in time for my in-person meeting.
| Wednesday, August 11, 2021 | ||
| 1:05 AM | BLOOMINGTON, CA | Arrived at FedEx location |
Very nice. Bloomington is within 20 miles of Ontario, so obviously I should expect my business cards to be delivered by the end of the week.
| Friday, August 13, 2021 | ||
| 11:55 PM | DEMING, NM | In transit |
| 10:52 AM | BLOOMINGTON, CA | Departed FedEx location |
Um, wait a minute. (Only now did I realize that this transit happened on Friday the 13th. Figures.)
I won’t reproduce the next few entries, but suffice it to say that as of 3:12 pm Central Time on Saturday, August 14, the package arrived at a location in Fort Worth, Texas.
By Tuesday, August 17, my package was still in Texas, and obviously wasn’t going to make it in time for my Wednesday night meeting. As I noted in the fourth post in the series, however, I had a workaround.
So that’s what I handed out on Wednesday, August 18. (Well, the first person only took a picture of the handout rather than taking the handout himself, because he prefers intangible things.)
At one point my expected delivery date was Thursday, August 19. That date came and went without business cards, but at least I got a podcast episode out of it.
Late that night, with my package still in Texas and no updated arrival date, I contacted Canva (even though it wasn’t Canva’s fault) because there wasn’t an efficient way to contact the delivery service. At the time I wondered if the package were truly lost and if I’d need Canva to replace it. I received an email from Canva that pretty much said to wait and see what happened.
Our records show that your print order…is currently in transit to your shipping address….
For a more detailed information about the delivery status, we highly suggest reaching out to the carrier since the order was already dispatched.
However, at the same time that I was filing things with Canva, I was also tweeting about it. And for those who don’t realize this, the social media people for many companies are proactive and really want to help.
Here to sort this out for you, John! Could you DM us your ticket ID (JTP-###…)? We’ll take a look! ^cv
The tweet actually contradicted the email (which said to contact the delivery service). But by the time Canva tweeted the request for my ticket ID, the delivery service had updated my status.
(And yes, I was checking Twitter before 5:00 am. Normally I don’t, but by this time I was really getting bugged about my wandering business cards.)
Later that day, my package finally left its Texas location. I had a momentary fear when it departed…a fear that people who live in Ontario, California will easily understand. Was my package headed back toward Ontario, California…or on its way to Ontario, Canada?
Thankfully, my package was in Deming, New Mexico on Friday evening, so at least it was headed in the right direction.
By Saturday, August 21, the package was back in Bloomington, California. But where would it go next?
Oh, and to top things off, in the middle of this I received a phishing attempt at one of my non-Bredemarket email addresses. Obviously this had nothing to do with my REAL shipment, but I still found it pretty funny.
Back to the question of where my package would go when it left Bloomington. Did my package have a lover in Deming, New Mexico that it wanted to visit for a third time?
| Sunday, August 22, 2021 | ||
| 8:51 AM | CHINO, CA | Delivery exceptionFuture delivery requested |
| 7:46 AM | CHINO, CA | At local FedEx facility |
| 5:35 AM | BLOOMINGTON, CA | Departed FedEx location |
Chino is even closer to Ontario than Bloomington. This was a positive move.
Let me explain the “future delivery requested” part. I was promised at one point that the package would be delivered on Sunday, August 22. Unfortunately, my business address (a UPS Store, competitor to the delivery service) is closed on Sunday.
Apparently the delivery service realized this too late, and told me that the package would be delivered Tuesday.
Then I was told that the package would be delivered Monday.
| Monday, August 23, 2021 | ||
| 1:24 PM | Ontario, CA | DeliveredSignature on file |
| 5:41 AM | CHINO, CA | On FedEx vehicle for delivery |
| 4:20 AM | CHINO, CA | At local FedEx facility |
I drove to my business address and proceeded with the unboxing.
So that’s done. And since I’ve never really used business cards all that frequently, this order should last me a while.
When is my next in-person event?
Bredemarket 
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