Miraculous happy ending

Dr. Advisor suggested that I FedEx the draft to him overnight on Thursday, so he could get it on Friday, before he leaves town on Saturday. I've never understood this assumption among academics that FedEx costs are within reach of their students. This is not the first time I've been told to overnight something like this. It cost around $40 to overnight it. I gulped, put it on the credit card, and tried to forget about it.

Well, the next day (Friday), I checked the FedEx site, and the package had been delivered. But. That night, I get an email from Dr. Advisor saying he did not get the package, but his travel plans have changed, so he'll look out for it tomorrow. I called FedEx, and they told me that it was delivered at 10.11am...to the wrong address. The right number, but two streets down. FedEx then assured me Dr. Advisor would get it by noon tomorrow (Saturday).

Come Saturday, even after hours on the phone (mostly on hold)FedEx just threw their hands up in the air and said they could not retrieve the package until Monday. This would normally make me angry, but I was beyond anger at this point. After 30 minutes on hold, they put me through to the dispatcher in the wrong city, I was almost in tears. I spent half of my day trying to get this sorted out, and it was clear to me that FedEx was not even remotely apologetic or trying to help. They pretty much said, well, sorry, this happens this time of year, drivers have a lot going on right now. She told me, my driver was sorry. Very sorry.

What happened next was nothing short of miraculous. I called the Kinkos closest to Dr. Advisor's house, and explained the situation, asking if there was anything they could do to help me. This sweet woman, who could tell that I was freaking out, kept saying to me, "I'm here to make things easier for you, let me see what I can do." She kept putting me on hold to ask her manager's permission for things, and finally, she told me to email the document, and if I paid the cost of prints by credit card, her manager would hand deliver the document without any additional charges, even though their delivery service was closed on the weekend, "because he's a nice guy." She wondered out loud why he was even there, "He's not even supposed to be working today," she added.