Worst Delivery Experience Ever!

I LOVE Chinese food.  I HATE ordering it.  To be quite blunt, I have a hard time understanding people with an accent.  That goes for anyone with an accent other than a Buffalonian/Western New York accent.  I've told the story on the air of the time that I tried ordering food from a local Chinese restaurant here at the Rand building and it ended up in disaster.  Tonight I thought I'd give it a second chance.

What was I thinking???

The confusion often comes from the address.  See...the address here at our studios is 14 Lafayette SQUARE.  But there is also a Lafayette AVENUE in Buffalo.  That's what happened last time.  The delivery person was waiting for me on Lafayette Avenue and somehow had to find his way here.

But tonight...that wasn't the case.  He explained that he was right across the street at the Tim Hortons.  But when I looked, there was nobody....no car...no person...no food!  Normally not that big of a deal.

But when the guy called me up and kept saying, "Oh MY GOD!" to me on the phone because he couldn't find me, I kind of got worked up.  I (as calmly as I could) explained to him that he was probably in the wrong place and that I was still in the place where I ordered from.  I offered to meet him in front of our building.

So I briefly stepped outside in front of the building to wait.  When he was still a no show, I came back upstairs.  That was when I answered the phone to a very angry delivery person with a very strong accent saying, "WHY DIDN'T YOU COME TO ME??"  This was the point in the phone call where I (as calmly as I could) explained to him where he could put his food.  Then he hung up.

Twenty seconds later...I get a phone call simply saying, "hello?"  Suddenly he wanted to deliver the food again.  He asks, "where is your room?"  I explain to him that I would be on the 12th floor and that he could come up to me.  "I've been here for an hour now!" he angrily shouted.  I said, "I know!  I wanted you here 35 minutes ago!" So we went over it again.

This time he saw the bank that I had described to him in the last 4 calls and said he'd walk to it.  When I walked out I saw him!  Finally!!  I can eat!

So I checked to make sure the bag was still stapled shut to make sure he didn't spit in it, I paid the guy, and I ate.

New rule...Never order Chinese food from this building again.  Two strikes is enough.  I don't need to wait for three.

(Photo courtesy of Flickr user sharynmorrow)