AAUM Football Saturdays Program
Let me start by saying this is not a complaint about the Alumni Association's Football Saturdays ticket program, as I really think it is quite fantastic and I genuinely appreciate it and have enjoyed the seats I have purchased from them over the years.
My frustration comes from this rule:
*To ensure all members receive equal opportunity to participate in the program, order forms received prior to 8 a.m. Eastern time on April 14, 2010, will be considered as if they were received on April 14, 2010, at 5 p.m. Eastern time. We encourage the use of a delivery service that allows you to guarantee delivery on a specific date.Now, I live in Western Wayne county. I went to a local post office yesterday and spoke with a Postal Service employee. My conversation went something like this: Me: "Yes, hi, I need this to get to Ann Arbor on Wednesday morning." USPS: "Well, with Priority Mail, you can get it there tomorrow afternoon, no problem." Me: "Yes, but that won't work, it can't get there tomorrow, it has to get there on Wednesday morning." USPS: "Why can't it get there tomorrow?" Me: "Because it would go to the back of the line if it did?" USPS: "Well, you could hand deliver it, that would guarantee that it would get there Wednesday morning." Me: "It's not allowed to be hand delivered." USPS: "This is way more complicated than it needs to be." Me: "Yes, yes it is." So what I ended up doing was setting it up for Priority Mail, but not putting it in the mailbox at the post office until this morning, which will get it to Ann Arbor tomorrow morning, I hope. I hope. Anyway, my general question to you, MGoWorld is, what is the best delivery service to use that guarantees delivery on a specific date. (I asked this question of the Alumni Association once and they said they couldn't say because it would seem like they were promoting a specific service.) (Mostly, thank you for letting me get my Kafkaesque Michigan ticket saga out of my system.)
I use FedEx for work and they have an option which allows for delivery at certain blocks of time (i.e. 8am-10am; 10am - 1pm; etc.) to be chosen by the sender. Obviously, the rate you pay depends on how quick you need the package delivered.
I'll look in to that for next year.
...service that gets things there at 0800. If that's the case, then the AAUM has set things up for themselves nicely. I think they've done a pretty good job of ensuring that no one can game the system and that no one has an inherent advantage. Pretty fair system all around.
[BTW, the official acronym for the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan is AAUM. Recommend you edit your title.]
I appreciate the efforts at fairness, truly. I will also say that this year's "penalty" is only to be moved back to Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 5 PM, as opposed to previous years, where it would be moved back to like Friday at 5:00 PM or such.
...better. I think the key is to select one of the two package deals. They get filled first, so if you can commit to two games, you're likely to get your first choice.
I, for one, am looking forward to watching Michigan play the Minutemen of the University of Massachusetts.
You make up your mind, you choose the chance you take You ride to where the highway ends and the desert breaks Out on to an open road you ride until the day You learn to sleep at night with the price you pay -- Bruce Springsteen, The Price You Pay
UPS Next Day Early AM (not available in ALL areas, but is available in Ann Arbor) guarentees delivery by 8AM next day.
Now that I am (hopefully) getting season tickets, I figure I can share how I used to do it (since we won't be competing for a spot in line).
Each year I would hire a delivery service (Reliable Delivery out of Romulus). I am an attorney and they deliver/serve our legal documents sometimes. I think they charge me about $30-40 for the AAUM delivery, but they always show up on time and wait in line and I always get the tickets I request.
It is essentially "hand delivery." I don't know where you read a restriction on "hand delivery" into the rules. AAUM just encourages the use of a delivery service, but that service just does what you would do...stand in line and then hand it to them/drop it off.
April 13th, 2010 at 10:17 AM ^
Firstly, thanks for the info on what you did, much appreciated.
With regard to hand delivery, it goes back to a couple of years ago. I was going to be on my Spring Break during the drop off day, and I asked whether it was permissible to just bring it in to the office myself that morning and they said that they did not accept "hand delivered" applications. I presumed this was to make it fair for everyone, whether you lived close enough to Ann Arbor to do this or you lived out of state. So I don't know...but, thanks for the tip.