Ashley Webster (aswebster@ursinus.edu)
On Friday October 29, 2021, the Ursinus College Mail Center sent out an email about deliveries made through third party services such as DoorDash, Instacart, and Postmates. According to the original email, those services had been “dropping students’ packages all over campus.” They want students to specify to the companies that they want packages delivered to the Mail Center during its hours of operation.
Some of the third party services listed in the email also offer food deliveries, but the Mail Center is only open Monday through Friday until 4:30. The email did not clarify whether it referred to all types of deliveries or just food related ones. This caused much confusion as students do not currently direct their food deliveries to the mail center.
According to Stephen Gehringer, the Director of Facilities, awareness of this problem arose when students began contacting the Mail Center about the status of packages that had reportedly been delivered, yet the Mail Center had not received them. Additionally, “faculty and staff were also finding packages sitting outside their buildings.” The Mail Center “would try to track down where the packages needed to go to the best of their ability,” but hoped the original email sent out would resolve the issue.
Gehringer believes that the email was successful in resolving the issue. He stated that “to date, we have not received any additional calls from students, faculty, or staff concerning deliveries.” He confirmed that directing third party deliveries to the Mail Center excluded food deliveries. All non-food deliveries between Monday through Friday 8 am- 4:30 pm should be delivered to the Center. He reinforced that although food deliveries are not meant to be directed to the Mail Center, students should provide all necessary contact information to avoid delivery confusion across campus.
Briana Lambright ‘24, ordered a “moderately expensive vacuum cleaner” online through Walmart. She assumed her package was “completely lost” when she received confirmation that it had been delivered in conjunction with a photograph of the package which appeared to be left outside of a warehouse. She was later informed that it had been left outside of the Kaleidoscope, presumably near the 9th Avenue parking lot. Folks at the Mail Center reached out to Lambright and she ended up receiving the package about two weeks later. She was grateful that the package arrived in decent condition and described it as “intact, all things considered.” It is unknown how long the package spent outside of the Kaleidoscope.
Fortunately for students, the Mail Center was able to track down “lost” packages and deliver them free of damage. Although third party deliveries are not directly the Center’s responsibility, they want to make sure student packages are accounted for, which is most efficiently done when sent through mail services.