I took advantage of some Black Friday deals at a Big Box Office Store whose name you can probably guess. Receiving them is a way longer story than it should be.
After much wrangling with their near-inability to bill to a different address than the shipping destination (thanks to a credit card that has been unable for the last near-decade to update from my PO Box to my permanent address despite multiple attempts, but that's a different rant) — c'mon, you're dealing with businesses here, surely some motherships order on behalf of satellite offices? — I finally succeeded in ordering 6 items.
They were divided into five orders. WTF? Last time I ordered multiple items there, somebody showed up a day or two later and left a single shopping bag on my doorstep.
O_o
(Whatever happened to that emoji? Nothing expresses WTF quite like it does. But I digress.)
I was given delivery dates of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of the following week — two packages @ one item each on Monday and Wednesday, and 1 pkg @ 2 items on Friday.
Monday, one package shows up: a low-cost item that they paid somebody to ship.
Tuesday brings a late Monday straggler: an $8.xx 2-pack of batteries, which I'm getting rebated in full, that they also paid somebody to ship. O_o.
Wednesday, <crickets>.
Thursday, I get a "shipping exception" that makes no sense. The item is not backordered, hasn't been cancelled, but they want me to call Customer Service about it. I'd rather stick a fork in my eye than make a useless phone call (particularly for a $5 2-pack of batteries). Also no explanation of what's going on with the other missing Wednesday item. So I sign in to my account to see wtf is up.
Order summary:
2 packages delivered, check.
2 packages shipped, still with erroneous (missed) due dates.
1 package "processing".
Each has its own order number (they were all one order... O_o) that is a hot link.
Wait, what's this? There's a different status list at the bottom of these order pages.
2 packages delivered
1 package shipped
1 package "not delivered" (guess which?)
1 package "in warehouse"
Literally as I'm screaming WTF ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING? IF YOU CAN'T SHIP MY SHIT, JUST REFUND MY MONEY! at my computer screen, I hear a thump on the wheelchair ramp, and a motor pulling away. I'm pretty sure the driver RAN back to the truck.
I open the door to find one of the Wednesday items (a large item that came with a substantial rebate)... along with an Amazon box. Da Fuq.
Carry them back to my computer... to find that the web site has expired my session and taken all of my shipping lists with it.
Fuckitol, I'll worry about it later.
Back to reading email.
What's this? An email from Big Box Office Store!
Congratulations! You have received $XX.XX in rewards!
...with $XX.XX including the large item and the undelivered "exception" item.
😂😖😱ðŸ˜ðŸ™„
Well, if you've given me credit for the undelivered item, I'm not killing myself to call CS to "get my money back". I'll always need coffee or hand cleaner. (And if I don't, I'll have way more to worry about than losing $5.)
Went to the door later for something else and... there were the batteries, on the ramp.
When did you show up?!
Husband was out running errands all this time. Drivers were nuts. He witnessed (and narrowly avoided) not one, not two, but three wrecks. So we discussed the Demolition Derby over our late lunch, and I didn't fill him in on the delivery follies til later.
Reminder: that all happened on Thursday. No ship notice for the Friday package, so it's gonna be late.
Got up Friday morning and checked email.
Oh look, a ship notice!
Date stamped right about the time last night I was telling Mr. Stranger about what happened.
😳
(It's like they can hear me bitching. And no I don't have any of those newfangled spy gizmos. My TV isn't even connected to the wifi.)
I'll believe it when it shows up.
Friday, November 30, 2018
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Tempus fugit? More like it buzzes the tower...
Geez, I haven't posted since Mom died.
I had to put Dad in the hospital 3 days after that. After 14 months of some progress, but mostly regression, we lost him too this past summer.
My husband was finally able to retire and join me last fall. We've been trying to recover from Dad's illness and passing, and catch up on the 3 years(!) we were apart.
There's still a lot of administrative stuff to be taken care of... so much, in fact, I feel like I'm drowning in it. At some point, I need to post some of the hard lessons I've learned, to maybe spare someone else some hassle.
Til then... be well.
I had to put Dad in the hospital 3 days after that. After 14 months of some progress, but mostly regression, we lost him too this past summer.
My husband was finally able to retire and join me last fall. We've been trying to recover from Dad's illness and passing, and catch up on the 3 years(!) we were apart.
There's still a lot of administrative stuff to be taken care of... so much, in fact, I feel like I'm drowning in it. At some point, I need to post some of the hard lessons I've learned, to maybe spare someone else some hassle.
Til then... be well.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Change is inevitable
I've been fending off gmail's "improved" interface for months now. I tried it on one account, found many things I disliked, and promptly went back to the old view.
I'm still fending off the train wreck that is Facebook's Timeline, though I see the clock ticking down as about half of my friends have been dragged into it kicking and screaming. There is so much labor involved in re-protecting your privacy under the Timeline format!
My life has been in an uproar for months (well, technically a couple of years), and I just don't have the mental capacity to deal with things not working the same old way right now.
(You may think we're taking a sharp turn at this point, but stay with me.)
My mother died a couple of days ago — not too many changes are bigger than that one.
So of course, the next day when I logged into my email to notify friends, gmail had railroaded me into the sucky new format :o/
You might expect Facebook to be next, but no. Firefox comes from nowhere and informs me that my version is outdated and offers me the "opportunity" to upgrade... which will not be optional next time. <facepalm>
I figure Facebook will have the impeccable timing to hit me during the memorial service or something. Ugh.
Why are ALL of these ubiquitous services "improving" all at once???
I'm still fending off the train wreck that is Facebook's Timeline, though I see the clock ticking down as about half of my friends have been dragged into it kicking and screaming. There is so much labor involved in re-protecting your privacy under the Timeline format!
My life has been in an uproar for months (well, technically a couple of years), and I just don't have the mental capacity to deal with things not working the same old way right now.
(You may think we're taking a sharp turn at this point, but stay with me.)
My mother died a couple of days ago — not too many changes are bigger than that one.
So of course, the next day when I logged into my email to notify friends, gmail had railroaded me into the sucky new format :o/
You might expect Facebook to be next, but no. Firefox comes from nowhere and informs me that my version is outdated and offers me the "opportunity" to upgrade... which will not be optional next time. <facepalm>
I figure Facebook will have the impeccable timing to hit me during the memorial service or something. Ugh.
Why are ALL of these ubiquitous services "improving" all at once???
Friday, December 23, 2011
Hold that mail.... forever?
I was inspired to finally post this story after seeing a similar tale of mail-hold woe at Consumerist. (You have to "expand all" and manually reload before the direct link will pop to the comment... sorry.)
A few years and many miles ago, I filed the standard forms at my post office (home of the eBay stamp thief) to hold my home and PO box mail while I was out of town. I was not sure when I would be back, so I chose not to resume delivery until I returned and picked up the accumulated mail.
If you've ever used that form, you may have noticed that it mentions the 30-day limit for held mail. This will be important later.
I got home about 3 weeks later and ventured out to the post office with a box to hold the inevitable avalanche of junk mail. I was handed a small wad of envelopes in a rubber band... minus the form, which seemed odd.
o_O
Are you sure that's it?
Yep, nothing else back there.
o_O
Over the next several months, my mail delivery was sporadic. Some days I'd get huge wads of mail; some days, just a piece or two; most days, none at all. There was no rhyme or reason to the mail volume.
Eventually, I placed an order online, and their only shipping method was USPS. I asked them to add tracking to the package and send me the number. Sure enough, I plug in the number one day and it says something to the effect that the delivery was attempted but nobody was home. There was no note on the door and not a thing in the mailbox. I knew damn well I'd been home all day. I'm sure my dogs would have let me know if anyone knocked or rang the bell.
The next day, printout in hand, I ventured out to the PO to find out just exactly what the hell was going on with my mail. Luckily, I got the one competent employee in the place. She actually looked horrified when informed of the situation. She disappeared into the back, and was gone so long that frankly I started to get concerned that she had run screaming from the building, never to return. She eventually reappeared with one of those corrugated flats, overflowing with mail. Before I could pick my jaw up off the counter, she disappeared into the back again... "oh, there's more."
The stitched pic at right shows the delayed mail spread out on a daybed. I had to cover it with a sheet to allow enough room to make all the pieces visible. Packages are off to the right, in a separate pic that didn't lend itself to being stitched. The area including the Instructor magazines is, horrifyingly, other peoples' mail, most of which had no discernible connection to my name or address. In fact, some of it was bills for a new business a half-mile away.
The packages included this literary gem:
I'd like to know how my mailbox could be "fulled" when the mail was all sitting in the back of the post office!
All we could figure was that the regular mail carrier was unilaterally holding the mail... but... he wasn't even storing it in the usual hold area (apparently the clerk who solved the mystery just poked around til she found a huge stash of mail somewhere)... and the substitute carriers were delivering the mail as they were supposed to.
Even if the carrier was under the impression that we hadn't returned and picked up the mail, why wasn't delivery automatically restarted after 30 days??
But wait, it gets better.
The delivery resumption was never finalized on our post office box either. Mail delivery there also remained sporadic for months... til one day we went in and it was locked. You see, they had "delivered" our renewal notice to another mystery stash in the back... so we didn't get it... so we didn't pay it... so the box was closed.
...and the stash was tossed upon closure of the box.
Did I mention how glad I am to be away from that zip code?!
A few years and many miles ago, I filed the standard forms at my post office (home of the eBay stamp thief) to hold my home and PO box mail while I was out of town. I was not sure when I would be back, so I chose not to resume delivery until I returned and picked up the accumulated mail.
If you've ever used that form, you may have noticed that it mentions the 30-day limit for held mail. This will be important later.
I got home about 3 weeks later and ventured out to the post office with a box to hold the inevitable avalanche of junk mail. I was handed a small wad of envelopes in a rubber band... minus the form, which seemed odd.
o_O
Are you sure that's it?
Yep, nothing else back there.
o_O
Over the next several months, my mail delivery was sporadic. Some days I'd get huge wads of mail; some days, just a piece or two; most days, none at all. There was no rhyme or reason to the mail volume.
Eventually, I placed an order online, and their only shipping method was USPS. I asked them to add tracking to the package and send me the number. Sure enough, I plug in the number one day and it says something to the effect that the delivery was attempted but nobody was home. There was no note on the door and not a thing in the mailbox. I knew damn well I'd been home all day. I'm sure my dogs would have let me know if anyone knocked or rang the bell.
The next day, printout in hand, I ventured out to the PO to find out just exactly what the hell was going on with my mail. Luckily, I got the one competent employee in the place. She actually looked horrified when informed of the situation. She disappeared into the back, and was gone so long that frankly I started to get concerned that she had run screaming from the building, never to return. She eventually reappeared with one of those corrugated flats, overflowing with mail. Before I could pick my jaw up off the counter, she disappeared into the back again... "oh, there's more."
The stitched pic at right shows the delayed mail spread out on a daybed. I had to cover it with a sheet to allow enough room to make all the pieces visible. Packages are off to the right, in a separate pic that didn't lend itself to being stitched. The area including the Instructor magazines is, horrifyingly, other peoples' mail, most of which had no discernible connection to my name or address. In fact, some of it was bills for a new business a half-mile away.The packages included this literary gem:
I'd like to know how my mailbox could be "fulled" when the mail was all sitting in the back of the post office!All we could figure was that the regular mail carrier was unilaterally holding the mail... but... he wasn't even storing it in the usual hold area (apparently the clerk who solved the mystery just poked around til she found a huge stash of mail somewhere)... and the substitute carriers were delivering the mail as they were supposed to.
Even if the carrier was under the impression that we hadn't returned and picked up the mail, why wasn't delivery automatically restarted after 30 days??
But wait, it gets better.
The delivery resumption was never finalized on our post office box either. Mail delivery there also remained sporadic for months... til one day we went in and it was locked. You see, they had "delivered" our renewal notice to another mystery stash in the back... so we didn't get it... so we didn't pay it... so the box was closed.
...and the stash was tossed upon closure of the box.
Did I mention how glad I am to be away from that zip code?!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
If Taco Bell merged with Nathan's?
OK so this is general strangeness rather than the personal "tales of WTF" you were promised... but the blog looked naked without any posts, so...
Designer dogs (read: select mixed breeds) are a recent trend. With the notable exception of the Puggle, popular choices usually end in "-oodle". I had never heard of a Chiweenie til earlier this week — now I've seen two, here and here.
Chiwhat?
That would be the combination of a chihuahua and a dachshund. I'll leave the breeding process to your imagination.
Designer dogs (read: select mixed breeds) are a recent trend. With the notable exception of the Puggle, popular choices usually end in "-oodle". I had never heard of a Chiweenie til earlier this week — now I've seen two, here and here.
Chiwhat?
That would be the combination of a chihuahua and a dachshund. I'll leave the breeding process to your imagination.
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