Alfred

‘nough said. =)

My drive home yesterday was fun. Today I’m just gonna bite the bullet and take Route 17 all the way to Route 4 East. I really hope the water recedes soon, so I can resume my normal driving habits.

As you can see, I did end up getting my package yesterday from Amazon. It was fun while it lasted; the outrage; the anger; the infuriated customer service correspondence. Good times. Good times…

Well, now that I have the game in hand I can finally say that I’ve played it, and it’s awesome! In case I haven’t divulged what the package was, it’s none other than Nintendo’s Super Paper Mario for Wii. Sweet nectar, what a fun game.

This is what I like to see when I order something with overnight shipping. Check it out. Thanks Amazon.com. You don’t suck so badly after all.

Follow up correspondence one:

None of my questions were answered. I just got a canned response about shipping. Truly disappointing.

Their response? Something along the lines of “Here’s how to track your package.” Wow. Thanks.

My response?

You didn’t answer the question I wanted to know the most about. Please answer this: Why would my order be set to “shipping soon” a whole 26 hours before it shipped? That is pretty misleading, if you ask me. This is lunacy! Just answer that one question. Stop giving me these canned responses! I know how to track my packages, for crying out loud.

That did the trick…

Greetings from Amazon.com.

I have reviewed all of our correspondence with you, and I apologize that our responses are not addressing all of your concerns. I understand that your concern at this point is *not* “where’s my package” but rather “why did it take so long to ship out.”

I have looked at the order extensively, and I can tell you that there is not a good answer to your question, unfortunately. However, I do want to assure you that this is not the normal progression of a package. We estimate that it can take up to 24 hours to get a package ready to ship, but 26 is abnormal, and when expedited shipping is chosen it usually doesn’t even take 24 hours. In other words, this was delayed by some problem in the fulfillment center.

You have asked for a logical answer to your question, and I apologize that I am unable to provide a logical answer. This order took longer than it should have in preparing for shipment.

Please accept my personal apology for your inconvenience in this case. A delayed order is one matter, but having to deal with customer service and not getting your questions answered is another matter entirely. This experience is unacceptable, and I hope you will give us another chance to serve you better in the future.

Thanks for shopping with Amazon.com.

All-in-all disappointing. To boot, I’m probably not going to get my package until Friday.

On a side note, the customer service rep who finally gave me a straight answer, his name is: Jonathan Norberg. The others? Devi S., Farheen Muskaan, and Zulfi. Wow. You be the judge. I ain’t saying anything.

Word-for-word:

My order has been “shipping soon” for nearly 24 hours. If it wasn’t going to ship until today, why would you change the status to “shipping soon” so I can’t cancel and buy it in a store? I know I only have to wait a day or two, but I feel as though I was trapped into sticking with my amazon.com purchase instead of going elsewhere. If it was “shipping soon” as of 12:30 pm yesterday, why didn’t it ship yesterday? Why wouldn’t you update it today, when you have the item in hand and ready to ship? You have not lost me as a customer, but I’m pretty disappointed in your behavior and performance. Totally inexcusable.

Update (2:40 pm):
Tracking

If you know me, you may know that I have been a victim of identity theft - twice by the same guy. Somehow *cough* Stevens *cough* my SSN fell into the hands of a criminal. Long story short, my identity was hax0red and two fraudulent cell phone accounts were opened in my name. The first on (on Sprint) came to my attention when a collection agencey tried to get money from my dad. That got straightened out and eventually expunged from my credit file. The second one (on Verizon) came as a shock to me considering I already have an account under my name and social security number. After a bit of an ordeal, I got them to realize that the other account was fraudulent and they sent in the paperwork to the appropriate credit agencies.

Five months later, I’m checking my credit report on a regular basis now, and nothings changed. Long story short (too late), I had been checking my six-month-old credit report over and over again, instead of getting my monthly updates. So after making a huge deal about this crap, it turns out that I was just an idiot (except the getting my identity stolen part - couldn’t quite help that).

If you’ve been reading up, then you know about my credit card problem. I feel inclined to write them a letter to let them know exactly how I feel. I know it won’t do any good, but I’d be curious to find out what they would say. They really are doing things ass-backwards. I’m sure they only piss people off. Ahhh, I dunno… Whatever…

Ahhh, taxes. What fun. I purchased H & R Block’s TaxCut Premium last week, and I was finally able to give it a go last night. It was very simple and clear to follow; it’s was almost fun - but I won’t go that far. Anyways, everything went smoothly until the e-file portion of the program. It asks for 2005 AGI to verify my identity. I accidentally entered my 2004 AGI. I was kind of pissed and worried, cuz I didn’t know what was going to happen. I called the IRS and got my actual 2005 AGI (since I couldn’t find mine anywhere). They said it would take 24 to 48 hours for the initial rejection, but it was actually rejected when I checked at 9:30 this morning. I resubmitted with my correct 2005 AGI, and by lunchtime, the return had been filed with the IRS. Now all I have to do is wait for them to process it. Overall, it was a pleasant experience, and I was able to gather all the information I needed from TaxCut with their inline help functions. I’ll definitely be spending the $54.99 next year on TaxCut’s software.