2006-12-22 - 7:22 p.m.
I had started a long and kind of complex entry that I never got back to, but right now am too wound up to do so even now. So instead, I'll write something easy.
Please be nice to the customer service person, please be nice to the customer service person, please be nice to the customer service person. That is ALWAYS a good idea, because whatever they problem, THEY did not cause it, yet they MIGHT fix it, or at least in some other way make you feel better.
I'll get back to the above point in a minute, but first a little explanation.
Some time ago, my car's stereo, which was just a radio and a cassette player (no CD player) began to give up the ghost. It was losing my set time and station pre-sets every time I inserted and removed a cassette. I had been looking for a 1 1/2 DIN size combination cassette/CD player unit that would look acceptable in the car, and finally found, and installed one. It sounds quite good except going 70 mph on I-5 on trips up north, or up and down and around and pot-hole-dodging on mountainy Mulholland Drive, which I take every day on my work commutes, the CD player skips something terrible. I thought the technology had been so improved that that kind of thing no longer happened (and I haven't heard anybody else complain about it, maybe it is just MY bad luck), and I never had problems with skipping using my Sony Discman. But the Discman wasn't acceptable as a long-term solution, because of the Mickey Mouse set-up of a wire plugging it into the cigarette lighter and a wire leading to a cassette-thingy plugged into the cassette player (and I think that it was using that dummy cassette thing that damaged my car's stereo, but I could be wrong about that).
At any rate, playing CDs in my new stereo, and that is what I got it for, isn't possible on the times I need it the most, on long trips, or driving back and forth to work.
I notice that the new stereo cautioned that it played best if installed perfectly flat, and that if canted any more then 20 degrees, it would not work. The Cadillac stereo is installed at a cant that angles the face of the unit nicely up for easy reading. That worried me, but a measurement of the angle pegged it at about ten degrees. Now I think that that "halfway between working right and not working at all" is the cause of my problem. However, there isn't much I can do to change that installation without an extensive, messy, and possibly damaging reworking of the car's dash, which I will not do. I thought about this and decided that the time had finally come to get an iPod. Surely THAT wouldn't skip (but I suppose I am bound to find out).
What appealed to me the most about an iPod is that this tiny little box could more or less hold my ENTIRE music collection. I mean, even if the CD player DID work, very little could beat having EVERYTHING with me in a package smaller than one CD box!
The biq question, though, was how to "install it" in a way that didn't put me back in the situation like the Discman with wires and plugs all over the place. Well, after much searching, I found what I think is a great solution. My ashtray folds down right underneath my stereo, and centered inside there is the cigarette lighter. I bought one of those iPod holder/recharger/radio transmitting units that plugs right into the cigarette ligher with a combination plug/holder stalk. It is black and blends in with the design of the car dash. I have heard that the radio transmission method of playing an iPod through the car stereo is not ideal, but no problem, my new stereo has an external stereo jack for such a thing as an iPod or any other auxiliary unit. I've got on order one of those Belkin retractable phono plug to phono plug wire units, so I can connect the iPod to my stereo (only a couple of inches away) and not have excess wiring.
Okay, so now all I needed was the iPod itself. I had my eye on the new video 80GB iPod, which comes in black, and will hold 20,000 songs, or else a ton of photos, movies, podcasts, or other assorted things. It's a bigger hard drive than even my iBook has (which is 60 GB). That ought to do it!
I figured that I would wait until after Christmas when I hoped the price might go down. Also, I decided to order from Amazon.com, which not only discounted the price, but doesn't charge shipping or sales tax, which amounts to a pretty hefty savings over buying an iPod at a store or directly from Apple.
However, I watched the price and damned Amazon a couple of days ago RAISED the price! BEFORE Christmas! Does that mean that they will then lower it way down after?
I don't know, so did an Internet search for iPod prices and price history and discovered that MacConnection (or PCConnection, it's the exact same mail-order store with two or three different names) had, even with shipping charges, prices currently cheaper than anybody (and NO sales tax!), even cheaper than Amazon.com's free-shipping price before they raised it. MacConnection was so much lower, because they were offering a mail-in rebate of $40 if you bought it BEFORE December 31. And, not only that, they also offered mail-in rebates for a couple of different protective iPod cases that amounted to making them FREE if you ordered them at the same time you ordered your iPod. So all that meant a hefty-enough of a savings that I decided to go ahead and get it NOW. So hey, everybody, if you've got your eye on an iPod and were waiting, check out MacConnection or PCConnection!
The big problem for me, though, was shipping. I'm leaving for my father's tomorrow (Saturday), and I have no idea when I will be back. At the EARLIEST, I may be back on Wednesday, but I may stay longer if he needs and wants the help (as the woman who takes care of him will be taking off that week). And I won't be back at work until January 2, and shipping my iPod requires my signature at the end. But I had no idea where I was going to be at any time the package would be likely to be arriving.
So the best solution seemed to be to order it overnight air, that way I would have it for sure, PLUS I could use it on my trip. Good idea, right?
It was supposed to arrive today by 3:00 P.M. at the latest. I stayed (was trapped) in my apartment ALL DAY waiting for the guy. This was DHL, which has what LOOKS like a nifty little on-line tracking system, except I discovered that it doesn't exactly tell you the truth.
The package got as far as being put on the "courier's" truck for delivery. But 3:00 came and went and the "courier" was a no-show. I went outside to look at the apartment's door to see if horror upon horror, there was an "attempted delivery" slip (although why there would only be the "attempt" and not the "delivery" would be beyond me), but there was nothing. Well, it is CHRISTMAS, and basically today is the last business day before Christmas, so naturally the poor driver must be quite overwhelmed. I can be patient. Hell, it wasn't even DARK yet! And still the website tracker offered hope...it was still on the truck.
Then it got dark. Then it got to be 5:00, 6:00. No driver, no slip on the door, and no new notation on the website.
Then finally at 6:30, I decided the jig was up, he wasn't going to show up. I looked at the website and saw an extremely maddening entry: "2:59 P.M., Delivery Attempted." What. The. Fuck!
Like HELL "delivery attempted"! Now I was burning mad. I called their tracking help line, got a recording that said that the driver would attempt delivery again on the next business day (in other words, TUESDAY), and if you weren't going to be around to receive delivery (which I wasn't going to be, fuckers), you could leave instructions on the delivery notice WHICH THE DRIVER NEVER LEFT ME! I mean, the driver, or the website, was lying lying lying.
I called DHL and got a recording saying that their office as closed and would next be open on Tuesday. Was I PISSED much!
Well, I had to complain to somebody, so called MacConnection and got a nice woman who said she would give me a credit for the overnight air delivery charge. I asked her what the procedure would be if I never received the package and was never around TO receive it, and couldn't give any other instructions. Basically, of course, it would just go back to the shipper and the order would be cancelled. Is THAT what I hung around here all day for?
I decided to try another number at DHL, such as their main office, and got another recording saying that due to high call volume, they just couldn't talk to you, so please call back later. Huh?
I tried the first number that I had called again, and this time was answered by a "we are helping other customers, please hold on" type of message. It looks like they were receiving such an ununusually HIGH call volume that their "on hold" system was overwhelmed and people would just receive the "we're closed" recording by default. However, seeing some hope that I might get somebody, I hung on for dear life. I first wanted to complain about the lie about attempting delivery, and then I wanted to demand that they deliver the package to my father's house on Tuesday.
I held and held and held. But finally a very NICE woman with a pronounced Southern accent answered, in Georgia, I guess, and just hearing her voice made me feel good. She didn't fight me over the attempted delivery that I know wasn't even an attempt. I told her that I think the driver had more packages than he could handle and finally gave up for the day and put that message in by default. She didn't confirm that, but when I asked if I could ask for the package to be delivered somewhere else, she told me that the drivers were GOING TO BE DELIVERING TOMORROW.
"That's Saturday," I said.
"Yes," she said, "we are making the attempt to get everybody's Christmas packages to them." Which I think kind of confirms my contention that the driver had too many to deliver on time, but they are doing the best they can by working on a non-business day.
"How late will they be working, do you think?" I asked her, and she said, "They plan to have everything delivered by noon."
Wow!
I had planned on leaving at 10:00, but I can wait until noon if I have to. Of course, there's no assurance I will manage to get the package even tomorrow, but the situation does seem workable so far, so I will wait until noon. If I don't get it, the woman said I could THEN call and ask for it to be sent elsewhere, if I wanted. But she seemed pretty sure that I WOULD get it.
Nice woman. I am so glad I didn't scream and yell at her. I was wonderfully nice to her throughout, and by the time the conversation was over, I LOVED her. I praised her and told her she was the best person working over there. She seemed genuinely pleased to receive the praise. And you know what, IF I get that package tomorrow, I will call MacConnection and tell them to NOT credit me for the overnight air charges. I CAN be worked with, I really can. I DO understand and am not a tight-ass.
But I repeat, "please be nice to the customer service person". What's wrong isn't their fault, and they just might have a solution for you. You will be glad you followed this advice.
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