iPod/UPS Hell

So a week ago I’d decided that I’d had enough with my existing iPod’s troubles and was going to buy one of those new fangled Nanos with the camera and FM radio and pedometer and other silly stuff I will probably never use. I’d actually decided this earlier than a week ago, but when I marched into the local Future Shop they didn’t have any in the size I wanted (16GB), and so I let it wait for a while. And then last Sunday after Mad Men I made the purchase at the online Apple store so I could get free engraving (not of my name, but a song quote) on the thing, because I’m all about the unnecessarily frills.

Stupid stupid stupid.

What I remember doing is clicking through the various “Buy now” and “Check out” buttons, and seeing that my billing and shipping address were still to my old apartment in Vancouver. So I changed the billing address to my new place in Kelowna, and I’m sure I chose the “same as billing address” for the shipping address, but it didn’t stick. The thing is being shipped to Vancouver. I didn’t notice this until too late, because the address information in the confirmation email requires you to scroll down, and I didn’t bother looking until two days later.

So I called up the 1-800 UPS number and asked what I could do about this package that was going to the wrong place. And what they told me to do was to keep looking at the Tracking Information page until it lists an arrival to Richmond, BC, at which point I’m to call them and tell them to either deliver the package to a different Vancouver address (they can’t reroute to Kelowna) or to keep it at their warehouse for someone to pick up.

I couldn’t give them the new address information then. I couldn’t call Richmond ahead of time. “Because we don’t have the package yet in our system, it’s still in China, even though we have this these things called ‘computers’ connected via an ‘internet’”. Instead, I have to watch a webpage until it boils says Richmond on it and then call, but yet I must do this before they deliver the package to the current occupants of my old place.

What is this, sneakernet? If I manage to intercept the package in time, will my father have to bring in a floppy disk of the GIF of my tracking slip? Or maybe I could send it ahead of time via carrier pigeon. This just strikes me as a really bad setup and unnecessarily complicated. And, for me, stressful, because I may have just paid over $200 for a free gift to whoever moved into #104 after me.

According to the webpage of slowly drying paint, my iPod is now in Richmond, but of course UPS is closed until Monday, both the Richmond location and their 1-800 number. So I have to remember to call right at 8 am on Monday morning and cross my fingers. I am not hopeful.