I’m not ruining any surprise by
discussing this right now because Chris already knows about this gift and, in
fact, picked out the laptop himself.
When he bought my laptop a couple
years ago, he asked what was important to me and I told him, “It must have a
number pad.”
Chris has slightly more parameters
that needed to be met. He knew exactly the amount of ROM and RAM and what type
of processor and, for goodness sake, the kind of battery he preferred! I took
notes, but I wanted him to double check the actual product to make absolute
sure it would measure up to his expectations.
I won’t mention the winning store’s
name, but I scoped out the lay of the land on Wednesday afternoon. I asked an
employee exactly how crowd control would be handled and what time they expected
the madness to begin before the doors were opened.
I was ready to go through the Friday
morning hassle until I discovered I could get the exact same laptop for the
same price with free shipping, minus the aggravation of the crowd, by ordering
online at this store’s website on Thanksgiving morning.
Why on earth would I leave my house
in the predawn hours?
The deal was sealed when I saw a
delivery date for the following Tuesday which was one of my days off. This was
perfect.
Tuesday arrived and I waited around
the house all day watching reruns of “Americas Next Top Model.”
About 2:30, I got antsy and decided
to check the delivery status. I logged onto the store’s site and saw the
following: 3:18 AM-1 Items scanned and received; 7:58 AM-1 Items scanned to
truck; 9:02 AM-Out for delivery; 9:06 AM-Not delivered, closed b/c holiday.
I was a tad bit bewildered by that
last line. How could they be closed for a holiday on Tuesday? The transport
company was one I never heard of before so I called the original online store
to question the transaction.
The woman on the phone told me that my
order had been rescheduled for Wednesday. I told her that would not work for me
and asked what would happen if no one was home on Wednesday. She said that the
order was set to be delivered on Wednesday. You can probably guess how things
went from there.
After several minutes of no progress
being made and none of my questions being answered (one of which was what
holiday warranted the cancellation of my delivery), she asked if my needs had
been met.
I said, “No. Consider my problem on
pause. I may or may not call you back after I talk to the shipping company.”
The shipping company was more than
helpful. It turns out that the “not delivered, closed b/c holiday” is a coding
issue on their end to ensure packages are automatically placed on trucks for
delivery the next day in case no one is home the first attempt. My blood
pressure returned to normal in 10 seconds.
The laptop arrived at 3 pm and I
finally took a shower. Now I can wrap it and make Chris wait until Christmas. I
fully expect him to act surprised.
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