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Well I wanted to get Mrs. Dallas the Andrews Sisters Christmas album on CD. She loves the tape, which is all but worn out. It doesn't seem to be available anywhere around here, so I ordered it from half.com on 12/5.
On 12/11 the seller wrote to tell me that it was backordered and they'd let me know when it shipped. Now, this is already aggravating, because people are not supposed to sell stuff on half.com unless they have it in their hands ready to ship (and for that matter they're supposed to send it within 3 business days).
So I sent the seller a message and said, forget it, just cancel my order. They then wrote back and said, oops, I tried to cancel it, but it was just shipped.
Is this striking anybody else as fishy???
Well, the email included a "tracking number" that was a bunch of digits a mile long. I've seen UPS tracking numbers and this is not one. I dutifully plugged it into the UPS web site and it said the number wasn't valid. Hmmph. I wrote back and asked them to check the tracking #. They never wrote me back. I did check the email though, and then clicked the link instead of putting the number directly into UPS.
It was shipped through something called UPS Mail Intelligence. From what I can gather from their web site this involves the package being taken by UPS to a convenient US Post Office near the receiver, and the Post Office actually delivers the item to the recipient's door. (For non-US readers, UPS--United Parcel Service--is a private package delivery company that's completely separate from the postal service.) What they don't explain (at least not in a way that I can understand) is why this is a good arrangement for either the seller or the buyer. At any rate, the package has made its way from Orlando, FL to Paulsboro, NJ, so we'll see when it actually gets here. But the whole business seems very screwy.
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