"Where is it? What do I do?"

Something not a lot of people know about me: I'm really obsessed into medieval historical novels & biographies (think Henry VIII). A chance late-night viewing of this movie is what started it all, although the movie is riddled with glaring historical inaccuracies.

Since then, if it's been written, odds are I've read it. I particularly enjoyed the novel on Henry VIII written by Margaret George, and have since read every one of her novels, even the ones not taking place in the 1500/1600's. Every one of them was fantastic, and of course that meant I was very looking forward to the release of her Elizabeth I novel on April 5, 2011. So looking forward that I preorded it from Amazon over a month early.

As some of you are probably realizing, April 5 has come and gone. If you're guessing this means I still don't have the book, well, you'd be right.

On April 6, I checked Amazon's site to find out the status of my order. I had it sent with the free shipping option so I was expecting a possible delay - I was not expecting, however, to see that it had not even been shipped yet. A call to Amazon elicited apologies and a complimentary upgrade to free overnight shipping. I was told I would have the book on the 7th and apparently the issue was that Amazon only had the paperback version available when I preordered, but the book ended up being only in stock in hardcover.

That was yesterday. Still no book.

So, I called again. The rep checked over the previous notes, and saw the paperback vs. hardcover mention. She switched my order to the hardcover version, and I reminded her about the complimentary overnight upgrade. She saw the note for that and set it for overnight shipping, and I was told I would have it today, Friday, April 8.

Unfortunately, I cannot say I was surprised when I didn't get the book today. Checking in on Amazon's site, I saw that the book still hadn't been shipped. It has a delivery estimate of Monday, April 11, an entire week after the book was released. Adding insult to injury was the charge of $17.98 for overnight shipping - more than the cost of the book - that was charged to my bank account.

$17.98 to overnight a book???

Another phone call to Amazon, another rep. This time I was told that whoever processed the order processed it as a new order, rather than a replacement order, and so I would be responsible for shipping. I questioned him on that - how is it my fault that the rep from the day before processed the order wrong? I had been offered FREE overnight shipping to make up for the mistake. He repeated that, because it had been processed as a new order, I was responsible for the shipping fee. He was quick to say, however, that since the book had not actually been overnighted, that he would be able to refund the shipping fees.

Part of me wants to just let it go and be happy that I am getting the benefit of my original bargain. But a far bigger part of me is livid that a rep messed up and so Amazon tried to screw me for almost $20 in shipping. I wonder how many other people they actually HAVE screwed like that.

What's that all about, Amazon? I've been a customer for about 10 years. I've never, ever had a shipping issue with you guys. Even on the few times I've had to call about something, it's been fixed quickly and I've never been told I was responsible for re-shipping or anything like that.

I love the ability to get inexpensive books delivered quickly and avoiding the hassle of traveling to the nearest could-do-better bookstore. But after a series of mistakes like this, I'll have to weigh my options carefully before ordering something so anticipated through Amazon.

Can you hear me now?

In January, after a long trial of trying to get our T-Mobile phones to work in the area we moved to recently, we gave up the fight and switched to Sprint. T-Mobile was very nice about it, admitting that their coverage basically sucks in this area, and happily canceled our service with no early termination fees.

Our trials with Sprint are for another post, but in general we've been happy with the service and very happy with our phones. Today, we received the final bill from T-Mobile. Although everything should have been canceled as of January 26, they were charging us another entire month of service: 1/28 - 2/27.

I'm not unfamiliar with this business, and of course I assumed it was something that would be corrected with a simple phone call - obviously, service had been canceled, as the number had been ported and the old phones no longer worked.

Upon calling T-Mobile, however, and explaining my predicament, I was met with this gem: "Your service didn't actually get canceled until January 28, and that's the start of your billing cycle for the month, so you get charged for the whole month."

I spent a bit of time arguing with the rep regarding the 1/28 date. We had 4 lines on our account, 3 of which were canceled on 1/26 when we showed T-Mobile proof of our new address. The other line was having the number ported to Sprint, which was supposed to happen on 1/26 as well (the day we got the new phones), but somewhere between Sprint and T-Mobile something got messed up and this didn't actually get processed until 1/28. My hunch is that it just took them 2 days to get their ducks in a row. But, it wasn't worth my time to keep arguing about 2 days and a few dollars. The heart of the matter was the charges after 1/28, which were substantial.

The rep kept to his position that we owed the full amount. He kept going back to the comment "You didn't cancel until 1/28." Finally, in my sweetest, most passive-aggressive voice, I said "I understand that service is billed a month in advance. That's not a problem. But by your own admission, service ended on January 28. So now all needs to be done is to issue a credit for all charges after that date." I was met with silence, and a request to hold. Shortly thereafter, he came back on the line, and within 5 minutes all the extra charges had been removed from my bill. Of course, later on when I was less mad, I thought about it and realized Hey, this is the end of March. They didn't bill us in advance, they billed us well after the fact! Too late now, although it makes the situation much more shady in my mind.

I can only assume that the reps are trained to try to make it sound like the consumer is required to pay these charges. Thankfully, I pride myself on being an informed consumer. But I wonder how many less-informed people have just said "Okay" and paid the charges? It's a shame such a great, 10-year relationship with T-Mobile ended on such a sour note. Oh well, at least I got out before the world ended.