Simply Sam Programmer, hope-less romantic and man of many traits

Dear UPS and Best Buy

You are retarded. I admit that the original problem is my fault (not originally making the order ship to the right place from the get-go), but I did not expect a need to change an address to begin with. Best Buy refused to change the address unless they made a mistake and UPS refused to change the address unless there was delivery attempt. Its policy for them. Apparently, them not reading support inquiries on time has nothing to do with this.

So my Samsung Vibrant decided to throw the towel... two weeks ago I was restoring the OS at work and had finished configuring the account and had it syncing the address book and other things so I decided to leave it at work when we headed out for lunch like we do every Friday.

Two hours later, we come back and I see the phone with the screen off as usual when it goes idle and get back to work. A while later I pick it up to send a SMS to a friend, so I hit the lock/unlock button and the device does nothing. I leave the button pressed (since its also the power button) and the device does nothing. I pull the USB cable, pull the battery, let it sit and re-try powering it on with just the battery, it does nothing. I was close to leaving work for the day so I waited until I got home and I tried with just the charger (leaving the battery out) and it does nothing. So I try with both the battery in and the charger plugged in and again, nothing. Reaching the end of my wits after two hours of trying to revive it, I gave up and listed it on eBay for parts, which got it sold 3 days after posting for $125.

Fast forward a week, it is now Friday the 13th and after lots of spooky things failing at work, I got home late and turned on my computer to look at new phones for T-Mobile who I have a contract with and the only choices I liked were the Nexus S and the Vibrant 4G (aka — Galaxy S 4G) which I weighed them for their pros and cons.

The Nexus S while being nicer, has no 4G on T-Mobile (while the Sprint version does), has no expansion slot for a microSD card, is not sold directly by T-Mobile and costs $529 if I want it without a contract. On the up side, the design is more comfortable to me (I tried a friend's phone), the OS is directly from Google and is going to have plenty of nice custom Android versions in a while... not to mention that because of this, there is no bloatware installed and the base Android is pretty much up to me how to configure it. Oh, and it has Gingerbread pre-installed.

The Vibrant 4G (aka — Galaxy S 4G) is visually the same thing as my old Vibrant, except that it has a front-facing camera and the data modem is 4G-capable. However, if you were a Vibrant owner like me and got to wait for Samsung to release their buggy Froyo update, you'll be aware of a few things like the fact that Samsung does not do OTA updates, rather you have to use their mini Kies software to upgrade your phone's OS, but that is only after they decide to release Android 2.3 for it. Also, it has TouchWiz, which I don't like and only adds delays on releases. Lastly, it has all the bloatware you cannot remove from the phone unless you root it, which I don't plan to do for a while.

That's a good story, no? Yeah. So Best Buy sells it in the US for T-Mobile? cool. I had to mess with the checkout a bit because the owner of the account is not me and there was something I wasn't entering right so the process was not going through, I gave up for the day and decided to try again on Saturday 14th which went through and everything was fine like wine... UNTIL I remember we have a few deadlines coming up this week at work and its more than likely that long days will rule the week... I submitted a support message right after i placed the order to which went unanswered.

I called UPS to see if they'd change the delivery address to my workplace, but they said two things: We can't do that unless there is a delivery attempt, or the shipper modifies it. So I called Best Buy, apparently the policy is they don't change that after its shipped/in process unless it is a mistake in their part. Sunday the 15th, Monday the 16th and Tuesday the 17th came and I gave up and let the UPS delivery person find an empty residence for the day. I got home at 7PM today and did the change of address, paid the $4 fee (really? I have to give you more money for a fuck-up that neither wants to work with?) and submitted it (with the page saying the delivery was for 5/18/2011), in which it was accepted a while after, but with a surprise: The receiver requested the package be delivered to an alternate address; Driver will make a same day redelivery attempt.

Say what? Didn't the change of address form tell me that it was going to be attempted on 5/18? WHAT? There's nobody at my workplace! HELLO?! I called UPS yet again and after their (seemingly annoyed that I wanted to talk to a person) machine got me to an agent, they tell me the same thing and that there's nothing they can do at this point, I politely said goodbye and hung up... and just then I think I nearly popped an artery and a few hundred veins on how I've been harassing Best Buy to change before they ship (apparently, once it changes to "In Process" status they wont't touch it unless they f-up) and UPS for the past five days now, paying for Next Day service which I won't get, but its not the fault of either of them, according to them even if I have been onto them before it actually got out of the warehouse...

So here I am, angry as can be and cursing up the wazoo waiting for tomorrow so I can finally put this all behind me and forget about it as soon as possible. That damn phone better not be a DOA or else it'll become victim to I-75's traffic.

In this case, I was late according to policies, Best Buy was pig-headed and UPS was retarded. Neither of them was at fault and I paid for Next Day service for nothing and neither Best Buy nor UPS will refund me a penny. I might have to stick with UPS for deliveries, since FedEx delivers at times I am not here and UPS comes in half-hour before I leave for work in the mornings (even earlier than standard for UPS), but Best Buy saw the first and last of me... no complaints about their agents, they all informed me of my options and said it straight.

Thanks a lot, jerks!