Steve's getting angry..............(Seinfeld reference)

In my never ending quest to be a good husband and to rack up as many brownie points as humanly possible I decided to buy my wife the camera she has been wanting for Christmas. Not your every day, point and click camera – no this is a Nikon DLSR (for those that have any idea what that means). We did some research and found what we wanted (Nikon D3100) and then when the black Friday ads came out we found, what we thought at the time, was the best deal going. We ordered the camera bundle from Wolf Camera online. After a couple of days we received the memory card we purchased for the camera and then after a couple more days and a few phone calls to their outsourced customer service department in India, we received the extra zoom lens that we also ordered. The problem……no camera. So let me fast forward 10 days….. I call the customer service number and the standard response is “We ship soon”. That seems to be the answer to every question I ask – no matter how I phrase or how angry I get.

So I take a break to cool off. I look on the website again and I see they have “Live Chat”. I log in and wait my turn. Finally a box pops up telling me I’m on…..and this is the result:

John Keith: Hi Steve! Welcome to live help at WolfCamera.com
Steve: Hi - I'm trying to find out when the camera i ordered will ship?
John Keith: May I have the order number?
Steve: *********74 - the mem card and the extra lens have arrived
John Keith: Please give me a moment to check the information for you.
Steve: thank you
John Keith: All other items will get ship out very soon.
Steve: do you have a date for that?
Steve: if items are backordered can you send the camera itself - i'd like to have the camera so that i'm not scrambling as we get close to Christmas?
Steve: Hello......are you still there?
John Keith: We are sorry, we are not received a date form supplier. We are expecting soon.
Steve: can you tell me it will be before Christmas?
John Keith: We are expecting very soon. We cannot assure now.
Steve: then i need to see how to get a refund and purchase elsewhere. The order says that the camera is in stock and ready to ship but the bag is backordered. If that's the case - send the camera and we'll get the bag whenever it's available. Otherwise i need a refund and i will purchase someplace else.
John Keith: The ordered item are in sto
John Keith: stock and ready to ship out.
John Keith: We apologize for the inconvenience.
Steve: Then why are you waiting on a date from the supplier? A date to ship?
John Keith: Yes.
John Keith: But, you will get the e-mail confirmation once the order ship out.
Steve: But the problem is - if there is no assurance it's coming before Christmas I need to order from another retailer
John Keith: I request you to wait for few more days to get the item ship out. Or else you can go ahead and cancel the order.
Steve: who has the authority to get the camera itself shipped? Everything else can wait. Do you actually have the camera in stock to ship now? Do i need to call Nikon?
John Keith: Do not need to call any other place for this item, we will ship it soon. We apologies for the delay in shipping.
Steve: What you are saying makes no sense. If you have the items in stock you would send. I can see on the order email where the digital frame (that i could care less about) and the bag (that i don't need) are backordered. If Wolf Camera has the camera in it's possession - ship the thing to me - I’ll pay the extra shipping to get 2 packages. I need a ship date because you told me last Monday the same thing.
Steve: never mind.......I’ll call and vent my frustration to someone who grasps the concept of paying for something and then actually having that something shipped to them.

For crying out loud……..no wonder this country is headed to hell in a hand basket……

On to bigger and better things…Training. I am on schedule as far as my running goes. It’s been very cold here lately. Not sure how anyone that lives up north gets outside this time of year. Running at 5 am when it’s dark and cold makes me wish I’d never gotten fat in the first place – very depressing time of the day. I actually like the swimming part of the routing best of all right now. Swimming 2 days a week for 250m – I move that up to 350m next week. I’m still looking for a bike. Hopefully I’ll have that sorted out by the first of January. I’m adding in weight training to try and keep as much muscle as possible as I lose weight. I’ve never had trouble gaining muscle – it’s been the losing the fat part that kicks me in the A double S.

Well I better get back on the phone and see how the folks in India are doing right now and when they’re going to ship my freakin camera to me………