Wednesday, July 30, 2008

I just want my damn book!

As you may know by now, my friend Suzanne's first book has just come out. I contributed a little bit to the making of this book, and I want a copy to support my friend. I preordered it from B&N a coupla months ago, anxiously awaiting its release and subsequent arrival at my home. Then I found out that early copies were being sold at the BlogHer conference and Suze would be doing a book signing. Of course my lack of money prohibited me from going to the conference this year, but I figured "that's ok, I'll have my copy soon enough, and I can have Suze sign it any time."

Everyone from the conference raved about how great the book was. I patiently waited for mine. When the supposed ship date came & went with no book in my hands, I got a little impatient. I kinda regretted not having one of my friends (or the author herself) pick up a book for me at BlogHer. Then I got an email that there was an "unexpected delay" in the shipping of my item. Grrr. This was in the email:

"We assume that you still want to purchase this merchandise. However, if you would like to cancel this portion of your order, you may do so online at.... blah blah blah."

That's fine, at least they know I'm waiting, I thought. But yesterday, I finally got the email saying it had been shipped! So I should be getting my book like today, right? No. No of course not. I checked the UPS site this morning to track it, and I saw this:

NASHVILLE,
TN, US
07/30/2008 3:24 A.M. MERCHANDISE IS MISSING. UPS WILL NOTIFY THE SENDER WITH ADDITIONAL DETAILS. / ALL MERCHANDISE MISSING, EMPTY CARTON WAS DISCARDED. UPS WILL NOTIFY THE SENDER WITH DETAILS OF THE DAMAGE

Yes, that's directly cut & pasted from the site. They lost my book. In Nashville. WTF? Did some disgruntled (very tired) UPS worker in Tennessee go on a box-opening rampage and decide that maybe someday if they take a trip to NYC they'll want an offbeat guide to help them? It probably doesn't matter that someone in Michigan definitely wants to return to NYC someday, and revisit a few of the places she's already been?

So now I'm realizing that I shoulda gotten someone to send me one from BlogHer. I shoulda canceled my order when I got the chance. I shoulda, I shoulda, I shoulda. And of course, right now Suze is in upstate NY on vacation and so is unreachable by email. I might still call her just to vent, but there's nothing she can do until like next week if she has a spare copy she can send me.

Bah.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well that just.........ummmmmmmm........SUCKS!

LittlePea said...

Maybe someone took for herself.

super des said...

That's what I think. To both of you.

Count Mockula said...

That does suck, I'm sorry!

mar said...

i should've cancelled mine too because mine says it was delivered on 7/18 by usps & i've never seen it.
i'm pissed because i was probably the first person to pre-order it in november (i ordered it from amazon before suzanne even knew you could order it).
i want my damn book too!

super des said...

Suze told me about yours, mar. But she didn't know if you ever got your book. What is it with us not being able to get this book?

Suzanne Reisman said...

It turns out that B&N is missing a lot of copies of the book. It was supposed to be on shelves in NYC on July 28, but as of today, the guy at the store told me that they are set to arrive any time. He seemed very confused as to what happened to them. My sister went to a B&N in Iowa, and they told her that her copy would be here by today. Then they called and told her that there is a shortage, and her order was canceled. Then they put the order back in. Sigh. I'm sorry that you had to deal with this. It totally sucks. I am very appreciative of your desire to get a copy, though.

super des said...

I guess that's one of the drawbacks of writing a localized book...

Anonymous said...

Darn it! If I'd known that was going to happen, I'd have given you my extra copy instead of giving it away on my blog.

Also: that's why I like Amazon better.

super des said...

Remember? I was like "I don't need your copy, I'm getting my own!"
Damn hubris.

mar said...

amazon/usps is the one who lost my copy...

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