Droid Craziness (revised)

So here's the update on the Droid Drama.

I got the new digitizer bought from Amazon.com, and it worked perfectly. So I contacted the Ebay seller and told him it works, so you owe me $20. He said okay, and he'd post it to my Paypal account. That was on Thursday, Dec. 16. I heard nothing else from him.

On Monday I received a message from Ebay Buyer Protection, checking on the status of my claim - they knew he'd offered me $20 but wanted to know whether I 'officially' accepted the offer, as if so, he'd have three days to post the refund from the time I 'officially' accepted through Ebay's resolution center.

I told them I had in fact accepted the offer, and they said he then had until Dec. 23 to post my refund.

Dec. 23 was winding away, and I'd received no refund, nor heard anything from him. But - to be fair - I was going to wait until today (the 24th) to do anything, as technically he had until midnight on the 23rd to post the refund.

But meanwhile, I got another message from Ebay Buyer Protection yesterday asking if the matter was resolved, or if I wanted to escalate the case to customer service. I considered just doing that, but - still giving the guy the benefit of the doubt - thought I'd make one last effort to contact him before doing so (as once you escalate it, it's out of your hands - you no longer negotiate with the seller, and Ebay simply makes a decision, and everyone has to live with it).

So I wrote the seller another email asking about my refund.

He responded last night, telling me that Paypal was holding the $40 I'd originally paid, so he couldn't refund my money because he didn't have access to it, and I'd have to "close my complaint" before they'd release the funds so he could refund my money.

I was extremely skeptical of that claim, so first of all, I went and checked, and Paypal had paid the guy on November 24 - almost a month ago. I wrote him back an email saying only "You were paid on November 24."

Meanwhile, I went back to the Ebay Buyer Protection site and did in fact select the option to escalate my complaint. I explained all that had happened, and at the end of the message, I told Ebay that I'd tried to give this guy the benefit of the doubt, but in light of what appeared to be him giving me the runaround, I would like to know if I was allowed to rescind my acceptance of his offer of $20, and instead ask for a refund of the entire $40. I didn't know if they'd allow it, since I'd already accepted the $20, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Ebay's Buyer Protection site popped up an automatically generated message telling me that they'd get back to me within 48 hours, though I didn't expect to hear anything that soon due to the holiday.

Less than 15 minutes later I had three new messages in my inbox. The first was from Ebay telling me that they had issued me a refund for the full $40. Wow. That was fast. And the whole amount!!

The second one was from Paypal telling me that I'd be receiving the refund of $40, and that processing could take a couple of days.

The third was from the seller (who, since all these messages came in within one minute of each other, obviously didn't realize what Ebay had done yet), telling me that oh yeah, he did get paid on November 24, but then when I initiated my complaint, Paypal "took the money back" and was holding it.

I ignored his message and thought that was the end of it, until 15 minutes later when I received another couple of messages - one from the seller saying that Paypal had 'just' released the money, and so he had refunded $20 to my Paypal account; and a second from Paypal telling me I had received $20 in my account.

Well, hell. Now I've got the seller's $20 refund sitting in my Paypal account, and Ebay's $40 refund on the way.

The seller's statement that Paypal had "just" released the money made me wonder if I was wrong, and in fact, there had been a hold on it - which of course, when Ebay notified them the case was resolved, would have been released right about the time he said it was.

But none of this makes any sense whatsoever. First of all, while Ebay and Paypal do a lot of business, they aren't the same company, so why would Paypal be able to unilaterally put a hold on someone's already-paid money pending the outcome of a complaint with Ebay? And since not everyone leaves money sit in their Paypal account, it seems a rather arbitrary kind of thing - for people who have already withdrawn the money, they are subject to no hold.

But even if they can do that, when I sent Ebay my last message, I explained all of that - that the seller claimed he couldn't post my refund because Paypal had a hold on the money. So if that was true, why wouldn't Ebay have told me, yeah, that's true, and then done something about it - instead of almost immediately just issuing me the full refund? If they knew the seller was telling the truth, it would seem that it would make more sense for them to have (a) told me that, and (b) dealt with the money already being held, rather than initiate a brand new refund directly from Ebay, and then release the Seller's entire $40 back to him.

Second of all, on Monday Ebay told me the seller would have three days to post my refund to my Paypal account. Well, if they knew they'd initiated a hold on the money, why would they expect him to be able to post the refund, knowing they had a hold on the money? The only point to placing a hold on the money would be to ensure it was available if a refund was ordered - so if that was what happened, once the seller and I had agreed to a refund of $20, why not just use the money they'd put the hold on, and instruct Paypal to refund me $20 of the money they were holding, instead of trying to make the seller pony up another $20 before they'd release the original payment?

Third, the seller claimed that the hold hadn't been placed on the money till I initiated my complaint, which was on December 8. Well, if he knew two weeks ago they'd put a hold on the money, why did he never mention that before? When I told him the new digitizer works, so you owe me $20, he said he'd post it to my Paypal account - not "I'll post this to your Paypal account when you release the hold on the money."

Fourth, had I closed my claim like he stated, and then he hadn't paid, I would have had no recourse whatsoever, as once you close a claim you agree that the matter has been completely resolved and you will take no further action. So why would Ebay / Paypal have it set up that you have to close your claim to release the funds to complete the transaction? That makes no sense at all. If Paypal was holding the money because of this claim, it only makes sense that they would allow the release of the funds once an agreement had been reached, but before expecting a person to close their claim. You can't close your claim and state everything has been resolved before you've actually received the refund you negotiated.

I'm only going on about all that because my inherently overly-honest nature makes me uncomfortable with basically telling Ebay I thought the guy was a flaming liar, then wondering (when he immediately posted the $20 refund) whether I was mistaken. I wouldn't like to have called someone a liar if I was wrong.

But I can't see any of this making any damned sense at all.

Well, anyway - I don't see any way to figure out what really happened. Once Ebay's $40 refund also posts to my account, I guess I'll contact them and ask them what they want me to do with the "extra" $20 - since, if Ebay footed the bill for the $40, they may want the $20 to come back to them as reimbursement, not go back to the seller. (That's if I can figure out any way to contact them, as I was just looking around on the site, and I can't find any place to just send them an email - everything's automated forms for situations that don't apply here).

While I was impressed with how fast they resolved this issue, this has been a huge pain in the ass and a real clusterf**k, and I'm not sure I ever want to buy anything on Ebay again.

Meanwhile, the phone works perfectly with the new digitizer, as if I'd never broken it, so that's a wonderful thing.

And otherwise, I've got presents to wrap!! Merry Christmas!

What A Weekend

This was a crazy productive weekend.

Friday night we had band practice, and I've been working on a new part which is pretty intense bow-action-wise, and challenging, and fun. (that becomes more relevant in a few minutes).

Saturday I went out and did some final Christmas shopping, getting not only everything I hoped to find, but finding things that were even better than I hoped! That was nice. I also washed the truck (it was hideous after the recent snows and salt-laden roads), so that made me feel a lot better.

Later Saturday afternoon and evening, I baked cookies - peanut butter cut-outs and jam thumbprints.

Today, I made three of my clay snowman ornaments for my co-workers.


I originally made one of these for myself, but everyone who has seen mine liked it (I already have an offer to sell one), so I made these, but they're still kind of prototypes. Hopefully in time I'll perfect the design.

I spent a few hours working on a present I'm making for someone, too, but I can't talk about that here because, obviously, it's a surprise.

I also baked more cookies (chocolate with peanut butter chips) and decorated some of the peanut butter ones for work.

And oh my God, I made a pan of the world's best fudge. This was my mom's recipe, and I always said my mom's fudge was the best in the world - it wasn't just because she was my mom, I really never have had fudge as good as hers - but I could never duplicate it (even though I was using the same recipe). Hers was so creamy that it just - quite literally - melted in your mouth. Mine tasted just as good, but was always too hard, like it would actually crumble.

Tonight I figured out what I'd been doing wrong all these years. Her hand-written recipe said "2/3 cup (small can) Carnation Evaporated milk." Well, every time I went to buy this, they only had one size can, so I figured that was the 'small can,' and would always use the entire can.

Tonight I decided to make a double batch, as the single batch is always just too small, so I actually decided to measure the evaporated milk. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the one can was actually double what the recipe called for. So all these years I'd been putting in twice as much evaporated milk as it was supposed to have. I'm surprised it didn't make it runny and unable to set up, instead of too hard and crumbly.

This time, using the proper amount, I made the perfect fudge. I'll be in a sugar coma within 48 hours.

But back to the fiddle thing - my right hand is in such excruciating pain I can barely move it. Typing does hurt, but not as bad because I don't have to move it much to do that. But opening and closing it, or trying to pick anything up, is kind of impossible. It was a combination of the fiddle playing Friday night, working with the clay today (conditioning new clay is labor intensive and hard on the hands, and forming the pieces, smoothing, shaping, etc. just added to the mix), and probably washing the truck (manipulating that spray wand at high pressure, in the freezing cold) and cookie making as well (holding a hand-held mixer, stirring things with a spoon, rolling the batch of jam thumbprint cookies into little balls, etc. etc.).

Basically, I beat the hell out of my hand this weekend, and I desperately wish I had a paraffin dip bath. I do have some paraffin ... somewhere ... I suppose I could melt it in a double boiler (i.e., in a tin can in a pan of water) and pour it on ... something to consider.

But, it really was a great weekend. Now I just have to work up the energy to go clean up the kitchen from the last batch of cookie decorating and fudge making, clean up the upstairs from the crafting today, and turn off the lights, and settle myself in downstairs with some rum. Mmmm.

This week I have to take my truck in to my mechanic because it's giving me grief, which is a pain in the ass, because he wants to keep it all day, which means finagling around getting it there, getting to work, and getting it back again. And I have to wrap all my presents and finish decorating cookies.

But, I'm in a good Christmassy mood this year, and it's a holiday week - my favorite time of the entire holiday season is the week leading up to Christmas. And, it's a full-moon winter solstice tomorrow!

So I'm looking forward to a good week.

Droid Drama Update

I'm adopting a new philosophy: "The universe loves me and just wants me to have an interesting life."

I posted awhile back about dropping my Droid and cracking the screen all to pieces, but then learning that I could order a new digitizer and our office computer guy would put it in for me. So I ordered one from Ebay (as recommended), it arrived promptly, and our computer guy installed it.

The "back" soft key didn't work. Well, now, that wasn't entirely disastrous, but it was hideously inconvenient. Do you ever notice how much you use the 'back' button on one of these phones? It's the main way to navigate in and, more importantly, back out of menus and many applications. If it would have been something dumb like the 'search' soft key, I wouldn't have even cared, as I never use that one. But the 'back' one was difficult.

I eventually learned work-arounds for most things, though it was annoying and tedious, and in a few instances there is no work-around except to shut the phone off and turn it back on, to restore a certain app or function to its main screen.

The computer guy said there might have been a tiny piece of dust on the contact or something like that, and that he'd take it apart, check it, and see if that helped.

He did that, and it didn't help. Both he and Greg suggested I contact the seller. Initially I wasn't going to, as I thought, oh, it's just one of those things, it won't do any good. But then I saw where Ebay has "Buyer Protection" now - if you have a problem and can't resolve it with the seller, they will refund your money.

I'd already decided to buy another digitizer and see if that one worked (the loss of that 'back' key was annoying enough that I decided I'd risk another $40 to try to get it back), so I thought, well, it can't hurt to try. I sent the seller a message last night, very polite, explained the problem, and said I just wondered if he knew of any fixes, or had any more digitizers he might be willing to swap.

He wrote back and, while he was extremely polite, basically told me 'too bad, sorry to hear it,' and went on to say that he "knew the soft key didn't work" and hoped I could "figure something out."

Huh. Because his original sale page description said: "Product is brand new and tested to guarantee it works.

Well now. So I initiated a claim under the Ebay Buyer's Protection thing, and they sent him notice of it. Then we began exchanging emails. The first thing he said was that he had made a mistake, and confused me with another buyer, to whom he sold an actual Droid phone (not digitizer) on which the back key doesn't work ... so he thought I was them. Then he figured out I had only bought the digitizer, and he assured me - again - that it worked fine when he shipped it to me.

I replied that it arrived well packaged and didn't appear damaged in transit, I had an electronics expert install it, and it still didn't work ... so I'd beg to differ.

After a couple of very polite exchanges, in which he continued to insist it worked when he sold it, he offered to refund half my money as a compromise.

This got me thinking. His emails struck me as sincere, he was truly apologetic, and I believe that he truly believed the thing worked when he sold it. I also don't know for a fact that it's not my phone, instead of the digitizer. The bottom line is, there's no real way to tell what happened.

Meanwhile, I'd ordered a new digitizer, through Amazon - it's from an outside seller, but a reputable electronics store with a 5-star rating, so I figure if there's another problem, I'll have a good chance of having some buyer protection there as well. And it was the same price.

So a plan occurred to me. I was concerned that if I continued to be persistent, and Ebay Buyer Protection refunded my full purchase price (which I assume they'd go after the seller for), and then I got the new digitizer and discovered the back button still didn't work, I'd feel like a real moron - because it wouldn't have been the digitizer after all, but my phone.

So I made the seller an offer. I told him that we'd put the matter on hold for a week - if my computer guy installs the new digitizer, and the back button still doesn't work, then it was my phone, not the digitizer he sold me, and I would ask for no refund. However, if the new digitizer works 100%, then the problem was his digitizer, and since he is so sure it worked when it shipped, and there's no way to prove when or where the damage occurred, then I would accept his offer of a refund of half my money.

He was happy with that, and - in a telling statement - even said to me, after apologizing again for my phone problems, said he sincerely hopes the new digitizer works out for me. Well, if he gets his wish, he'll owe me $20 - whether he remembered that or not when he said it, I don't know. So it just renewed my belief that the guy's honest, not trying to rip me off, and actually hopes my phone gets fixed. So I do think the guy's being sincere. But maybe I'm just a big schmoo. Doesn't matter, I'll feel better about it this way, and that's what matters.

Meanwhile, the other night my SD card died. Just died, no reason. At first I thought it was another malfunction with the phone, but then I tried Greg's card and it would recognize that one - just not mine. So I went out today and picked up a new one, and it is fine.

I thought I was safe because I'd downloaded a file manager program awhile back that lets you sync your phone with your computer wirelessly, and backup all your data, and I'd done that when the screen cracked. Well, funny thing - I cannot figure out any way to get the data back onto the phone. I tried everything, went to the website looking for help (nothing at all useful there), zip, nada, zilch. The only thing I was able to recover was my pictures and music (very important, though, so a good thing!) but none of the apps I had installed solely on the sd card.

Well, that wasn't the end of the world, because there weren't that many, and I've been able to replace most of them. A few are acting incredibly squirrelly - I re-downloaded them, but they still won't work. Whatever. I'm tired of screwing with it.

Meanwhile ... one of the black plastic strips that makes up the 'back' of the phone (the back isn't a solid back, but a couple of different flexible black plastic pieces that basically stick on with double-sided tape) fell off and disappeared somewhere yesterday. My computer guy warned me that might happen, after removing and reinstalling them several times. If I'd have known when it happened and got the piece, I could just put it back on. But since I have no idea where it happened and haven't found it yet, I now have a 'raw' strip on the back of my phone that isn't covered (well, it's partially covered with the old double-stick tape, but that's ineffective), I have to try to cover it with something.

This phone is rapidly turning into a paperweight. In another moment of 21st century irony, last night, while sitting downstairs with Greg, when I first discovered that the strip was missing off the back and the sd card was also fried, I looked at him and said, in great frustration, "Well now it's nothing more than a phone." Huh.

But anyway ... I'm hopeful. That the new digitizer will work right ... that I'll find something appropriately quirky to cover up the phone's raw bit on the back ... that I'll fix the broken apps and the new sd card will be fine ... that in a week or two it'll be at least somewhat back to normal, and no longer "just a phone."

(Actually I'm facetiously exaggerating - in fact, most everything does still work ... email, Twitter, games, camera, music, texts, Kindle ... oh, and the phone ... so it's not really that bad).

I also picked up a padded case for it today - it's actually a tiny camera case but it works. If I can get this thing fully functional again, I'm going to baby it like a Faberge egg.

21st Century Irony

I'm considering suicide, but I know I'm changing insurance policies in January - I'm switching from a private policy to my employer-provided group policy - so I'm wondering if I should wait (for the suicide attempt) till after January 1, as if it fails, it might be considered a pre-existing condition.

Gotta love life in the 21st century.

Or not.

(Of course, the fact that 'failure' enters into my contingencies means I'm not that serious so don't fret about this one. The one to fret about will be the one no one sees coming. ;o) )