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Tuesday 9 December 2008

Infernal contraptions!

When we first bought a computer about twelve years ago, P's Aunty sent us a little rag doll. The doll was called a 'Dammit Doll' and came with a little poem. I don't remember the exact words, but basically it said that the doll was for relieving frustration. Whenever the computer wouldn't cooperate with our instructions, we were supposed to bang the doll on it and yell 'Dammit' until we felt better. I've no idea where the doll went, but boy, could I have used it tonight!

Everyone knows about computers, how they eat things. Most have learned the hard way, by losing something really important which they've forgotten to back up. Hands up, how many of you have lost chapters of your book? Yes, me too. But this time my frustration wasn't what the computer ate, but what it refused to digest.

At the school I work at, student book orders are pre-packaged. You fill a form in about this time of year, then in January you go along to school and pick up the bag that's yours. It takes two minutes, then you shoot down to the uniform shop and pick out what you need there. You've wasted an hour at the most and you're all ready for the new school year.

At Eldest's new school, you order the books, then the shop brings up the required number of each book and you walk around picking out what you need. So there's queues and waiting to pay and maybe missing out because someone picks up a book they haven't ordered and...and it's not till the day before I go back to work and I can't be bothered with all that. Therefore I opted for the 'easy' method...mail order over the internet.

It was easy - up to the part where it said 'Your transaction has not been accepted' and gave a code. Obviously the code is the reason why the transaction was not accepted, but nowhere on the site does it tell you what the code means!

To make matters worse, P heard me cursing and came to 'help'. P's way of helping is to say, 'Here, let me see if I can do it.' After 20 years of marriage, you'd think he would have worked out that I hate someone taking over when I'm having trouble with something. Art teachers who took the pencil out of my hand at school probably never realised how close they came to being whacked with a pencil case or something heavier. Offer advice, yes, thank you, but never take over. So I was well and truly riled by the time I gave up (after P had tried another three times).

I know there's money in the account. I know I filled out all the fields. So why the .....! wouldn't it work? Tomorrow is the last day it can be done before they start to charge double on the postage and I'm at work all day. So I'm going to have to let P do it after all. I'm just hoping that tomorrow, during office hours, their computer doesn't suddenly say 'Oh, look at all these orders for the same books and from the same person' and start processing them! If it does, I'm about $3000 dollars out of pocket and Eldest has a room full of Maths, Physics and Chemistry books.

Where did that Dammit doll go?

5 comments:

Brenda said...

I love the idea of a dammit doll! grin...My poor doll would have a headache for life from me beating it against the computer...

Hope all works out for you...there's always ebay if you need to sell any of those extra books...grin...

Anonymous said...

I make Dammit Dolls if you want to get a new one and they are all on sale!!!

http://www.thedammitdollstore.com/DammitDolls.html

Carla

Kelly Polark said...

Hee, hee dammit dolls...
I hope P can figure it out for you and place the order!

Kate said...

Glad to say, it all worked out in the end and we're only expecting one box of books (I hope!)

Carla, cute dolls! I hadn't thought about using them for frustrations other than the computer.

Rena Jones said...

LOL @ Dammit Dolls. I might have to look at that site. I could definitely use one of those. Our computer croaked on us recently and we were able to transfer everything to a new one in time. However, we missed one thing, which was all my scans. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal because I can just scan things again. However, I had scanned a bunch of old family photos from albums my sister loaned me. She lives in TX and I live in MT so I don't have access to them now. It's really depressing.

Good luck with your order!