Am I wanted by the Government?

Allow me to re-enact a phone conversation from work today...

[Caller ID displays random number with no city listed]

Me: "National FFA, this is Shane"

Caller: "Shane, this Officer Collins with the U.S. Capitol Police"

Me: "I'm...sorry?"

Caller: "This Officer Collins with the U.S. Capitol Police"

Me: "Hi? How can I help you?"

Caller: "Do you have any idea what this call is in regards to?"

Me: "I'm hoping its in regards to a permit I sent in for an event being held on the Capitol lawn..."

Caller: "Is there another reason why we should be calling you"

Me: "No."

Caller: "I'm sorry, did I have you worried?"

Me: "Honestly? Yes!"

Caller: "That has the tendency to happen."

WTF.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Two of my friends from college are National PAS Officers. PAS falls under the FFA umbrella and the organization is managed by our Collegiate Services team. They were at the FFA center today for the beginning of their officer training. I had the chance to sneak down to the meeting room they were in and poke my head in. They were eating lunch and listening to some of our staff speak. When they saw me they jumped out of their chairs and raced out of the room. They ran over and gave me a hug. It was so awesome to see them! I've been without my friends from college and home for almost six months now and it's getting harder and harder to deal with.

We must have stood and talked for ten minutes but it felt like thirty seconds. I let them get back to their training and almost had a breakdown on my way to the lunchroom. I would have given anything to spend some more time with them. I feel like there's so much I could have caught up on. Sometimes I wonder how I ever thought that this would be easy.

The Great iPod Screw-up! Part Deux

A manager from the local Best Buy store never called me back. Furious, I called my mom and asked her to mail me the iPod when she had some time to stop by the Post Office. She did and it finally arrived today. The new refurbished iPod seems to work just fine and the outside of it looks like new except for the missing serial number and Apple icon on the back. This makes me wonder if it is a knock-off or something...

Also accompanying the iPod is a small green card offering for me to take a survey regarding my iPod Replacement Experience. GLADLY!

The Great iPod Screw-up!

So my previous post detailed my state of mourning over the loss of my iPod. Here's how the in-store experience happened...(cue dream sequence soundtrack)

Geek Squad Rep: "Is your home address still 8 Julie Court...blah blah blah?"

Me: "No, it's changed. My new address is 6722 Sun..."

GSR: "Okay, we'll go ahead and send that out for service!"

Me: "Just to be sure, it's going to ship to that new address right?"

GSR:"No it will actually be shipped back to us here in the store. We'll give you a call when it's ready and you can come in and pick it up."

FAST FORWARD FIVE DAYS

I got a phone call from my sister that I got a package. I asked her to open it and she said it was an iPod. I thought, hmmm...I'll just call Best Buy and have them send UPS to pick it up.

First I called the store. They remarked on how unusual that was (thanks guys). They directed me to BB customer relations where I talked to "Channing". He proceeded to ask me why my parents won't ship it back. I informed him that it wasn't their responsibility to pay for it. He told me to call UPS and get a quote. I ship conference supplies all the time. Without the weight of the package, they can't give me a quote. He told me "I don't know what I can do to make you happy". I told him that he may need to re-think his career choice. I then asked to be transfered to someone with the Geek Squad.

A Geek Squad "Agent" named "LaQwanna" told me that I should speak to someone in customer service. She transferred me to "Isaiah". Isaiah happens to work in the cubicle next to Channing. Go figure. He told me that "Channing already suggested you call UPS sir". Thank you Isaiah. Before hanging up Isaiah told me to call the local store (IS ANYONE ELSE NOTICING THE CIRCLE FORMING HERE?). I asked him to give me the number of a service manager. He asked "from the store or the service center?". Heatedly, I said "Assuming this was sent out for repair, the service center". I then called the Dallas Service Center which was closed at 8:30pm.

I then figured my last ditch effort is to talk to the store manager. When I called the store, the guy answering said the managers were currently busy and wanted to take a message. After hearing more than he wanted to, he took down my phone number and name and promised a manager would call me back.


Now, we wait...

Click of Death

My iPod died recently. I've diagnosed it having, what google refers to as, "the click of death". In a nut shell, the hard drive died. After surfing the web to find some options, I learned that many iPod owners have had luck in reviving their iPod by whacking or dropping it. I was not so lucky. My iPod has truly gone to a better place. The large Apple Store in the sky. To affirm that it is in fact dead, every time I attempt to turn it on I see the following image accompanying the clicking sound:
The good news is that I purchased it from Best Buy two years ago with a service plan that covers it through March of 2009. With any luck, they will replace my iPod with a current model. If not, I'll need to wait until my next pay check to buy a new one. Either way, I'm in need of replacing it because I'm traveling at least three time between now and the end of July and without the ability to listen to music on the plane, I might go insane.

I would be remiss to note that when I purchased in two years ago, I paid $300 for 30 GB of storage space. At the time, that was the second largest iPod available. The largest was 60 GB and cost about $400. The most comparable model that I can get today is 80 GB for $240. That's right folks, I could pay $60 less for nearly three times the storage capacity. You really have to admire the evolution of technology.
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UPDATE: (May 10, 2008. 7:30pm) After bringing my iPod to Best Buy and consulting "The Geek Squad", I was offered two options:

1. Send my iPod out to be repaired.
2. Receive a new refurbished iPod.
   

I asked which would get me a working iPod the fastest and I was told that it would take two weeks to get a refurbished one while it would take "much longer" to have mine repaired. The way I look at it, the hard drive is shot. Essentially it would come back refurbished anyways except for the outside case. Feeling no emotional attachment to the outside shell of my current iPod, I opted for option two. These next fourteen days are going to be very quiet...

Margaritaville

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Tonight was spent enjoying the company of friends who have quickly become my Indianapolis family. We ate a Mexican dinner and drank margaritas after work tonight. The food was nothing amazing but the company was definitely nothing short of a good time. It's been a while since I've posted last and while this post isn't very fulfilling, it will have to do. I'll post again when I find a topic worthy of a good rant.