(no subject)

Oh, IKEA.

To be fair I should not have gone there on Labor Day when one million students are getting ready to start college. But this makes all my attempts to buy furniture in tiny quantities and haul it home on the subway look almost sensible.

I bought a couch. It is hard to bring a couch home on the subway. So I scheduled a delivery. They said that I should just inform the delivery company, when they called, that I needed an evening delivery and it would all be okay.

So, one week later, the delivery company calls, and explains to me very slowly and carefully that actually I needed to call IKEA and do a time stop, and that would be an extra $50 on top of what I'd already paid for the delivery. Keep in mind I am already freaking out because why did I buy a couch when I am moving every year and it's going to be so expensive to keep moving it, and it's so expensive to buy furniture, and why is it so expensive to be an adult?

So I called IKEA back and I think by now I've burned through most of the minutes on my cell phone just with being on hold. And, yes, I'm going to have to do a time stop, and yes it's going to be $50 extra, and they won't give me a break on it even though it makes no sense that no one told me at the time about the extra charge, and finally they mention that they can deliver on weekends.

Soon I will have a couch.

If nothing else goes wrong.

"If nothing else goes wrong."

Several hours after the previous miscommunication, I got another call from IKEA's delivery people confirming that I had a delivery tomorrow. I tried to explain that it had already been rescheduled; they said it hadn't been, and I should contact IKEA. I tried to do this. No one was picking up their phones.

I called the delivery company again, re-explained everything. They said they had no record of me rescheduling anything, and at any rate they didn't have any deliveries available on Sunday. I reluctantly rescheduled for the next Monday (note: two weeks after having bought the couch!), thinking that I ought to be able to get a day off work since I was scheduled to work Saturday.

I wrote an angry e-mail to IKEA. I wrote an angry e-mail to the delivery company.

Several hours later, I got another call from the delivery company, saying that I'd tried to reschedule to Sunday and tried to reschedule to Monday, and which would I prefer?

I have been saying that I'm going to have a I-bought-a-couch party just because I'll finally be able to have people over to visit, but I didn't anticipate that buying a couch would be an actual celebrateable accomplishment.

--

I am finally catching up on Doctor Who somewhat. Mixed feelings about the 3rd season -- I liked the second half very much, but much of the first half came off as kind of silly. (It was necessary setup, in some cases, but you can do necessary setup and a good story at the same time.)

I am profoundly glad that I wasn't watching when it was first aired, because I really hate taking sides when it comes to shipping stuff. I think I wouldn't have tried to get back into it at all, except that I got the impression (from fannish osmosis) that I wouldn't have to worry about shipping anymore once Amy and Rory got into the picture. (That said? Martha is SO GREAT.)