Where the heck is my gosh darn t-shirt!

Way back at the end of August, the Obama Campaign sent me an e-mail - I could be one of the first to receive an Obama-Biden t-shirt if I made a contribution to their campaign. I bit. It was stupid, but I did. I sent them money. And I got an email confirmation. And nothing more. Seriously, it's now been more than five weeks, and I still haven't received my damned t-shirt.

I tried to be patient - I made it three weeks before I decided to call to see what was going on. I got the nicest woman who said something like "yes, they were delayed because there were so many orders; but we sent an e-mail to tell everyone they were delayed; the last of the orders went out on Monday." I pointed out that I hadn't received this e-mail; but she assured me I would receive my shirt, and then offered to transfer me to someone else who could help me further.

And maybe this other woman could have helped me, if she ever answered her damned phone or returned my voicemail messages. I left a couple of messages last week and heard nothing back. Nice, real nice. I hope when Barack wins, that he finds more responsive people for his cabinet than he has running his gosh darn Internet store.

I made lots more calls - once or twice a day. Sometimes I would call the number for the "store" that I found online, other times I would call the number of the non-responsive woman. I never actually talked to a real person.

Finally on Sunday someone actually called me back. After a brief explanation of the problem, she said "sorry, we're the Obama store, we don't actually handle those orders, those are handled by another group; you need to talk to this other woman, her number is ..." The funniest thing - this other woman's phone number is only a digit or two different from the first woman who didn't return my calls.

Nice, real nice. Unfortunately, I couldn't leave her a message, as her voicemail was full - maybe I'm not the only one who hasn't received my shirt yet?

And then, surprise surprise, another call, on Monday morning. From another very nice woman, but unfortunately, one who is challenged by simple logic. The dialog went like this:

Me: I was calling to see why I hadn't received my t-shirt yet.
Her: They were sent out last Monday, you should receive it by the end of next week
Me: [wondering where they were sent from that they take two weeks to arrive]
Me: Can you check on it?
Her: No
Me: What if I don't receive it by next Friday?
Her: If you don't receive it by next Friday, we will know and we will get in touch with you
Me: How do you think you will know if I don't receive it?
Her: We will

Ok, let's just stop there. You can't track it, but you will know I didn't receive it? How - through some sort of telepathy? Perhaps you will telepathically sense my frustration? Or will it be from the phone call you get from American Express when I call them to dispute the charge?