Musings & Thoughts for Thursday, May 13, 2021, or: In Transit – The Saga of the Wayward Laptop Continues

Hi there, Dear Reader. It’s late morning here in New Hometown, Florida on Thursday, May 13, 2021. Currently, the temperature is 74˚F (24˚C) under partly sunny skies; with the wind blowing from the northeast at 9 MPH and humidity at 50%, the heat index is 74˚F (24˚C). The forecast for today calls for scattered rain showers and a high of 82˚F (28˚C). Rain will continue throughout the night and the low will be 65˚F (18˚C).

Well, if you have been following the Saga of the Wayward Laptop and are wondering how things are going with Best Buy’s attempt to replace the Lenovo – IdeaPad S340 15″ Touch-Screen Laptop that never got here, here are some good news.

In contrast to last week’s downright shoddy performance regarding the shipping of a small but expensive – by my standards, anyway – laptop computer, UPS has upped its game considerably and actually provided tracking information to Best Buy and – by extension – me.

Yesterday Best Buy advised me that the replacement for the lost Lenovo laptop had shipped. Like last time, UPS took a while (maybe 12 hours or more) to inform the store that the package was assigned a tracking number and handed off to its East Syracuse, New York center for its trip to New Hometown, Florida.

(Last time, in case you’re just joining us in midtale, UPS took its sweet time (six days!) to let Best Buy know that a shipping label had been printed and the shipping process started. It never bothered to provide any information beyond the words Shipment initiated. And it wasn’t till I asked Best Buy – in the nicest way possible under the circumstances –  [1] to look into the matter that UPS admitted that Shipment #2 (the one with the laptop) was lost.)

Happily, this time around UPS is actually on the ball and scanning the package.

Behold:

Shipping Progress

Last Updated: May 13, 8:47 AM

• Thursday, May 13      12:12 AM  Arrival Scan   Louisville, KY
• Wednesday, May 12 10:02 PM  Departure Scan   East Syracuse, NY
• Wednesday, May 12  8:48 PM Arrival Scan  East Syracuse, NY
• Wednesday, May 12  7:13 PM  Package was handed off to UPS  East Syracuse, NY

The package is scheduled to arrive tomorrow or, at the latest, on Saturday. Louisville is a 13 hours and 27 minutes-long drive by truck from New Hometown, Florida via I-75, so even accounting for rest stops and traffic on a business day, I think my Lenovo – IdeaPad S340 15″ Touch-Screen Laptop should be here by the end of the business day tomorrow. For sure it will be here on Saturday, unless someone decides that they want a free laptop and walk away with it.

If Amazon had had this laptop for the same price ($599 plus sales tax) on May 1, you bet your sweet bippy that I would have bought my Lenovo – IdeaPad S340 15″ Touch-Screen Laptop there rather than on BestBuy.com. Unfortunately, lots of the computers and peripherals sold on Amazon are not sold by Amazon directly but by third-party sellers with their own stores hosted by Amazon.

As a result, there is a wide range of prices and features that you have to delve into, and sometimes I don’t have the time, the energy, or (if we must be honest) the desire to look through every single offer or purchasing option.

And if I remember correctly, there were quite a few deals that looked good on the surface – brand-name PCs and laptops for less than $399 – but triggered my “Spidey senses” because they had the description  “refurbished to factory specs” added in the “product specifications” section.

So, Best Buy once again got my business because it specializes in electronics and had the Lenovo – IdeaPad S340 15″ Touch-Screen Laptop in stock and for a good price. Its only flaw is that it lacks its own delivery service and relies on UPS as its go-to shipper.

It could have been worse, though. Best Buy could have partnered with LaserShip.[2]

In any case, Dear Reader, stay tuned!

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[1] I was really mad, but I somehow managed to be civil to the Best Buy help center staffer on the Live Chat I initiated in a bid to find out where my laptop was.

[2] Before Amazon had its fleet of Amazon Prime delivery vans and relied on other companies to deliver online orders to customers, LaserShip was one of the company’s principal “last mile” delivery partners, along with UPS, FedEx, and the Post Office. I don’t know if LaserShip still partners with Amazon; I think it still handles Amazon Same Day orders, but I’ve never messed with that, so I don’t know.

But I digress….

Back when I still lived in my old South Florida townhouse, I had several unpleasant experiences with LaserShip between 2010 and 2015. “Misdelivered packages” was my main complaint; there are at least four townhouses with the same house number – 9708 – as part of their street address in the same condominium complex. And no matter what was in the package – whether it was a book, a DVD/Blu-ray, or a frying pan – the neighbors that received my stuff due to LaserShip’s carelessness kept the stuff. To this day, I don’t know who were the worst villains in those situations – the drivers who constantly misdelivered my items, or the persons who kept them.