SoapZone Community Message Board

at the megachurch my neighbors attend. It was...interesting. There was a choir, an orchestra and an octet of singers who took turns singing lead on different songs. Everyone was very, very talented but the whole thing came off a bit...slick for my taste, especially since it was a church concert. I expect less from church singers <g>...then again, the program admitted they'd brought in ringers, ah, professional singers. And if the guy playing saxophone isn't a professional, he should be. He had a LOT of solos...anyways, it was a nice concert but a bit much for me, with all the bouncing and shimmying and over-emoting. One of the soloists had an epic poop-face that I believe was supposed to be her conveying her passion for her faith but was making me snicker.

On a less pleasant note, in mid-November, I was running dangerously low on checks, which I still use to pay an odd bill here and there. My bank wanted an exorbitant sum--close to $40 for only 80 checks--so I ordered online with Bradford Exchange. I was supposed to get my checks in "4-9 business days"...after 12 business days, they'd still not arrived. I called the number provided for inquiries about the status of my order and they said they'd shipped on November 19, four days after I ordered them. Hmmm. After another couple days, I sent an e-mail asking for a tracking number so I could check with USPS (which they said they used to ship my checks), and a day later, I got an e-mail saying they needed my bank routing number to "complete my order". Say what? So I called Saturday and got a very nice lady who told me the routing number I'd provided was wrong. It turns out I transposed 2 digits when ordering the checks online but in that case, a) why didn't the computer catch the error much, much earlier (I've filled out order forms online, missed a digit and got an IMMEDIATE "invalid" message) and b) why did their system tell me my checks had shipped?. I asked the very nice lady the second question and she got a bit testy with me. "That's not my department. I just handle billing" or whatever. Cool, cool, cool...but don't your departments ever converse with one another? Or more likely, doesn't one department's computer system talk to the other? She said she'd put a rush on my order, which is good because I'm officially out of checks and have one bill coming up that I usually pay with check.