NEW TOY (minivan) and Someone stole my hair!
We got a new toy. Okay so it isnt a toy, it is a new mini van (new to us, but it might as well be brand new because this car is in showroom shape minus one little scratch by the trunk) . This thing is really neat! Okay so I am quite pleased with it. It is a Pontiac Montana Thunder (with the Thunder Sport edition package on it which basically means it came fully equipped with everything on it) So everything in it is GM made and supplied and came with the van except for the Sirrus radio. Basically has an SUV sports package on/in a minivan. This is literately what they mean by a man van, hence why they marketed it as the minivan for those who did not want the soccer mom look.
It is an extended van so leg room a plenty even for my dad who is around 6/4 . The really neat part is that not only is there leg room but the seats are HUGE. It has those overlarge leather seats. Those racing seats. So if you compare it to other vans we have rented and tried with the carseats, this is the first time I have seen captain’s chairs that are overly compared to the kids car seats. Really cool. I also like how the they are not really close to the sides on either side of the van. Plus it has the side air bags that I wanted. Oh and that parking aid thing which if you all have parked in Wesley’s school’s parking lot, you would want those too. That parking lot is INSANE! Okay the 8 cup holders are a plus too. Another big thing is that I have this thing about the automatic doors. Of course now I am trigger happy and the remote is in my head backward. If you are looking at the remote and click the button on the left, it opens the right side door, if you click the one of the right then it closes the drivers door.
Tomorrow having the Viper 5900sst installed. Got a great deal on it plus with installation it is still cheaper then purchasing at Best buy or Circuit city. Remote start is a must around here with the humidity. Today without was not cool, though the van does get cool really quick. With those vents all over it cools down really fast. This one comes with a pretty need keyfob. It has a little picture of a car on it and tells you what is happening to the car. Plus the run button remote start and being able to do it a mile away instead of the normal ¼ of a mile is big. Need to get another keyfob for philly though since it only came with one. (Have to remember to check ebay)
The really cool part is that it came with a 5 year/120,000 mile warranty. The warranty is really nice it has the big warranty package on it. Covers pretty much everything in the car that is mechanical. We have one on the impala too. (last year I posted a post about having to fight with them about getting to cover a repair around june). It also came with 2 years of Sirrus radio. So we actually have around a year and a half to decide if we like it and want to keep it and renew or not get the service again. So far love it. They have this kids stuff station that the kids think it great! So combine that with the DVD player and the activity trays I got for them, then I think we have trips to ohio covered! SO I programmed in the kiddie stations and the news stations into FM 1. Philly can have FM 2 if he wants to program stuff in.
Now the fun part was getting it here. I was getting a little annoyed with trying to get some answers from the stupid transporting companies. SO finally I got tired of it and found USHIP.com. Okay so I will promote uship.com to everyone! If you have something you need to ship that will not fit in a box, uship is the way to go! I got a bid from this great guy on uship named Kelvin who happened to be driving a BMW that was won on ebay up to NY from Florida, so it worked out that the Minivan was in NY and needed to get here and He lives in GA so he was able to drive it down and then hop one of the flights to Atlanta. I was getting a little annoyed with getting dicked around by these moving companies. Saying they would be able to book the car in 2-3 days and then not hearing anything else from them. So took matters into my own hands so to speak and found uship.
I really like the parking aid thing! Came in handy with a nutjob person that parked next to me in Walmart’s parking lot today.
Any suggestions of a picture hosting site? Don’t really want to use the server or put it on the gallery and don’t really want to put it on the fotki. Hmmm Maybe I will start a fotki gallery just for family pictures and all.
The people we purchased from were super nice and you could tell they really didn’t want to sell it. They were moving from Longisland into NY city, so they really didn’t want to pay parking for it cause it wouldn’t be cheap. But they are glad it went to a home where we sure will enjoy it! It really is nice. We all like it! Can’t wait for my folks to ride in it!
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ON to what happened with my shipment
We know for sure it was packed right in India and wasn’t even opened by the India post once the boxes were split up to get it out quickly. Then we know it was okay through USA customs because if something had happened during customs, you get a call and have to fill out all this crap and I have to have my supplier supply a picture of the box to show how it was before. (we went through this one time about a year ago but nothing was missing the box has been dropped and burst at the seams in customs)
ANYWAY, so I saw by the tracker that this last box went from customs to Columbia SC and it sat in Columbia for 3 days. Didn’t move! So I kept calling the post people trying to figure out what was wrong. So finally the next morning I see that the package is enroute. So I expect to be able to pick it up that evening at the local post. So Weds I run to the post before it closes to pick it up. Nothing . It isn’t there. I thought maybe it was still at the sorting place and just came in too late to get delivered to our local post for the day so I didn’t think anything of it. It happened before so I figured that was what it was.
Thursday was when Ernesto came through and they closed the post really early and so when it was not delivered I didn’t think anything of it because I knew that the post had closed around 10am. Friday, I drop my 5 year old at school (kindergarten) and my daughter and I just sat out in front of the post office to wait until it opened at 8.30am. I go in and the package isnt there. So I say WTHeck (my daughter was there and she is 3 but I was thinking something else) I don’t have the tracking number on me, so I run home and look it up and that is when I see that Tuesday it was sent to Augusta GA and stayed there until Thursday evening and then was sent back to Charleston SC.
When the box came on Friday afternoon my carrier said, Girl someone busted a hole in your box. The weirdest part was that it looked like the cotton cloth they wrap around the box had be sliced not busted on the seams and the box had a huge hole in it. I could see all the hair instead. So we opened it right there and I could tell it wasn’t right. My suppliers are good about bagging things up so I know how much is in each bag and how many bags of each size it takes to make a KG. I have been working with them for several years, so I am pretty good at noticing this. I could tell right away that not only was half of the bulk hair missing but the majority of the handtied weft was missing. Everyone is thinking it happened it Columbia and that is why it was missent to GA to hide it and to hopefully have the package get lost. They had also ripped all the shipping labels and everything off. (lucky thing is my supplier also puts my name and everything on the box and on the cotton wrap. So I weighed everything out and yeah I am missing a little over half of the handtied weft hair CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?
We are turning in all the labels and pictures from my supplier to the investigator today so they can get started on the case. My supplier is now going to use my fedex account to send my hair to me, so I do want to let you know this shouldn’t be a problem again. I couldn’t believe it I am still floored! I mean it was obvious stealing too. Not just taking a little bit that might have been caught, but this was a bunch of hair. KGS of hair! So it had to be an inside job because there isnt any way anyone else would have been able to hide that much hair!
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SO where i am excited about the van and all, I am pissed off about the hair. This is making this week very stressful.
OH yeah let me also mention the other big screw up the post office did. ALl of my express packages that were mailed friday morning (8:34am by the way) have been screwed up and were not delivered in the right away on time. Did they go out on friday like they were supposed to? OH no, the post office screwed up all the packages that were in express envelopes. Oh the one that was in a box made it on monday. The priority boxes made it yesterday. But the express envelopes? OH NO!!! they screwed those up big time! I am so disgusted by the post office that I just dont want to send even a letter through USPS at this point.