bad apple

So, I was excited enough about the new Gift feature on iTunes to mention it in a post the other day (okay, only cryptically -- although I did tag it and I did share the news with people in my offline network). I was even excited enough about the feature that I USED it yesterday, but NOW I'm annoyed enough by it to be posting about how bad the service is.

And, can I remind you? It's a 99 cent song that has driven me to such ire. 99 cents, folks! I bought someone one stinkin' song and, for some absolutely unknown reason, it has not been sent to them.

It's there, on my Purchase History. 99 stinkin' cents + 6 cents in tax for this one song that has not been sent. There were no error messages to say that it could not go through. No alerts to say that I needed to update my credit card information. The email address that I gave them is correct. The recipient has checked their spam filter and there's nothing there. I also have not received a confirmation email from Apple (although I tend to get those a few days later when I buy songs for myself).

I looked for information in the FAQ about how long it normally takes to deliver a song but it was no where to be found, probably because the obvious answer is IMMEDIATELY because this is a computer and it's not like they have to figure out if the song is in stock and then send it over on a cross-country donkey trek. I tried to report the problem (they have one of those buttons) -- and I did -- but I didn't receive a confirmation for that either, so I have no idea if that complaint and the song are somewhere together (dancing -- alone) hiding out. I tried to send the song again (they also have one of those buttons) -- and I did -- but GUESS WHAT? There was no confirmation that anything came from that activity either.

If this doesn't work, I will have lost 99 cents. No big deal. If this doesn't work, Apple, however, will have created an ambassador for negative word of mouth out of someone who normally worships at their altar.

Oops, looks like they already did.