Whipping Post

Before I begin my post today I would like to inform you all that I have planned something spectacular! Due to the overwhelming fact that my total page views is almost at 1,000, I would be delighted to say thank you in a very special way! So, to show my gratitude, here is my idea, and I hope it goes as planned. I would like to honour my readers by dedicating one entire post to a selected 5 people each. Each post will be structured the same as all the rest in that it will center around song lyrics. I will choose a song that best fits the story behind our friendship and how I feel about our relationship. This is how it will work: when you open my page to read a post, look at the middle, right-hand side of the site and check what the total page views number is at. If you are anywhere from the one thousandth viewer to the one thousand and fifth viewer then I encourage you to write a comment on the most recent post saying that you are one of the lucky winners and you would like a post dedicated to you! Obviously, if you see that you are one of these viewers and you don't want me to write about you then that is completely fine. Just leave it be and everyone else who logs in after 1,005 can check to make sure there are, in fact, 5 people vying for a spot. If you see there are not yet 5 and you want a post then be sure to write a comment! I know this is kind of silly but I think it will be fun!

Okay, to today's post...

"I've been run down
I've been lied to
And I don't know why
I let that mean woman make me a fool
She took all my money"
                            - Whipping Post by The Allman Brothers

Who doesn't love The Allman Brothers, right? This song is especially a classic.

In the case of my post today, the "woman" that is being mentioned is the cheap flight booking company called lastminute.com. Or as it says on their website, they are "the UK’s leading online travel & leisure retailer".

Well, I am very angry with lastminute.com because they took my money and now it's been held hostage from me for 4 days!

The reason why I chose this song today is because I feel as though it relays the feelings I have about what I am going through right now. Metaphorically speaking, I feel like I am being punished day after day for making the stupid mistake of trying to book a flight with a company that doesn't even have the authority to take bookings, but still takes your money anyway!


Let me start at the beginning.

For the past two weeks or so I have been looking for a cheap flight ticket for my short visit home in May. I searched every cheap ticket search engine possible and saw that many times an inexpensive flight would pop up and then the next day would be significantly more.  This made me anxious about buying a ticket so when I got paid this past Friday I jumped on the chance of purchasing a flight ticket before the prices could go up any higher. I found this website called lastminute.com that had an Air Transat return flight that was a good price so I went through the motions and bought it.
Or so I thought, until I realized I didn't receive a confirmation e-mail but noticed that the money had been taken out of my account. So I called the company and they said it takes up to two hours for them to wait for the actual airline to confirm the flight price details and availability. This is when I realized I had made a mistake. I didn't realize I was working with a middle man!
I waited two hours and nothing happened. So I called again.
This time they informed me that the booking, in fact, did not go through and I wouldn't be able to get my money back for twenty-four to forty-eight hours.
So, I can't book a flight until I get my money back and I can't get my money back probably until Monday!
At this point I wished I was the kind of person who was okay with yelling at strangers on the phone.

It is now Monday.

I still don't have my money.

I made several phone calls to both the bank and the company and basically one is telling me that they have authorized the payment to be put back into my account and the other is saying they have authorized the money to be sent back. So what's the freakin' hold up!?

Needless to say, I am extremely infuriated with the entire situation, as well as with myself for not realizing that this company wasn't able to give me my flight when I gave them my money.

"Tied to the whippin' post
Tied to the whippin' post
Good Lord I feel like I'm dyin'"

I don't get mad very often so I am really struggling with trying to keep a good frame of mind. I am just afraid I will end up having to pay way more than I would like to.
I have today and tomorrow off and I was kind of looking forward to going out for runs and maybe walking up a hill or two. But instead I have basically set up camp in my bed, on my computer, hitting the refresh button on my online banking page every ten minutes, waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting for my money to come back to me. I am not going to do anything or go anywhere until my money is back and my new flight is paid for. I don't care if that makes me pathetic. I will not feel any motivation to do anything until this is over with.

The bank said it should be in my account by tomorrow. It better be! If not, someone is going to get hurt!