Almost burnt out

Physics, Linear Algebra, and English composition. Those are the three main focuses of my attention at the moment. I get off work at 10 pm, come home, and stumble my way through a lab report or a homework set. My brain has hit that state where it doesn't seem like I am absorbing information anymore it seems like nothing sinks in. It would be easy to give up and pay for the PSU and case out of pocket and pray that some day in the future they may deem it appropriate to give me the funds, but I don't have that type of money to throw at damaged parts so the computer sits powered down and unplugged in my living room.

I called FedEx a couple days ago to learn that no letter had been received and that my file states my claim was denied. I email the eBayer and he doesn't reply. So I send the email as a reply to one he sent me, thinking that my first one may have been caught in a spam filter, still no reply. Today I contact FedEx again and I tell the rep that I received a letter informing me that I cannot negotiate the claim because I am the receiving party, lo and behold he is completely aware of this fact and tells me about the letter of waiver.

[This implies to me that their script specifically tells them to avoid mentioning this to recipients who receive damaged goods until the recipient mentions it to the representative. Also note that the claims representative, knowing I was the recipient, sent me one letter that told me I had to submit documentation but did not mention that the shipper needs to submit a waiver...]

I ask this representative what to do if I can't contact the original shipper and he says that my claims rep would attempt to do so. I ask him what procedure is in place to remedy the situation if she can't. He tells me that I would need to call back on Monday and he would put me in contact with the claims rep as she would know how to resolve the situation.

So here we are. I'm over 2 months into my new computer purchase and regretting every minute of it. My capture cards are sitting on a table, still in their packaging, inert and unused. I wonder if they will see any use before the cable companies phase out analog signals completely...

I do not feel hopeful that I will receive any assistance from my claims representative on Monday, considering the nature of her letters it implies that FedEx just does not want to pay what they owe me for the damaged components of the computer. In the one online purchase I have made since this fiasco started I willingly suffered a delay of one day so that my package could be shipped via UPS instead of FedEx (the UPS pickup had already been made for the day). I am not certain that UPS has a better policy than that of FedEx but I do not want FedEx receiving any more money on my behalf if at all possible. I also recommend that everyone out there thinks long and hard when choosing a shipping company. I have had excellent experiences with DHL and UPS in the past.

I also learned an interesting fact from a friend. He apparently worked at the warehouse which handles all the packages shipped through FedEx for the local area. Packages travel down a conveyor belt and are pulled off at different spots depending on their final destination. For the city I live in the packages are pulled off at the very end of the belt. Frequently these packages fall off onto the cold cement beneath. I now wonder why they don't just place a matress at the end of the belt to save the falling packages. Most of the guys working in the warehouse, when he worked there, were between 18 and 24 getting paid decent money and did not care in the least about the safety of the packages they were handling because there was no incentive. Firings were frequent and there were very few long term employees that worked the night shifts in the warehouse. Makes me think that I am not alone.