Cochinoman tech, sushi, poker
When I upgraded from my Dell Studio 17 (Windows Vista) to the HP Envy 17t (Windows 8.1), the USB driver was not compatible to the Xitel Mp3 Streamer. Xitel apparently no longer sells or supports this sound adapter so I had to get a new one. After looking around, I found the Sound Blaster Play! 2 from Creative Labs, a well known sound hardware company. It was on sale for $19.99 on their site (see below) but I needed it ASAP. Luckily Fry’s also had it in stock, but for the full retail price of $24.99. Also, getting to Fry’s during the week with traffic was not something I wanted to do.
But I digress.
Then I suddenly remembered about Google Express being available in West Los Angeles. In case you are not familiar, it’s a “same day” delivery service provided by Google. No, they don’t use drones. Just old fashioned human drivers with regular non-auto-driving cars… for now.
Google gives you 3 months of membership free, then it’s $10 per month or $95 for a year. If your purchase is more than $15, then delivery is “free” so even if you use it only once a month, it’s not a bad deal. However, the delivery options are basically, all day, morning, afternoon or night. In my case, the morning option was not available in the menu. So the delivery window is actually worse than my one hour window that Time Warner Cable now gives me.
As you can see below, their website shows you a map of where your items are coming from and where they are going to. At the bottom, you can see their progress with your package. I put in my order before midnight so the delivery shows as “Tomorrow.”
For some reason, even though I added a new credit card during ordering, the order used my old Google Wallet credit card. Oh, oh. Is there a way to fix this problem?
As you can see above, there is a “Report a problem” link in the upper corner. This will allow you to send an email to Google Express. When they email you back, the email will contain a link to a chat and toll free number (855) 869-4949 for help. This is the first time I found an actual live person to chat with for Google. They said that they would “look into this problem,” but that the order had already used my old credit card.
Frankly, it was more important that I get this from Fry’s than what credit card was used.
By 3pm the next day, the package had arrived to it’s destination. Unfortunately, I did not see what kind of drone or jet pack was being used to deliver the package, but the delivery person was a young attractive female.
If there were more stores that participated with Google Express, this would be more useful. Since I don’t need or want to have groceries delivered, I’ll be using this service only for Fry’s for now. One day, I will never have to leave my house because everything will be delivered to me, or be driven around in a self-driving car. Either would be fine.
