Ah, the wonderful world of YouTubing.

So I randomly decided I wanted to see if anyone had made a music video with Rumbelle to Evanescence's Call Me When You're Sober. There was one, one that didn't use the whole song, but it was depressing enough that I went in search of something more squeeable. I found a new Hallelujah music video with them, adored it, and decided to finally watch the clip where they do the Beauty and the Beast dance. Then some clips from the two-part season 3 finale came up in the sidebar and I decided to watch some of those, because I wanted to see Emma's expression when she meets Rumpel in the past.

That was priceless. ROTFLOL.

I ended up watching all of the scenes with Rumpel in the past, since those wouldn't be part of the mess that the present-day scenes turned into and hence, wouldn't upset me. He was hilariously wonderful, I love when he tells Emma and Hook they have to fix the mess themselves that they made with time, and then the scene where Emma has to tell him Bae dies in the future is heartbreaking. GAH. She begs him to drink the forgetting potion he made, because the events have to play out the way they did, and she's very emotional saying she loved Bae too and how he died a hero and not to take that away from him. Rumpel finally lets her go and drinks the potion. Once he forgets, he looks around, sees he's in his vault, and exclaims "... What the HELL am I doing in here?!?!"

More pricelessness. It was so unexpected and completely not what I thought he'd say that I burst out laughing. I hope I didn't wake Dad up.

Oh, how I miss when the series made sense. Maybe I'll invest in those earlier season sets I saw on eBay. I'd be willing to get the first three seasons, since I'm willing to accept up through the Neverland arc as canon (and would like to have those scenes from the two-part season 3 finale to re-watch). I will never be willing to get season 4, and I don't have much hope for season 5. But I'll definitely be hanging around to find out what happens in the season 5 episodes, at least. I just can't seem to let the show go and focus on just being happy with the earlier stuff; part of me wants to keep knowing where it's going, even though I'm 99% sure I won't like where it goes.

Maybe I'll try to put my Rumbelle icon back, if I can figure out something to remove. I started wanting it back when I wrote that latest vignette, but I wasn't sure how to fit it in. I'm still not.

Sigh. Oh Amazon.

So after a lengthy delay, the package shipped a week after ordering and it came today. I was worried more than once that I should cancel the doll part of the order because I was worried it would be damaged in the shipping.

You know, I honestly didn't stop to think that maybe they'd send a bad one to begin with?

I know the quality control on these is often bad, but I can usually find really good ones when I pick them in person. But this one features several small marks on her chest that will not come off. Apparently manufacturing errors, but it's really frustrating and disappointing. That, in addition to the doll box being OPENED when it arrived. And it didn't just pop open in the mailing; the tape that holds the top flap down was stuck on the inside of the box. Someone deliberately opened it. Maybe it was someone's returned merchandise and they didn't want it when they saw all the marks. WTH, Amazon?! Why can't your packers see things like this and realize that maybe people wouldn't want an opened box if they ordered something marked New?!

It doesn't look like the marks can be covered up by the second dress she comes with. I've been hopping mad for about four hours, and now I'm cooling off and I'm just weary and tired and exasperated and I don't know what to do.

Part of me wants to send her back and get a refund. I wouldn't trust them to send a decent one after this.

The other part thinks the marks are too small to ship her back just for that and the open box and I should keep her since I've wanted her so badly and the prices never come down offline.

A third part worries that if I decide to keep her and start taking her off of her box strappings, I'll discover some worse problem that will mean I'll have to send her back anyway.

I'm just ... so frustrated. And I wish I'd listened to my better judgment to never buy dolls online. I highly doubt I'll ever try that again, that's for sure.

I'd wanted to buy the Applejack doll that's on clearance at Wal-Mart, but this mess has got me so discouraged I wonder if I'll even want to now.

Problem resolved ... maybe?

I finally decided to talk to Amazon to see what they'd say. Apparently they can't replace items from that seller because the seller's inventory changes all the time, even though the stuff is fulfilled by Amazon itself. I don't get that at all, but I don't get how the fulfillment by Amazon works anyway, so whatever.

The person offered to refund, and said I could keep the item as a one-time exception since I was uncertain about sending it back since I'd wanted it so badly. I accepted that, but I wonder both if the person really has the authority to grant that and if it's really right for me to accept. I feel bad for the third party seller involved, because it isn't their fault that Amazon screwed up in the packing or that the manufacturer screwed up in the making. But then again, I'd be getting a refund either way, since I didn't trust them to ship another one and they apparently can't when bought from that seller anyway. And if I sent her back, I don't like the thought of them probably selling her to someone else who also might not like the marks and the open box.

So I requested a transcript of the chat in case there are any problems and now I guess I'll wait and see if the refund can really be granted if I don't send the product back. I wonder if I should wait to get her out of the box until I see whether it will really work this way.