I checked about ten times over the course of the convention, each time giving someone at the desk my name and asking if a package for me had arrived. Each time, they said no. I checked once more as I was checking out, to no avail.
When I check the order status trying to figure out what happened, I find:
July 26, 2002 3:24:00 PM BALTIMORE-HARBOR, MD,US DELIVERY
This was the day after I arrived at the hotel.
July 29, 2002 7:20:03 PM BALTIMORE-HARBOR, MD,US COMPANY OR PERSON UNKNOWN, NOT DELIVERED;PACKAGE RETURNED TO SENDER
This was the day after I left.
The hotel had the package nearly the entire time I was there, and most of the times I asked, and failed to give it to me.
Anyway, I checked this when I got back from Otakon, the evening of the 29th. I got onto buy.com's support site and tried to get them to send it to me at my home address instead. They tell me I have to wait 13 days from the time of the order before I can report a package missing.
I should note here that buy.com offers no way to get ahold of an actual human in this process. E-mail just doesn't cut it for me - there's no guarantee that it's not being entirely processed by a machine. They don't even have a fucking phone number. At all.
The big problem here is that 13 days from the time of order, I was scheduled to be in Yellowstone Park - about as far as I've ever been away from civilization without being over the Atlantic Ocean. Needless to say, I wouldn't be getting a net connection until I got back.
Now, it has been three weeks since the order, and I've finally submitted a "claim" to them, explaining the situation.
They tell me to wait 7-14 days for a response.
...I'll be lucky to have the card delivered before I take off for college.