Blog Note: I bought a lens from B&H on the 22nd. Now, a week and a day later I am still waiting for Federal Express to get their shit together and get the product to me...

Pyramid at the Louvre. Paris. 

I was intrigued by several reviews and lured by the affordable price of an M mount lens in a focal length that is almost foreign to me. The lens is the 21mm f3.5 Thypoch Ksana. I've had good success with three other lenses from Thypoch; the 75mm f1.4, the 50mm f1.4 and the 28mm f1.4. All for the M mount. The only other lens I have that is close to the 21mm focal length of the Ksana is the Sigma Contemporary 20mm f2.8. It's a fine lens but it's big and I can't use it on the rangefinder cameras. 

But this is not a review of the Thypoch 21mm. How could it be if I've never held the lens in my own hands? 

The day after I ordered the lens I got an email from Fedex telling me that they had received the order and had picked up the lens. The email stated that I'd get the package on Sunday the 25th. Of course we had horrible weather locally and there was no way they could deliver on the 25th unless they were willing to put tire chains on their central Texas delivery trucks. And that seemed pretty farfetched. 

I understand weather delays but here's where their customer service went profoundly down the drain, their notification on Sunday continued with the conceit that the lens would arrive on that day. It didn't and then, for the next five days Fedex ghosted me. No revised delivery schedule. No emails to update the progress of the package. No additional news. No forward motion at all. It was like the aftermath of a bad date but minus a nice dinner and drinks. Just the ghosting. The silence and the impenetrable wall of automatic response mechanisms with which they have used to replace human customer service people. 

But as always, my operational belief is that until the package is officially delivered to me, physically, it is still the responsibility of the seller. Of B&H. So, when all my efforts failed to elicit a Fedex response of any kind, today, I called B&H. They were perfect on the phone. They said they would attempt to track down the delivery and if they were not successful by the 3rd of February they would cancel the order and, if I desired, they would ship about another lens to me. The caveat being that Fedex is their only interstate shipper. 

Within a half hour of my pleasant and ultra well done conversation with B&H I got an email from our "friends" at Fedex. The delivery is now promised for tomorrow. I have no strong belief that this will pan out...

Now, before you cut Fedex too much slack because of weather issues just stop. My complaint wasn't about not getting the package on the promised day, or even in the promised week, it was about not being kept in the loop about the package's whereabouts or the progress toward getting it to me. When UPS has a delivery exception there is always an email letting me know something will be delayed and then supplying me with information about its expected arrival. Nice. Professional. Expected. 

But not with Fedex. If they had the good business manners to step up and tell me what was going on and suggested that they might not be able to get me the package for ten days or two weeks I would have understood. I'd be disappointed but I understand that lots of stuff is out of our control. But keeping customers updated and informed is within their control. Shame on them for bad customer service. I hope they credit back the cost of the delivery to B&H. And I hope B&H finds an alternate vendor to offer to customers who have been burned once too often by what used to be a reliable and able company. Maybe Fedex got bought out by a hedge fund and screwing up customer service is some money saving experiment. Whatever. 

Still looking forward to getting the lens. Even if I had to hop on a plane to NYC and pick one up in person....

Grrrrrrr.

OMG!!! Look at the crowds. Is the Louvre always this packed with tourists?

Oh, that's right. This photo series is from 1986. The Golden Age of Travel.