So my stuff from play-asia actually arrived today after the general manager of play-asia noticed my situation and set things straight.
He explained that normally they dont give out UPS tracking numbers because if you commit credit card fraud and actually know the card holders address, once the merchandise has been shipped, you can actually use the UPS tracking number to reroute the parcel to a different address. Thus fooling play asia into thinking that the cardholder and recipient are of the same address but in fact are not.
While this does make some sense. It also pisses on the little honest guy who needs to contact UPS and cant get a word out of them because you dont have your tracking number.
He told me that he had spoken to this staff however to prevent this from happening to me again, he further extended his appologies by giving me some store credit that i can use no matter how expensive the item is. (the free coupons they send out with orders normally only allow you to use them if the item you are buying is $50 USD or more.)
I immediatly contacted UPS with my tracking number and they told me that for some reason my parcel had encountered an exception and for some reason had been kept in brisbane for a number of day's without even being attempted to be delivered, she then proceded to tell me that she had sent a note through to the depot telling them to dispatch for delivery as soon as possible.
I was contacted by UPS this morning telling me that the hold up had been caused by an internal communication difficulty between 2 different postal branches who use different tracking messages which mean different things in different offices.
He explained to me that on UPS brisbane depots end they read it as meaning that i had to go and pick it up from thier depot. But infact it meant that the courier had to pick it up for delivery. Reading the tracking message i can somewhat understand how you could get confused if both sides werent in complete knowledge of each others procedures but it still seemed a bit stupid.
He told me that he had set the parcel up for regional air so that i would get it the same morning instead of on monday. Which was pretty nice considering how long i'd already been waiting.
In response to Lance_C's comment to my last blog entry.... I honestly dont understand what planet you live on (i mean that in jest not as insult). Play-Asia is far from expensive. I bought phoenix wright 2 from them while i was getting an import game cause i reasoned (might aswell while i'm getting the other stuff), and saved myself $43 Aud on the game. Play-Asia wanted $30 AUD for it, a local retailer wanted $73.
When i bought Street Fighter Alpha 3 max i got it from play asia for the same amount as PW2, Local retailer wanted $79 AUD.
And as far as service goes, this is the first trouble i've ever had with them and as soon as the manager caught wind of it he fixed it immediatly and compensated me.
No offence but i kinda laugh when people like americans complain about the prices of games because they get them much cheaper than we do even after the conversion. Larger western countries are spoilt especially the US. I by no means know what its like in the netherlands tho lance so i cant comment directly on your situation.
Anyway, now that i have Dj Max Portable 1, a PSP hardcase, and PW2 in my possession i have plenty of gaming fun ahead of me, even tho i have by no means finished with Dj max Portable 2!. Even so.. i picked up Lunar Knights today for the DS... my first ever Hideo Kojima game.