Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Confirmation

Weird situation with a job application and a delayed or missng email

lorimer — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 10:27:22 -0800

I submitted an online job application I really care about and then I didn't get the auto-confirmation email promised on the "successful submission" screen. What should I do? It's been an hour.

I'm positive I typed my email address correctly, and I do zero spam filtering on this address -- none at the server level, none locally. The address itself is known-good (I'm receiving other emails there with no delay).

The company explicitly says not to resubmit apps and to "check your spam folder" if you don't get the confirmation email (I'm sure they will assume the problem is on my end if I resubmit).

POSSIBLE ISSUE:

- I unfortunately used an email address which might have been a problem because it has only a single-character user ID (i.e., it's in the form x@xyz.com). Once, a few years ago, this caused a problem with a web app that called it "invalid" because the app was set up with the assumption that user IDs are 2 or more characters.

They did ask for a primary and an alternate email address, and my alternate address doesn't have this issue. But it's possible that at some point in their system my primary email address might have been dropped or rejected and it didn't also try sending to the alternate one.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS:

- Should I resubmit the application exactly as it was submitted?

- Should I resubmit the application with my two email addresses reversed (alternate in the primary slot and vice versa)?

- Should I wait a while and, from a different IP address, submit a dummy application with a different address just to see if I do get the email confirmation for that? (And if I do get the confirmation email from that right away, then what should I do??)

This application was for a long-term, part-time, online writing job I think I would be PERFECT for, and for which the selection of people will probably be made pretty fast, so I really care about this and don't know what to do.

If I read this question, the advice I might give is, "Wait a while longer; their system could be really backed up." BUT time might really be a factor with this application process. This is a site that hires people to write about different topics, and I think the topic I applied for is perfect for me (and I'm perfect for it). So If there really is a problem with communication, the longer I wait the more chance I'll miss out on being considered (or contacted). I put a lot of work into the app, which included a writing sample.

Thanks for ideas.

Conduct at for a ceremony at a church I left?

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 16:54:33 -0800

How do I conduct myself at an important family function in a church I left on a sour note? A few years ago, I had a falling-out with my family when I admitted to them that I was atheist. Since then, I have moved out and graduated college, and over time we have become close again, but mostly avoid talking about church and God for obvious reasons.

My brother is about to be confirmed and I am invited to the ceremony and party. The day will be filled with Jesus this, Moses that, Abraham hit me with a whiffle ball bat. I haven't stepped foot inside my old church since the falling-out. Being relatively new to this whole godless thing, I'm not sure how I should conduct myself before people (old church acquaintances, the pastor, and others) I have been told I have "lied to", "hurt" and "wronged". I do not want to talk about Jesus or God, as I do not want to patronize people I have every reason to respect. Because of the way I left the church, everyone would see right through that hypocrisy anyways. I worry that I'm going to appear to be bad luck at the ceremony, considering I left it only a short time after my own confirmation, which might imply certain things about myself or my family to the church.

How should I congratulate my brother? Should I say "congratulations on your achievements" and leave it at that? How can I answer the prying questions about my choices and life that I am sure I will get (my church is packed with nosy types with no tact), without taking the focus off the fact that the day is about my brother and not me? I don't want to lie, but I don't want to be snarky.

No, Amazon.com, I refuse to believe your entire market consists of unemployed bums.

electric_counterpoint — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 06:55:17 -0800

How can I decline/avoid UPS and Fedex's #$!@ing "signature required in person" deliveries? I don't want to drive to any more farflung warehouses just to get my stuff! Everybody knows the problem: you order something online, you track the package, and on the day it's "out for delivery," you come home not to find your merch, but instead a door tag. "Sorry we've missed you," it says; "We'll be back at the same time tomorrow. When you're at work."

For people like me who work outside the home with something like 9-5 hours, this sucks. The retailer's attempt at security costs me three days of extra wait time plus the time and gas to drive to the other side of Ann Arbor and stick my head into some ill-publicized warehouse in the few hours between when I get home and when they close. Clearly I'm not the only one with this problem.

So how do the rest of you deal? Is there a standard way you can let your merchant know that, hey, I'm not going to be around, so just save the cost of signature confirmation and I'll take my chances? Or is there at least a number you can call to tell the carrier to save his time and not bring the package by, but rather just hold it?

I've been screwed by UPS and FedEx in the last few weeks, and neither of their websites hint at any way around their policies.

Should I stop purchasing Delivery Confirmation?

arrhn — Mon, 08 May 2006 17:31:02 -0800

Bah! My online store made a sale on April 24th for around $40, and shipped out the order USPS Priority Mail. Delivery confirmation (no insurance, no signature involved) indicates it was delivered on April 26th. Today, I get an e-mail from the customer asking where it was. A correspondence later, the situations seems that she never received it. My margins on this particular sale were not high; the customer has no previous history of making purchases from my site. I have no reason to suspect that she is lying.

Should I just send her a new order and take the hit? Or is there something else I can do?

And should I keep paying the delivery confirmation? At 35 cents a package, I've paid over $70 so far as "insurance" that this doesn't happen. But since there's no reason to believe this won't happen again, should I just be using that $70 to offset the loss?

Confirmation gift- music

jmd82 — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 07:20:57 -0800

My friend is getting Confirmed next week, and I'm looking for some good Christian music for her- a genre I don't know much about beyond the big names. She's a Sophmore in High School and is typically into pop-mainstream (Creed's her favorite band). Last year, I got her some Burlap to Cashmere, which she loved. They have a similar sound to Rusted Root. I am looking for suggestion of Christian bands which have similar sounds to these guys.
Barring that, I'm also looking for ideas of some quality bands that aren't primarily praise & worship. She sings in the Church teen-band herself, so she already knows of the popular ones like Jars of Clay, Steven Curtis Chapman, DC Talk, etc- basically the big players so lesser-known acts who still rock would be awesome. Thanks!