tunnels, bridges

A while back, my dad had told me about a TV series I might like - "The Bridge". He said that one of the characters, a female cop, has Aspergers, and was sort of like me. I didn't get around to watching it, except a trailer. From what I read, it was a crime drama and I don't like watching gruesome and unpleasant things, so it wasn't at the top of my list.

But recently, I stumbled across a similar show on PBS (The Tunnel, season 2), and the character Elise immediately drew my interest and reminded me of what my dad had said. For a moment, I wondered if this could be the show he had been referring to, but no, this was a British/French show, and I'm pretty sure he had been talking about an American one.

It turns out that The Bridge was originally a Scandinavian TV show. The American TV series was based on it. The British/French version is the latest remake.

Anyway, the characters and plot of The Tunnel were so intriguing, that I ended up watching the rest of season 2, in spite of the subject matter also being very gruesome and unpleasant. I got Qiao to watch it with me, as he generally likes gruesome crime dramas. Next we'll watch season 1. Maybe I'll even check out the Bridge shows later on.

I feel a kinship with the character Elise. In many ways, she is different from me. But still, her difficulty in interacting with others feels very familiar, and I can totally relate to her.

iTunes (or maybe PayPal) stole $1 from me

Remember that song I bought on iTunes, which was so much trouble to buy?

Not only that, but in addition to the price of the song I bought, iTunes charged me an extra $1 which they are now refusing to give back. When I initially contacted them about it via their Report a problem link, they replied by email that it was only an "authorization hold on my credit card" and that it would automatically drop off in an unspecified amount of time. I was dubious, as the $1 had been taken from my PayPal balance (which I told them), not from a credit card. However, I found a PayPal page which indicated that those kind of charges might take a month to get refunded, so I decided to wait that long to see, before bugging iTunes about it again. The $1 never got refunded.

After the month was over, I tried contacting iTunes again via the same link (twice!), but even though upon submitting the report, the confirmation page states that they'll get back to me within 48 hours, they haven't, either time. I didn't even get the immediate "We'll be in touch" email response like I did the first time. So it seems like their system is purposely ignoring me now. (Why? I can't figure that out.)

I had also tried disputing the charge via the PayPal site, however none of the choices PayPal provides for the reason of the dispute seemed applicable. I clicked what seemed the most relevant one and chose answers to the remaining questions that were presented to see what would happen, even though none of the answers were applicable. I thought I'd be given an opportunity to either Submit or Cancel at the end, and that I'd choose Cancel and maybe then try a different initial option. But after selecting the answers, I was only shown a message like "Well, you said you received the thing you ordered (ie. the song), so you can't dispute the charge."

Now when I try clicking the link to dispute the charge again (thinking that maybe I'll select a different initial reason this time), the link doesn't work ("Sorry — your last action could not be completed"). I suspect it is because they previously decided that I have no grounds for dispute.
ARGH.

I do still have the option of calling the PayPal customer support phone number. Maybe I could find an iTunes phone number.

It is only $1 they stole from me. It's not worth the hassle. But it's not right.

Update, 2017/08/19:
I still wasn't getting any response via Apple's Report a Problem page. So instead I contacted Apple support via chat (from that support page, I selected the links for: iTunes - iTunes Store - Purchases, Billing & Redemption - iTunes Store Account Billing - Chat). During the chat, the Apple rep reiterated that the $1 charge was only an authorization hold, and told me to contact PayPal; that PayPal should credit me the $1 back.

So I disputed the charge via the link on the PayPal site again (the link was working ok now - maybe there's a time-out period for how often you can click it?) This time, I selected the option for reporting a Billing issue, and an "issue that's not described". I attached a copy of my Apple support chat, and submitted the report. Within 24 hours, PayPal sent me a reply that they had accepted my claim and credited the $1 back to my account.

So finally, the problem has been resolved.