Venting: Catch-22 Tech Issues

I buy my domain names from a local company that I've worked with since 2000 that gives me a decent deal and doesn't try to upsell me all the time. The only problem is that some functions have to be done manually by support and support isn't always on duty for things like "add this CNAME to my domain registration" or "obfuscate my email address." This has only been a problem recently. I can change DNS servers myself.

 I signed up for Google Apps to move petticoatdespot.com/.net/.org to blogspot. Step 1 was to get email set up. I sent my registrar the info that Google said to put in and they put it in, less than 10 minute turnaround. Seriously, Ian, Dude, you are my favorite domain registrar tech support person partly because you always seem to be the person who handles my requests and partly because you work for my only registrar. And you get shit done when you're actually at work. Maybe Ian is the only person who works there? Ian said that when I got to the next step that it would give me some other info to enter, so just respond with that when I get there and he'll add that too. Ian is helpful like that. It took about 6 hours for that to propagate to Google and in the meantime, I couldn't proceed to the next step, but "don't worry," Google says, when it propagates, I can go to the next step.

(Pictured is actually a guy named Louis, but this is how I imagine Ian: young; nerdy; not burnt out yet; not quite sure how to smile for a camera; in a black shirt with dark, chipped fingernail polish. I would totally date Dream Ian if I didn't already have an awesome, cute nerd guy of my own, who is asleep in bed with a toothache while I am out here venting like a wanker trying to not type too loudly. I can't tell though what kind of music Louis likes. He looks kind of like a prog rocker and I prefer Dream Ian to be a goth. Dream Ian wears guyliner.)

Well, it propagated but when I went to the next step, I got a mystery error. "An error occurred. If you keep getting this error, try again later." Thanks. I tried the next day. No luck. I decided to restart the browser and go back to the same page. Congratulations! You are set up! Oh, I guess Ian was wrong? Maybe? Don't let me down now, Ian!

A few days later, I set up Blogger for Petticoat Despot and tried to use the domain. The instructions said that I should add the domain and then I will get an error that will give me the information to add to the registration that I have to have done by hand at my registrar. I didn't get an error.

That's right, the instructions told me that I would get an error, then I didn't get an error, and that in itself was an error. I love computers, really, I do. Anyway, I thought that maybe the thing that I did for email had already done what the error message was going to tell me to do, so I tried the domain. DNS error, so no, that's not it. I figured that maybe what I did for email setup was interfering with blogger domain routing setup, so I sent a test email. DNS error. Darn, if that Ian guy wasn't right all along.

I got busy with other stuff. I could get along without the domain working and I couldn't figure out how to get back to that process that I was supposed to have gone through for email, so I put it off. I also couldn't figure out a way to get the info that was supposed to be in the error so I could send that to Ian either.
Now my 30 free trial of Google Apps is about to end, but no biggie. I have $5 to throw at Google to keep my blog up. I go to billing setup. I go through to the final submit button and then... ERROR!

That's it. That's all the information that the error gave me. I filled out the forms from scratch three times, same error. Then I noticed something else on the page:

Oh, finally! A link to take me back to that step that Ian said I was going to have to do! Which I now can't do because my teensy local domain registrar's employees are asleep like reasonable people. And apparently, I have to complete that step to be allowed to enter billing information so that my blog won't be disrupted.

Seriously, Google? Seriously?