u/Sleepy_Owl1458

Hi. So I am in the midst of gathering the materials to build my home studio. I'm going the "portable" route with PVC and acoustic blankets. My apartment is quiet so I'm not super worried about sound proofing. All the research I've been doing has been making me a little unsure about the blankets themselves, though. Would it be a good idea to add studio foam? The build is going to be 6ft x 6 ft, and I'm thinking about mounting the foam panels to some sort of backing to hang them in front of the curtains in one corner. I'd be adding extra supports to help with the added weight. Would this have any real effect? Or would it just be wasted money? I'm looking at 4" Auralex panels, which would be a lot of money down the tube if it won't make a difference.

Ordered a MacBook and some accessories a couple of weeks ago. It was a custom build so it took a minute. Apple doesn't finalize the charge until they ship the items. The charges for the 2 accessories went through no problem (both cheap, under $100 total, got them maybe 4 or 5 days after i ordered). Today i get a message from Apple saying that my laptop is on hold because PayPal isn't authorizing the payment. I don't see anything at all on my account, no pending charges, nothing. So I contact PayPal. Agent calls me, which was nice. Tells me he can see the original authorization in April, and he also sees the denied charge this morning, but he can't tell me anything more than that. He doesn't know why it was denied. He dug around a bit, but came up with nothing. He thinks it may be because I dont usually buy things that expensive. Okay well, can I authorize the payment since it's not actually a security breach? No. He also tells me that unfortunately even if they try again, PayPal won't authorize the charge. Great. So then I call Apple, the girl confirms what I already knew, and she tries to finagle some things for me but it doesn't work. She tells me they'll keep trying, but the order will automatically cancel on the 18th. Meanwhile, I start a funds transfer from my bank account to another that has a debit card attached to it, but that's gonna take 3-5 business days and it's Wednesday. Earliest i'll have the money in that account is the 18th. So I try PayPal again. Maybe I'll have better luck with a new agent. I explain the situation, explain what the previous agent said. At this point I just want to know why it wasn't authorized. The new agent confirms the order was placed back in April, then tells me Apple probably doesnt have it in stock. So I explain again the custom build and they don't charge til its ready to ship. It's built now and ready to ship, but PayPal is denying the charge. She then tells me to call Apple and have them explain why the order is still pending because on PayPal's end the payment is completed. I explain AGAIN that it's because PayPal denied the charge. I ask her to look at the charge from this morning. The original authorization on the 26th was approved yes, but the final one was not. She says that if the issue was on PayPal's end, it would decline the transaction. LADY. IT DID. So I tell her, the transaction WAS declined. This morning. The previous agent confirmed that. She responds with "as I have confirmed on the account, the payment was already completed." She tells me i'll get a refund if I dont get the item. THE MONEY WAS NEVER TAKEN OUT BECAUSE THE CHARGE WASNT FINALIZED.

Thanks god this was through chat and not on the phone because I was ready to scream and I try really really hard to be nice to CSAs even when they're idiots.

I'm probably going to have to submit a new order and wait another who knows how long but I just needed to rant.