this is the email i just tried to send:

From: sabrina l. downard
To: iTunes Music Store Customer Service
Specific Request: Computer Authorization

Hello. This message is actually not in regard to computer authorization at all, but this was the only form I could find after jumping through at least a dozen pages (half of which just directed me back to http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/musicstore.html, which has no actual "contact support" option on it beyond the one at the bottom of the page which tells me I'm not entitled to support -- honestly, guys, you need to make it much easier to get in touch with billing; this is nuts.)

I was in the middle of downloading a bunch of stuff and my computer wigged out on me (iTunes started skipping during playback and everything else was completely unresponsive), so I had to shut it off and restart. After restarting, I used "Check for purchased music," and it started downloading again -- except for one particular track, which it doesn't see and didn't complete downloading prior to the crash (perhaps it was writing it to disk when the crash occurred?). I would like to get that one track without re-purchasing it. It's track 11 from "200 KM/H in the Wrong Lane," by t.A.T.u., called "Show Me Love (Extended Version)." Please contact me with instructions on how I should go about getting this track, since iTunes won't see it, or credit my account (sld+somethingorother@uchicago.edu) with the $0.99 it would cost to re-purchase it.

Thank you.

but the form rejected it because of an “invalid email address.” so i modified the address to just “sld@uchicago.edu” and added this paragraph:

Oh, for Pete's sake. This web form is rejecting my support request because it claims my email address is invalid because it contains a plus character (sld+somethingorother@uchicago.edu). A plus is perfectly valid in Internet email addresses, and has been since NINETEEN EIGHTY-TWO. Read the RFCs -- a good place to start would be RFC 822. Argh!

but then it still rejected it as invalid.

so i guess i don’t get my pop music.

at least until monday, when our apple campus rep gets to work and checks his email, wherein i’m going to ask him who i should yell at for this particular stroke of customer-care genius.