Admittedly, I tend to lose passwords, and so I went to the "Forgot Your
Password?" screen which is supposed to give me a hint. This feature
couldn't locate my email address, though.
Then I decided to just damn the torpedoes and create a new
"eAccount". After spending some time painstakingly re-entering my
shipping, billing, and other information (including my email address) the
system informed me that it already had an account with that email address
and couldn't overwrite it.
So.. <*GASP*> I called their Customer Service number. I fumbled my way to
a vaguely appropriate choice in the labyrinth of IVR and sat on hold for a
few minutes. I briefly informed the kind rep who answered of my
problem. She was quick to point out that I "can't order anything."
I responded: "Uh, now? Or forever?"
"No, the customer database server isn't working," she comforted me, "it'll
maybe be back in an hour or two."
Apparently it had already been down for an hour. This was at 8:45pm. Peak
buying time. I wasted half an hour. Guess I'll go to Fry's. Bah Humbug.
-Ian.