Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, to all!  I hope that you all have a great start to the new year ahead.

I have things I am pondering blogging about, but due to feeling poorly I don’t think I would do them justice.  Hopefully the new year will bring some relief the my illness.  This cold is making me so tired and everything hurts.

Neuropathy and Being Sick

I have not been feeling well for the last couple of days.  My neuropathy has been absolutely horrible.  I think it is because I had a cold or something, but I’m not sure.  It feels as if my hands and feet were set on fire and someone put it out to punish me, instead of letting me just burn up and get it over with.  I’m not sure if this is a common problem among people with neuropathy, but this seems to happen to me anytime I’m get a cold or anything like that.  Its times like these that you pray for better medications even if you are not religious.

Your “Friends”

You ever notice how your “friends” are out to screw you every time they get a chance?  I use the term “friends”; however you will notice that there are quotes around it, letting you know that I use it loosely.  Today for example, a “friend” came in wanting to buy a TV.  For some reason he thinks that a $1000 TV only costs a retailer like $250.  The guy was being a real ass about the whole thing.  I just suggested that he go and open his shop and he can deal with people like himself who think we have gigantic markups.  This was a loosing battle though.  No wonder so many small retailers go out of business.

Movie Rentals

I have to make a comment about this because it happens almost everyday at least once.  We rent videos at our store.  Now we do have quite a collection, but space does dictate that some movies eventually have to go.  Sometimes that movies get damaged beyond repair and if they are not big renters they just don’t get replaced.  Now the think that irks me is that someone will walk in and ask for some totally obscure and off the wall movie.  Of course, we don’t have said obscure movie and the person freaks-out.  They start complaining, even yelling, about how we never have anything they want to watch.  Well no one does.  The movie probably hasn’t rented at any video store in the past five years, but we are supposed to have it in stock for the day that this person walks in and wants it.  I have a suggestion, buy the damn movie from Amazon!

Customers Shopping at an Appliance Store

Just a quick observation.  Why do perfectly normal people turn in to complete assholes when they are shopping for an appliance.  They will walk into the store with the most adversarial mindset possible.  Remember that we are people too.  I personally want you to be satisfied with your purchase and I am not going to sell you something that you don’t want.  Even though my living is made from selling appliances to people, I don’t care if you walk out of my store without buying anything.  In fact, if your nasty about everything, I would prefer that you do leave without buying.  It saves many headaches for everyone.

Maybe this attitude comes from other shopping experiences, but maybe you should access the environment of the location you are shopping before getting an attitude.  If you don’t like the way they are selling, leave.  Go somewhere else.  Not every store believes in the “high pressure” sell.

Merchandise Returns

Today is December 24, the day before Christmas!  Many people have been buying like crazy the last three days, mainly because they procrastinated the gift buying process.  Now there is a frantic need to purchase gifts for the 10 to 50 people on the list.  This, of course, results in some very poor decision making.  The item you had in mind is no longer in stock. So you have to go to Plan B, find something QUICK.  Oh, the anguish.  Due to the necessity of finding a gift under pressure, returns will have to be made.  So I have some suggestions.

1.  Keep the receipt!  This is very important, as most stores will not accept returns without a receipt.  Most places will allow you to have a Gift Receipt printed up without prices.  Of course, the person receiving the gift will know what you paid when the item is returned to the store.

2.  When you receive a gift you know you will take back, for whatever reason, don’t destroy the packaging.  If you don’t want it don’t open it.  Stores like to just put the item back on the shelf after the item is returned.  I know that people could care less about big corporations like Wal-Mart, but markdowns can cause high prices for everyone in the end.  Small stores often have no recourse for open merchandise.  They must eat it or try to sell it at a loss.

3.  Don’t be an ASS when you return merchandise.  This will get you nowhere with the employees at a store.  We often overlook the fact that people don’t have receipts when they are nice about the situation, but assholes with no receipts can go find one.

Follow these simple rules and you will have success.

Christmas Attitude

Has anyone else noted the attitude of people shopping at Christmas?  About 75% of the people shopping in our store seem to be grumpier than hell.  Are they stressed out because of Christmas?  Everyone needs to take a deep breath and wake up to the realization that Christmas is not supposed to be about giving the best gifts.  If everyone would relax, we could all get along much better.

Well to everyone out there Merry Christmas!  If you don’t celebrate Christmas, I’m fine with that too.  So have a Happy/Merry ________ (insert your preferred celebration here).  Thanks for reading.

Shopping @ Electronics Stores

I would like to recommend that when you shop at an electronics store you NOT use terminology for the sake of using terminology. This is especially true when you are not familiar with the terminology you are using. For example you walk into an electronics store and ask for a “power inverter”. When you do this you will be directed to the power inverter section and shown a device that will convert 12VDC to 110VAC. You will not, however, be directed to the area that sells replacement ends for your laptop cord that you bent all to hell. Funny how that works. This will be especially frustrating for the clerk / salesperson when you continue to ask for the power inverter, insisting that you are right. Sometimes you are going to have to concede and admit that you are wrong.

What do I suggest? I suggest that when you are in doubt, bring in the offending item and show it to the person you are seeking help from. If this is not feasible, then you generic terms to describe that item / problem. Such as, “I broke the thing at the end of my laptop cord that plugs into the laptop.” There simple and concise, I now know what you need. A new power supply, because if I know that if you don’t already know what you need, you will screw it up and kill your laptop and possibly yourself.

Cordless Phone Batteries

Trying to help people buy a cordless phone battery is like getting your teeth pulled without anesthesia. They walk in the store and announce that they need a cordless phone battery. The following ensues:

Clerk – “Do you have the handset with you?”

Customer – “No.”

Clerk – “Do you have the battery with you?”

Customer – “No. But I know what it looks like.”

Clerk – “Ok, but here are all the choices. By the way you need the right connector as well as the right size, voltage, and mAh.”

Customer – “Oh SHIT!!”

Sometimes the individual will insist that they know which one it is. 9 times out of 10 they guess wrong and they come back to the store for an exchange. There should be a federal law saying that people like this owe you a consultation fee for wasting your time. They don’t like it when we waste their time.

Stupid Question of the Day 12/19/2007

Just a quick one before bed. This is a quote, “So how wide is the screen in a 26 inch television?” This is one of those that you stop for a second thinking that maybe its a joke.