After being ignored at the Big Box music section for 20 minutes, I skipped over to the Guitar Center next door.
After being ignored at the Big Box music section for 20 minutes, I skipped over to the Guitar Center next door.
I’m putting Torts aside to write about yesterday’s journey in awful aka, the Big Box fiasco Part II.
So, I’ve called Big Box three times to follow-up on the Flipcam I sent out for repair.
Yesterday I decided to take the camera to BestBuy because it’s still under warranty. So I hop on the light rail and ride it for 30 minutes to the Mall of America.
I get to BestBuy, explain to two different managers what the problem is, and wait patiently while they try to figure out their computer system…
Associate #1: “George, why isn’t this working?”
George (Associate #2): “I dunno. Manager?”
Manager: “Uh, let’s call Ron, manager #2…”
Ron (Manager #2): “Uh…that’s weird.”
Associate #1: “What are my hours for tomorrow? Can I get a mall pass?”
Ron: No. Walk around.
Manager #1: I walked around yesterday, it wasn’t that bad…
I’m standing there with my beauty pageant smile, thinking “wtf mate?”
The team fixes their computer glitch and calls the Geek Squad worker to look at the camera.
Geek Guy: “Hm. Looks broke, yo.”
Ron then tells me to go get a new camera. Yippie!
I bought the Flipcam for $179.99. It’s now $129.99.
The swank new HD version is $179.99….so I ask the manager if I can get the new version (because I knew that for laptop warranty replacements they look at the price, not product…) Ron says, “Sure!”
Hooollleration!
So this is where I fuck it up: Ron the Manager is giving me the receipt and the new camera, and I ask him if my old cord will work on the new camera.
Ron: “Oh, the cord won’t work will it? I guess you have to get the old version of the camera.”
Me: “Can I just get the new camera without the cord?”
Ron: “No. When we send it back to the manufacturer without the cord they charge us.”
Me: “How much is the charge? It’s a $50 price difference. The cord can’t be $50. I can pay for the charge. Can you look it up?”
Ron: “No.”
Me: “Well, do you sell the cords?”
Ron: “No. Go fuck yourself, thanks.**”
Crapola. Ron yanks the receipt and camera back. I cry a little inside.
So I take the 30-minute train ride home with my broke-ass camera. I then toss my room (like the KGB) and of course the cord isn’t there. That means the cord is in Miami…somewhere.
I then hop on a bus to Rosedale, to go to another BestBuy. The plan: try a sob story about Ron the Pissy, and if that didn’t work, just get the older version of my camera and take the $50 loss….but…
The trip to Rosedale was a little scary…. there was (among other things) the angry, speeding bus driver, and the med student in the front row screaming “WHEN YOU’RE DEAD YOU’RE DEAD!” into his phone…
…issues.
I eventually get Rosedale and find the store. The squat customer service lady gives me the ‘fuck you’ look and says (essentially):
“I don’t know what Mall of America’s Big Box was smoking. This is a service warranty, not a replacement warranty. Fuck you. We have to send it for repair. Wait two weeks. Go wait in the Geek Squad line. NEXT!”
The Geek Squad guy shipped the camera out and said he’ll probably call me. If not, oh well. Heh.
Okay, so, the next problem was getting home. Rosedale is a far-ish suburb…and it’s already dark.
I roam around a bit and eventually find a bus parked at a transit center. I ask the bus driver if his bus goes “to the university, downtown, or to the train”, the bus driver is non responsive, but this small, spritely woman on the bus says, “Yes! This bus goes to the 48th street stop for the train! That’s where I’m going!”
So I get on.
Mistake!!
Turns out that she read the schedule wrong. I realized this when the bus rode past Macalester College… in St. Paul.
The bus driver eventually stops the bus and asks us where the hell we think we’re going…
“To the 48th street stop!” the woman says.
Bus driver: “I don’t stop there. That’s bus 64H, this is 64B! Get off. Take the 54 to the airport. You offend me with your stupidity.”
Oops.
So we eventually get on the 54 bus, which takes us to the airport…
…what makes this annoying is that the airport is two stops from the Mall of America. I would have saved two hours by just taking the hour round trip back to the freakin’ mall…. although that would mean returning to Ron the Pissy… (but at least then I’d have a camera?)
The train eventually arrives. I take the train to the Stacks, hoping I don’t get shanked…
… I then walk to Carlson and leave with Jamie to go to Punch! Pizza.
Of course I bitch about the metro-transit/best-buy adventure in the car….
I had never been to Punch! Before. It’s co-founded by Caribou Coffee guy…think Chipotle: The Pizza Store, but not quite California Pizza Kitchen…
Jamie thought I was crazy, but the decorations in Punch! are scary… for example, the grizzly heads hanging from string above the drinks…there were also these dudes:
They are almost on the level of the schizophrenic lady who decorates our local McDonalds…
** Ron didn’t actually say that last part…his bitchy attitude did.
What a day!
So, things obviously didn’t go as scheduled, but today was eventful, random, and hilarious regardless.
I forgot to set my alarm clock. My cell-phone backup alarm woke me up 15 minutes before the start of class.
I slapped everything together and managed to get to class with 1 minute to spare. I didn’t forget my deodorant or my cologne either. Hah.
After class, I went to the dining hall with Matt, then showered and made an appearance at work. I’m a graphic designer/printer, and I had to start a large order from bosslady, even though I had other things to do. (The printer takes about 3-4 minutes per poster, and there were 20 to be done).
While bosslady’s posters were printing, I skipped to the health clinic where I was violated by a doctor, had blood withdrawn by a nice lab technician, and I received a shot. (“Received” is being nice…the nurse guy stabbed me in the arm!)
Good thing I’m not scared of needles.
I went back to work and my computer informed me that yet another file was corrupted. My computer’s files and folders have slowly corrupted/shut down for the past few weeks. I took the laptop to the on-campus tech place. They told me that I had to drop my laptop off and they wouldn’t even look at it for two weeks.
No thank you mam.
So, I ended up at Bestbuy. My MP3 player was also dead, so I figure I could exercise two warranties at once.
Bestbuy was a three hour long saga that could have been a disaster had it not been for good manners and preparation.
The short of it: Initially I was told that my computer’s warranty had expired, and that my MP3 player’s warranty wasn’t applicable for the damage.
So, basically, I was told “You’re SOL. Womp!”
But, since I was friendly with the Geeksquad guy,(and because the guy in front of me was throwing the king-of-all-bitchfits,) the Geeksquad guy offered to speak with a manager.
They offered me a deal: They would replace my MP3 player if I bought another warranty.
So, I got a $200 MP3 player for purchasing a $30 2-year warranty. Holler.
Then, I went to my car and tossed my glove compartment. This is where I keep my Bestbuy receipts –
including the receipt for the $350 3-year computer warranty I had bought last August.
I gave it to the stank customer service girl and smiled. She said “oh crap, we have no record of it! Oops. Good thing you have a receipt,” and sent me back to Geeksquad guy to update my service order with the laptop.
The laptop is in Gatewayland for at least a week. Maybe two. But at least it’s there on Bestbuy’s dime.
I got back to campus, engaged in that warzone we call a communal laundry room, back to work for a hot minute, and then to the dining hall with Carmen. Afterwards we went to the Senior Convocation to hear Anderson Cooper speak.
Anderson Cooper seems a little older, and skinnier in person, but he’s very charismatic. Here are the four best quotes:
“I’m not one to give advice. That’s Bill O’Reilly’s job and he does it very well.”
“And once you start sweating you notice how relatively sweat-free everyone else is.”
“To CNN’s credit they did send me to the Congo for two and a half weeks when they knew it would turn some viewers off. Especially since my major competitor is running a story about the missing blond of the week and getting better ratings.”
Girl: “I’m going on a journalism internship in Rwanda and Uganda, but I’m scared. Is it dangerous there? I don’t want to die.”
Anderson: “I don’t even know you and I don’t want you to die either. You’re not going to die in Rwanda and probably not in Uganda either.”
Donna Shalala didn’t give any closing remarks. I think she was scared of the two older men who weren’t allowed to ask questions. One of the Convocation helpers kept allowing undergrads to pass them. The question and answer session was then cut off, but the men still lingered by the stage.
I saw Shalala shoot a weary look at the men from the side of the stage. I think she saw the potential for a scene and decided against it. Go Shalala.
Her instinct was right: The older of the pair looked like he was about to jump for the mike. (I heard he was a security threat when he followed Anderson Cooper and Shalala backstage.)
I couldn’t go to the senior’s reception after the Convocation because I had to help with a Jeopardy program back at the dorm. The head of the Service-Leadership center on campus hosted, and he was hilarious. He’s our big, white equivalent to Chris Rock (with a little of Sarah Silverman’s meanness).
Jeopardy in the lobby was fun. One of my guy’s won.
Afterwards, on the way to the library, I decided to withdraw some cash from the student union’s ATM, but there was a hole where the card-sucking-thing is supposed to be.
I notice this, of course, after I put my card in.
My card plunked down into the machine and landed somewhere in the void. Probably on some bills or wires.
I spent the next 40 minutes on hold/talking to computers at Bank of America’s phoneline. I then explained my embarrassing situation to the (rather amused!) tele-help guy.
He said they would shred the card in the morning. I’ll get my new card a week.
And now, at midnight, I can finally start on my homework…on a library computer of course.
Long, fun day… I just hope tomorrow is a little less eventful.