So, here's how my day has gone.

Oh my god.

I know this day is going to make me sound like a zenophobe, but criminey.

Okay.

So, I played hookie from work today because my throat hurt and I had a fever and wah. I crashed on the couch, and slept through Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone, and woke up feeling better. So I got out my receipt and my phone, and called Best Buy.

I called the number on the receipt.

I got a horrible phone connection, to someone who...well, the conversation went like this.

Me: Hello, my name is Kristine, and I bought a camera a week ago. It wasn't in the store, and they promised to ship it to me within 3 to 5 days. It's now been 7 days, and I'd like to know where my camera is.

Customer Service Representative: Okay, now, let me ask you. Do you want to check your order status, or do you need me to get your receipt details for you?

Me: I'd like to know what's going on with my order.

CSR: (long pause) Okay, do you need me to check your order status, or get your receipt details for you?

*this is when my irritation started to build. To be fair, this woman's English was better than my speaking of her native language, but. I suddenly started to feel a very real rage about outsourcing.*

Me: I'd like my order status please.

(lots of clicking)

CSR: Okay, so we don't have a tracking number for your order yet, I recommend that you call back tomorrow, and maybe we'll know what's going on by then.

(Robb says he could hear the rage in the air at this point in time.)

Me: (as calmly as possible) that is completely unacceptable, because I was supposed to receive this camera two days ago, and I need to know what's going on.

CSR: I'm sorry, but I can't see what is going on from here, I recommend that you call back tomorrow.

Me: I need to speak to your supervisor, please.

CSR: You have to call this other number.

Repeat this conversation eight more times, as I call the BestBuy.com number (they can't help me because I didn't purchase the camera online), the store I bought the camera at (I got transfered from the computer department to the camera department to the customer service department to the geek squad), who then told me I had to call that first number, because there wasn't anything they could do for me.

Now, I have to tell you. I imagine that "normies" get frustrated in this sort of circumstance, but if you are making your life in retail, this is so much worse. I know how little it takes to give good customer service, and it makes me so completely infuriated when people just don't.

So, I called that first number again, and when they couldn't tell me anything, when their idea of good service was to email the warehouse, I cancelled the order.

Robb was all sad. He said, "We're never going to Best Buy ever again?" I said "We'll go to Best Buy, but I'll never trust them to order anything for me again."

So I went back to the good old internet, browsed around, found out my local Circuit City has the same camera for the same price.

And I decided I was well enough to drive.

The yarn I got from Lisa Souza.


Scheherazade:

The leg detail on Winter's Eve

I am completely in love with this camera.

Welcome back to a picture-filled Lilac Knitting.