Suburban Panic!

27 September 2003

Now, let's totally switch gears,
  I need to pass out even more ups. Not so big this time, but ups nonetheless. I complain about... well, everything, but today I had a pleasant experience, and I thought I should give due credit. It starts with a trip that I made to Best Buy yesterday.
  B.B. is my secret shame. I know it's a big corporate monolith, and it stands for everything commercial that irks me so. Yet, I can't stay away. More to the point, I have to stay away, because I either buy things I really don't need, or I get depressed because I can't afford to buy anything. I feed my filthy habit by asking for gift certificates, for birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries, bar mitzvahs, other people's birthdays, Arbor Day... I suppose you get the idea. Anyway, I had a couple of these plastic pieces of capitalist paraphernalia saved up, and (for once) I had a specific item that I wanted to purchase. I was looking for a carrying case to protect my camera from my natural clumsiness. I found one, picked out a color I liked, purchased it, and took it home. Oh, and I wandered into just about every other department before I left. (Hi, my name is LBB, and I'm a Best Buy-aholic.)
  When I got home, I discovered that the case didn't have these little divider thingees it was supposed to have. I was disappointed. Crushed, even. That was the only one in the color that I liked, and I knew if I exchanged it, I'd have to settle for a less desirable color. (Don't let the word color fool you. The ones I liked were all varying shades of grey. Oh, and gray.)
  I dragged my LB butt into the store on my way to work this afternoon. Sure enough, the other versions of that case were less attractive shades of gray or grey. Then, epiphany! Why couldn't I just take the dividers from the one I didn't like, and put them into the one I did like? Simple, right? In fact, it turned out that the two different shades of grey (gray) even had the same UPC number, which in the eyes of technology makes them the same thing. I mean, the net total of divider-bearing and non-divider-bearing bags would be exactly the same, right? Still, I was convinced that it was fruitless. There would be some iron-clad policy, and I'd be going home with a slightly less wonderful shade of... light black.
  I guess you can probably see where this is going. As it turns out, fantasy met reality, and the returns/exchange department allowed me to take the dividers home in the bag I liked better. I was blessed with customer service which actually was, and it made me happy.
  So, ups to you, Best Buy Deptford. Not huge ups, because you're supposed to be helpful and agreeable, damn it, but ups just the same. Keep it up.

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