Old Fogey?

Maybe it's a sign I'm getting old, but I prefer my dinner without club music. Especially at an upscale restaurant with upscale prices. City Cellar in Westbury was always a place we reserved for special occasions or when we felt like a little self-indulgement. But somewhere along the way, the soundtrack changed, and the atmosphere has morphed from subdued to pulsing. It's really a shame, because it's virtually impossible to relax and enjoy your meal.

Worst Buy

...but they're clueless about customer service.

I had the worst customer service experience of my life at Best Buy this week. I'm still hyperventilating. Five separate trips, a cumulative total of 2 hours on line, over 1 month of no computer use, and the manager and I end up in a screaming match that provides the day's entertainment for all the other people on the Geek Squad line. (Sidebar: someone I know casually from business made the mistake of saying a cheery "hi!" to me in the middle of this scene. Wrong decision).

The issue was my failure to advise the Geek Squad that I needed MS Office reinstalled when they rebuilt my son's laptop. As opposed to not having it reinstalled, of course. Because we only bought the software and had it installed by the Geek Squad in the first place, and Worst Buy naturally had no record of this in their system and didn't think it was worth the effort to read the original receipt I brought in with the service contract on visit #1 -- or even, God forbid, think to ask if we needed MS Office installed. It's only (probably) the most important program for your average personal computer. Instead, they relied on me, Notorius Computer Expert, to advise them about what the laptop needed and let me get all the way to visit #5 before discovering that the laptop didn't have Word. (And for the record, I found out by accident, by taking the laptop for a quick spin around the block before packing it up to leave).

AAARRRGGGHHH!

It was a stand-off with no resolution. So after busting a gut, I took my laptop and my future business with me and left. No matter to Worst Buy that we have purchased several computers, cameras and TVs at their store over the years, along with extended service contracts. They let us walk right out the door.

Buh-bye, Worst Buy.

Dead Trees

I love shopping online. But I can't stand it when my purchase arrives in packaging easily twice as large as the item inside. The cardboard container, the inner packing and the original wrapping all add up to more dead trees than anyone can possibly justify (except UPS or Fed Ex, which both charge accordingly).

What's even worse is the pile of phone books that arrive on my doorstep unbidden. In duplicate! When's the last time you or anyone you know looked anything up in a phone book? At this stage in the millenium, these tomes are little more than monuments to history -- and to photosynthesis gone by. Even my office didn't need them - duplicate sets had been delivered there as well.

You would think that a company in the cellular phone and internet service business would realize the folly of printing telephone directories. And you would expect that online retailers would recognize the economic advantages of sleeker shipping containers. At least I would. Silly me. I never learn.