The Future Shop Rage

5 May

Just as the ants situation got under control, we realized that the sub-woofer of the stereo system was shot. Listening to music and watching TV without the bass was really annoying to S. After referring to her electronics-geek friend, she settled on what system she wanted to buy.

She was on the Future Shop web site and decided to buy the particular system online to save from having to drive out to the store and lug it home. That’s where things started to go sour…

The system S wanted to buy was on sale, at a discount of $500. However, when she proceeded to the checkout, the screen was showing the full price. There was no inclusion of the $500 discount. “What the fuck?!” S started. “Why is the discount not showing?! I’m not paying full price for this when it clearly says that it’s on sale!!” I suggested that perhaps the discount would be applied on the next screen. S replied that she had put in her credit card number and didn’t want two charges to be put through.

I decided to call up Future Shop’s customer service and inquire about the price difference. The young girl I spoke to brought up the system on her screen and it was showing the discount. “Do you have the item in your cart twice?” She asked. I relayed the question to S who promptly assured me that she only had one system in her cart. I continued to talk to the customer service rep but was interrupted by S telling me, “oh, I did have two of them in the cart. Never mind.” Embarrassed, I quickly ended the call and thanked my lucky stars that I hadn’t given the girl my name or other identifying information.

I figured since we’d cleared up the problem with the discount, things would proceed smoothly. That didn’t happen.

When getting to the last step of the check-out process, S was prompted to do a “Verified by Visa” check-out. She tried several times to verify her info, but kept getting an error message. She began pounding on the backspace key of her keyboard. I stood behind her, unsure of what to say or do. “Maybe wait an hour and try it again then?” I said.

“No!” She quickly replied. “I want to buy it now and I’m going to buy it now!!”

“Ok,” I said as I stood behind her and watched her enter her information again. As it had before, she got an error message. “Fuck!” She yelled at her computer screen. “Why do I have to do this verified by visa bullshit anyway? I didn’t choose this option! I just want to buy this thing!!”

An idea struck me and I asked, “do you want me to try it?” Angry S quickly disappeared and gentle, docile S spoke, “Yes please.” (It really is amazing to see how quickly S goes from one extreme to another.)

Long story short, I was able to order the system online on my computer without any trouble. As with most of S’s rage stories, it wasn’t all that fun at the time. But we’re able to laugh about it now. Until the next incident, that is.