I understand now is a busy time for stores. People are going nuts buying everything in sight. Therefore, it’s also a profitable time, in which you’d think stores would want to keep their customers, especially the perfectly reasonable ones who don’t complain, happy.

Not so for the Best Buy on 86th and Lex, nor the Kate’s Paperie on 74th and 3rd.

Best Buy, I Forgive You
The line downstairs at Best Buy on Saturday was about the length of the Great Wall of China. So my friend and I went upstairs to check the registers there. No line. But they weren’t open for check out, as we were informed by the blue-shirted chickie. What they were open for was a mystery to us.

So we schlepped back downstairs, saw the line had grown even longer, said forget it, but then checked upstairs once more. Lo and behold, the registers were now open.

But it was too good to be true. Pushy blue-shirt came back and tried to get the very polite employees who rang up us and other grateful customers to CLOSE THE REGISTERS. Meanwhile, the line downstairs could now be viewed from space.

In the end though we got to pay for our stuff and also received an apology for the wait by one of the receipt checkers at the door.

Kate’s Paperie: You can go fuck yourself
Normally, I don’t like to go to this overpriced card store, but there’s one right near me, and they do have lovely stuff. The line wasn’t long. In fact, I was first. There were two girls ringing. One looked right at me several times, making me think she’d help me next. But the moment she was done with her customer, she turned away and started helping someone else.

Hello? A “Someone will be right with you” would have been nice. At this time the other girl chose to ran off to the bathroom. She told the staring-at-me girl who told no one else.

The line grew and grew. We all stood there while the registers REMAINED EMPTY for a good three or four minutes. Meanwhile, one guy stood at the door greeting people and saying goodbye. I don’t need a fucking greeter. I need to be rung up.

Finally, someone got the gift wrapper girl’s attention, who was apologetic and harried. I signed my credit card statement, at which moment she left me and went back to her station.

I got the other cash register girl’s attention. “Do I just leave this here?” I asked, waving my statement.

She looked right through me and didn’t answer. I asked again, “DO I JUST LEAVE THIS HERE?” The same look, the same silence.

Finally, I waved the gift wrapped girl down. “What do I do with this?” I asked for a third time. Maybe I was being uptight, but I didn’t like the idea of leaving a signed credit card receipt just lying on the counter.

“Oh, I can take it,” she said, like she was doing me a favor.

I forgive Best Buy. After all, there a gazillion bazillion people, we didn’t have to wait in line, and we got an apology. At Kate’s, there weren’t that many people, and the whole staring-and-not-acknowledging-my-existence is beyond rude. I’m never going there again.

Related posts:

1. Cash…it’s just as good as money
2. Charge it! Or not.
3. Two signatures?
4. Service with a Scowl
5. All Part Of The Service