PlazaJen: Passion Knit

OK, here is the mental picture I have of our internet connection at work: Take a monkey. Preferably a monkey with issues. Give the monkey a hefty combined dose of speed and barbiturates. Put a bucket on his head. String bananas and firecrackers at varying heights around the room. Scatter some tacks on the floor. Close all the doors and windows, and spin the monkey around. Hand him a lighter. See what happens!

Yes, the more I ponder that visual, it’s just like that. We’ve returned to the Skinnernet, clicking the mouse constantly, hoping a frozen snickers bar might eventually drop from the ceiling; some things get through, but then mysteriously, pages cease loading and freeze up. It’s frickin’ maddening. I’m writing this blog in Word (Word. Fo’ bloggin’ and shiznit.) so as not to lose it when the monkey lights up a firecracker.

All of that aside, I had the bad luck to exasperate a cashier at World Market on Friday. They had emailed coupons that gave you 25% off your order, including sale merchandise & gourmet food, so I took advantage of it – picked up some staples, some clearanced drapes & a curtain rod. What wasn’t clear was that you have to present your coupon at the BEGINNING of your transaction. So the little dude exploded when I said, Oh, hey, I have the 25% off coupon, and he tried to cover by saying he needed to start asking for coupons first. Uh, yeah. Because all my couponing has been conditioned by the grocery store, where you hand over your coupons at the end. Plus, I was unloading everything. So, his manager told him he couldn’t cancel it, and we had to return everything, and re-ring it up. Egads. That happens. I had the afternoon off, so no need to panic or rush. I load up my stuff, puzzling in the back of my head why it was still so expensive, I put it all in the car & look at my receipt. He gave me 10% off.

Back into the store. He has me get back in line & we return everything, again, but it’s crazy, because he’d given me the employee discount and he had to manually calculate the prices and I said yes, it was fine if we were off by a few cents. Then, he could not, for the life of him, get the correct code to work on the food. At one point, he offered me another 25% off coupon just to call it quits & walk away. That was the only thing that pissed me off; I said, basically, you’re requesting I spend MORE money, and I can print another coupon at home! So he slogged through, the manager never returned, even though she was paged, and finally, with the assistance of yet another cashier, we got the whole thing rung up correctly. And yes, I got almost $20 off, so it was worth it, but it was stunning to me that a major company (they’re owned by PierOne) would have such a deficit in their register systems. I actually went back to World Market on Saturday (a different location, mind you, and I was quick to present my coupon at the start!) and my cashier still had some issues and questions & had to consult her manager.

Needless to say, I’m done shopping for a while. And, apparently, that applies to online as well, since nothing stays loaded more than three minutes, what with THE MONKEY running around.