My Nike+ Fuel band is broken and needs repair. I look up the warranty and find the receipt then discover that I only have to take the fuel band down to the local Nike store and they’ll repair or replace it.
Great! I print out the receipt, and the warranty page which clearly states “To obtain in-person warranty support bring the defective product and sales receipt to a Nike retail store…“
Yesterday Morning, I sync the last data out of the fuel band, locking up my computer in the process.
Really?
You choose NOW to lock up? I swear I’ve done exactly this same procedure 100 times in the past 8 months and had no trouble at all.
But this time WHEN I need to get out the door, It’s a hard lockup.
Great! I sit down, disconnect all the cabling from the laptop open it, press and hold the power button then restart the system. I reconnect all the cables and boom I’m out the door.
I saddle up and drive the 45 minutes to the Nike Store.
I’m in the parking lot and heading for a parking space when a crazed bitch pops through the parking lanes does a U-turn in front of me and whips into the parking space I was pulling into then she gives ME Shit for being close to her POS car WHILE she’s talking to her phone in speaker phone mode and I’m the one who’s in the wrong…
Riiiight! I called her a bad name, I actually called her a fat assed one…
I backed up a little and went to the furthest parking spot in the freakin parking lot.
I don’t want no trouble, I just want to get into this shopping center, do my shit and get the hell out of here and home BEFORE it gets completely insane!
I hoof it to the store, wait in line and get to the cash register.
I hand the clerk the broken fuel band and the receipt plus a printout of the warranty… then ask him “who should I talk to about this?”
He looks at the warranty paper then goes to get someone else. OK Fine…
The new guy looks at the warranty paper and the receipt and says “you bought this in December from Nike”
I’m starting to get a bad feeling but I figure nope, I’ll be nice.
“Yep direct from Nike. The button is broken I just need to exchange it. Under warranty which is 1 year and we’re not there yet.”
He says, “We’re supposed to get them in tomorrow.”
Which begs the questions I think to myself “You’ve never had them in the first place?” or “Is this just a way to get me out of the store”
He continues, “To do the exchange we need to have all the parts that came with it.”
Now I’m sure this is a delay tactic. But I think to myself I’ve still got the original box, and the parts and accessories I can pack ’em all up and come back tomorrow.
I point out that the band is the failure point and that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to just have a big box of the bands without their clasps in the back room and simply do a replacement from that stock. Just swap the customers clasp right there in the store it would take 2 minutes tops and would prevent the bands in the back from being pilfered since they’d fall off without the clasp mechanism.
But THAT would of course be too freakin intelligent.
Ok, I’m annoyed… but not ticked off.
I head out to my car and sure as shit, there’s a rusted out POS parked crooked and so close that I can’t open my drivers door.
Fine! I crawl into the passengers side and squirm my way into the drivers seat. It’s 97F outside. Inside the car it’s well beyond that.
I fire the beast up and hit MAX on the A/C then pull out of the parking lot.
I have one more stop to make. I need to deposit a couple of checks at the credit union. I head toward them, make a right, make another right, then make a left into a shady parking spot. SCORE!!!
Go inside, stand in line… and stand…. and stand… and stand. WTH?
Only Two tellers and both of them occupied with two crazy women. One demanding that the money be recounted (6th time) “‘cause she be knoin she gave dat teller another $40” at one teller window and at the other window the woman is explaining her boyfriends access to the various accounts and that she thinks he’s cheating on her and she needs to get herself some money that aint his money…
At which point my eyes and ears are starting to bleed.
I’m wondering if the ATM would be a better option when miracle of miracles a third teller appears at the counter and waves the guy in front of me over. Progress! My eyes and ears are still bleeding. But I might make it out of the credit union before 9PM this evening.
Finally my turn, I hand the teller my endorsed checks, I swipe my ATM card and enter my PIN (Might as well have done the ATM thing) and tell him I want to deposit these checks and get $100 in cash. And that’s when it all fell down…
He looks at the checks, and then logs out of his computer. “Please wait, I’ll be right back…”
ZIP he’s over conversing with a woman that looks like she put the whole lemon forest in her mouth. After 5 minutes the young guy comes back.
I ask him what the problem was… He couldn’t read the first word of the spelled out amount… Sigh…
I remind him about wanting the hundred back. Then I’m done… Out the door and across the parking lot I see… a POS parked too close to my passenger door and an orange cone near my drivers door. WTF?
Oh the orange cone is from the mobile car wash guy who’s working on a Mercedes and has gotten my car with the water as he rinsed the Mercedes. He’s looking at me with fear in his eyes.
I guess by rights I could demand a free car wash but the poor guy looks so sorry, hot, & tired, I don’t have the heart. Besides my car is filthy the most he did was add to the water spots already in the dust on my hood. Big Deal!
It’s 99F when I get in the car. I’m on the road again heading North. 18 Wheelers are taking up 3 of the 3 lanes and not giving anyone a break as we inch along toward the freeway.
Eventually the 18 wheelers manage to take up only 2/3 of the available lanes, me along with everyone else squirts through the opening and ahead into open lanes. Shortly though several cars are playing Indy 500 pace cars and we’re all crawling along catching every light.
Grrrr….
Finally the Freeway! Zip… I’m on cruising and all is well. I come up on Day Creek there’s enough room for 2 cars between me and the guy in front of me. The two cars merge perfectly and get on the freeway without problem. I’m watching the traffic as we approach the I-15 Northbound it bunches up in this area and it’s not uncommon for someone to realize they need to get on the i-15 and they’re not in the correct lane. This results in someone sailing across 6 lanes of traffic and further increase in the backup around the transition.
Out of the corner of my eye I see a white infinity SUV ON MY RIGHT! There’s either no lane or they’re about to run out of lane but they’re accelerating! There’s no room ahead of me, what the hell are they doing?
I’ve been moving at the same speed neither faster or slower there’s 1/4 mile of open road behind me and this dumbass has accelerated and is trying to force herself in to a space that is too small for her bloated ass and why is she doing this anyway?
I’ve got nowhere to go, I can’t change lanes, and I figure the minute I touch my brakes so will she and we’ll still have a deadlock.
I keep moving at the same speed and hope she figures out that her best choice is to drop behind me like a good little BITCH and stop trying to cause an accident.
I momentarily think of the relative values of our vehicles and her probable impact point on my car, Yep! It would be her fault and I’d sue the fucking hell out of her. But nah… I just want to go home.
So I accelerate a bit to get out of her way because I still have nowhere to go… and the dumb bitch accelerates too!
Now it’s insane! She finally drops behind me as she should have done in the fucking first place and gets on the freeway.
As she takes the faster lane next to me another little bitch…
(I’m thnking a much worse word that is prefaced with Rancid, Diseased, Dried up, and ends with the bad word)
…in the passenger seat flips me off with her $90 manicured nails and enough diamonds on her fingers to make Xerxes I of Persia jealous.
I can’t stop myself, I safely signal and change lanes, I pull my phone out of it’s holster and snap a picture of them from behind.
NOW is when they get concerned that maybe, just maybe, they’ve pulled the wrong fucking guys chain. They speed off and I change lanes back to the slow lane to make the transition home.
You know, I just want to go about my life, It shouldn’t be an ordeal every fucking time I leave my driveway.
This is one of the reasons that I’ve wanted to leave California for the last 5 years. I’ve actually wanted to leave this state for about the last 20 years but you make sacrifices for your significant other. The last 5 years however have made me want to be somewhere else I’m almost to the point of ANYWHERE else.
When do I get to go someplace that’s civilized?
I couldn’t help but think as I was finally heading home about that old saying “an armed society is a polite society” and that California is mostly disarmed now days.
Then there was the usual bullshit going up the I-15.
I’m going to get a sign to post in the back window of my vehicles, it’s going to read;
HEY DUMBASS!
It’s a simple rule…
SLOWER TRAFFIC TO THE RIGHT!
I finally get home. I’m hungry, spun-up and what should have been an hour errand at most, turned into a 3 hour tour. I think that’s going to be a new saying for me. “example, Then I was on a Gilligan – Something that should have been over far sooner than it actually was.“
I’m pissed off and storming so I sit down at my computer.
Logic, rationality, and calmness are what I’m craving.
I click on my browser, I want to look at some settings on the blog and maybe read the news.
The computer locks up… again… I have absolutely no control…
REALLY??????
AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!
I need a drink!