Office Despot, YOU Are On The List
Something just caught my eye again, and it was something that caught my eye a few days ago. It’s a receipt for a wireless router that my roommate and I bought at Office Despot at the end of July.
Or: It used to be.
Back in July, my roommate and I went to get a wireless router to set up a network in our apartment. After we got it, we had to wait a week for the cable/internet to be installed. So in early August, we tried to get this thing to work. We were able to configure the router such that it was receiving the internet. And we were able to configure our network cards such that our computers recognized them. But we couldn’t get the cards to work with the router itself.
We tried everything: Unplugging all the wires, all the connections, uninstalling, reinstalling, in every possible permutation (lots of free time in the summer). And when we thought we got it to work, the modem would crap out on us. We couldn’t win.
We called tech support after trying to fix this ourselves. Our outsourced friend from across the Earth helped guide us through the “resetting” procedure — using a nail or pen to push in that little pushed-in button — and it WORKED.
For an hour.
The next day we took the router back to Office Despot (luckily, I had saved the receipt for fear of this very set of circumstances arising.) We finally spoke with the manager (the assistant manager, actually; I think everyone who works there is by default an assistant manager.) We explained our predicament, that tech support said our router was, in the end, a piece of shit, and that we should exchange it. From examining the back of the receipt, I was able to discern that such a situation was possible:
“TECHNOLOGY/FURNITURE/SPECIAL ORDER: If Returned After 14 Days with Receipt with accessories and original packaging EXCHANGE”
I thought it would be a breeze. But Assistaint wouldn’t have any of it. He tried to talk circles around us, explaining that we didn’t exchange within two weeks, so the sale was final. I showed him the receipt. He didn’t understand. But he was so good at talking that by the end of our discussion, he made it seem like he was doing us a favor by exchanging the router. Luckily, we had associated with real estate brokers for a good six weeks across May and June, so we could see through the song and dance.
Long story short? Our new router is also a piece of shit that doesn’t work.
AND: The purpose of the tale: The front and back of the receipt are of two different textures. The back has a flat, slightly rougher finish; the front is glossy, like a picture. So when the transaction was printed on there, the ink wouldn’t stay on there forever. There’s nothing left now except half of the barcode, and the blue ink where the cashier grudgingly wrote, “Return 8/24/04.”
Clever clever.
Oh, and check out what it says on the bottom:
“To assist in maintaining legibility of your receipt, avoid high heat or humidity and keep out of direct light. Do not store next to plastic.” Unfortunately, a humidor for my Office Despot receipts was not on my Christmas list. Looks like I’ll have to go and buy one for myself.
