Fry's Food Stores/Shopping

I did end up going out today.
First to Home Depot.  I didn't find anything there that I was looking for so - just left.  Across the street to the AutoZone to have them plug in their computer and maybe find out why the Service Engine Soon light is on.  They determined "most likely" the cause is a bad fuel cap.  Oh.  I had,  a couple of times, a warning light come up stating that the gas cap was loose, even though it wasn't.  So, I spent the $10 and hope that will take care of the problem.  The car is running fine.

Over to Whitfill's Nursery.  Looking for the ground covering plants that the cats have destroyed to some degree - still plenty out there, but there is now a barren spot where their defecating and urinating has completely destroyed it.  They are no longer doing that there, for reasons I have no explanation for, so I am going to try replanting.

They did not have the fresh-cut Christmas trees, yet, but they did have some amazing looking live trees.  As in almost 8 feet tall live trees that looked very nice.  I didn't get one, but I am considering it.  A very good price for a tree that large and after Christmas is done, just plant it somewhere.  Maybe out front and have a permanent Christmas tree out there, lol.

Over to Fry's food stores.  I got a roast and vegetables.  In checkout, the price came up wrong.  It was not showing the sale price of 89 cents for the cut carrots, it came out to $1.69, the regular price.  Well, their policy: scanning error is free up to $5, over $5 they give you a $5 gift card.  I did not get the item for free and the lady had a bagger go check the price.  We're talking 80 cents here, not 10 dollars.  I was a bit put off by them checking the price, which, when he came back, said yes, there IS a sign there that says the sale price of 89 cents.

Well, now I have to go to the Customer Service desk to get this taken care of.  There are 7 people in line.  No way am I going to wait that long for an error on their part - the customer service desk takes forever just to get up to it.  So, I had the assistant manager paged (I prefer the GM, but not there today).  Not my regular store, either.  Individual never showed up after  2 pages in a couple of minute's time.  No call to say why he isn't coming, nothing.  Finally, she says she's going to page him again. Don't bother, I am not going to wait another second for this individual.

Instead, I simply called the store.  Yup, I headed to my car and called the store from the number on the receipt.  The man finally got on as I was driving home, actually.  He gave his excuse - which I didn't find to be a valid one (if he isn't available but knew he was being paged, why not just call up and tell them that?) - Mr. Torrence was his name.  Oh, he states, I would have taken care of this situation.  Really? Do you think I have all day long to wait for something like this, or perhaps should have to wait 20 minutes in a line at the customer service desk?  He had no reply to that.

I just informed him I would be calling corporate headquarters on Monday and yes, I would be asking for a gift card to be sent to my home.  Again.  Not the first time.  I did wish him a nice day and then ended the call.

Is it worth it?  At least one person I know that reads my blog would say no and then proceed to tell me about myself. Yes, it is worth it. First, to get the lady that had an 80 cent error on the ticket "retrained".  For that low amount of money, they just let you have it.  My "story" about it being on sale was verified, but my interaction with Fry's Food Stores in the past has been for something where the discrepancy is that low, just give it to the customer.  Follow your own GM's guidelines. Second, because I didn't get the store's policy of getting the item free for incorrect scanning.

I usually come out well ahead in such things when the store acts in such a way to cause' far more problems than 80 cents is worth.

Whatever, that's long since over, I will have a 5 or 10 minute conversation on the phone with Fry's headquarters on Monday and then we'll see what happens.  Meanwhile? I have plants to put in the ground and need to decide on that tree.  I don't know how long they are going to have those nice, full looking trees around before people come and zap them up.

G'day.

ben

Umm, Black Friday was a bust for me.  The only thing I scored was a huge - cheap quality I am sure but around here no problem - screwdriver set from Home Depot for $9.95.  I did end up going to Sears to try and score one of those TV's, but unbeknownst to me (and apparently everyone else in line), you needed a "voucher" to get one.  No explanation of who got the vouchers or how those that had them, got them, was given.  I just walked out.  I am not going to buy "something else" in the store when they start playing games like that.  They are lucky they didn't start a riot, numerous people that were at the front of the line were told no more TV's.  The FRONT of the line!  Before a single TV was even sold?!!

Sears can go piss off.

Walmart was a jungle.  I finally found the TV's they had on sale only to find yet another line and more tickets being given out.  SCREW those freaking tickets.  Not only that, but they weren't going to even start selling them until 10:00 pm.  It would have been an hour and a half wait, I just left there, too, wasn't about to go attempt to find other bargains with all of those people in there pushing and shoving each other.  Ridiculous.

No biggies to me.  I really didn't need to spend money anyway.  I wouldn't have minded finding a good coffee maker on sale, though, someone has broken mine and I want to replace it.  I might meander up to Walmart today to see if they might have any on sale, allegedly their Black Friday sales go through the weekend. Emphasis on allegedly.  Their ad states they are, but who knows what's left, probably not much of anything.

The drive home from Sierra 'Vista to here?  I'm afraid that I was speeding even worse than I thought.  I must get that speedometer fixed on that car.  247 miles in ..............well I'm not going to say it on here.  Just am not.  Let's just say that it didn't take near as long as it should have.  But, when you have a 75 mph speed limit and find at least half the distance is on a 6 lane interstate - meaning finding ways around the clog ups where everyone is all congregated together - you can cruise pretty nicely.

It's now the weekend.  The rest of their family in Sierra Vista is leaving today.  One couple has been there since last Saturday.  They were talking about doing Thanksgiving at their house next year.  Yeah, well if I happen to be in or around San Antonio next year, I'll certainly hit them up for it.

Our company is giving us Monday as a "special gift" for this year.  Meaning they have decided to keep the stores closed on that Monday (Christmas is on Tuesday this year) and also give it as a paid day off - versus having to use vacation or other hours.  Well, it is a gift, we don't normally have the day before a holiday off if the holiday falls during the week, you either have ask for a vacation day or you show up for work for half a day and will be very bored, cause' no contractors will be working so it's senseless to have any of our stores open.  All of our contractors have our salesmen's cell phone numbers and they know that if there is an emergency, they can call them at any time.  They can call me, lol, it's a $150 charge for showing up after hours.  That charge goes to the employee that showed up.  Plus double-overtime.  Yes, they could definitely call me in an emergency, I have nothing going on now that couldn't be interrupted.

I have enough money saved up now to cover Christmas.  I don't think I'm doing the dinner so that will save a  lot of money in not having to buy roasts and do all that there is to putting something like that together.

Must be offa here.  Plenty to do today.

ben