Personal Dork Assistant

I'm Your Worst Nightmare

If you're a BestBuy customer service guy, that is. Dropped in to pick up a copy of the LotR Extended Edition DVD, and a GameBoy Player as well. Here's the hoops I jumped through to complete the transaction.

• Scan the Reward Zone card first. Sometimes I can't dig out the card until the cashier was already done scanning the goods and he has to call a manager over to void the transaction and start all over again to include the Reward card.
• Price-match Fry's prices on the DVDs. Hey, it's a buck.
• Stand around and wait while the dude goes off and search for a manager to approve the match. Apparently they're not suppose to price-match "One-item per customer" deals. Yeah, whatever, like I haven't done the same thing ten times before.
• He comes back and gives me the discount "just this one time" because he couldn't find the manager(?). At least he put the discount directly into the register instead of filling out a hand-written form in triplicate like previous price-matches.
• Was going to make them price-match Fry's on the GameBoy Player, too, but it turned out that they were already matching the discount. Toss in the $5-off coupon from the back of the Gamer's Gift Card, too.
• Don't forget the Gamer's Gift Card itself. I only put a buck on it because I bought it for the coupon in the package, but hey, it's a buck.
• Why's he grabbing a regular gift card? Oh, I get a $10 gift certificate, too? Not really sure why (turns out there was a $10 GC for $75 gaming purchase offer), but I'll take it.

If Best Buy were more timely at sending out Reward Zone certificates I could've stacked another coupon or two on top of that.

Just remember, it's not how much you spend, it's how much you save. The tenet is the basis of American consumerism, subverting Puritanical thriftiness to justify the gluttony. Isn't it great?