Big Mistake. Big. Huge! Part 3
A story I read somehow reminded me of when I was getting ready to go to the University of Applied Sciences. I figured I needed a new phone, a laptop, and some accessories. I checked what was available in my area, came up with a shopping list of some €1,100, went to withdraw the money, and then went to the store.
I knew exactly what I wanted and went to the counter with all the expensive stuff in locked cabinets and/or in the back so that people couldn’t run away with them, but the employees were both busy with a customer, so I picked up the small stuff first.
When I came back, the customer was gone and so were both employees. Figuring they had gone to the register with the other customer, I waited for them to return… and waited, and waited. I saw one of them come back and immediately go in the back. Then, the other guy also came back, and he also went straight in the back. Neither one came out for a long time.
There was no question that they were purposefully ignoring the teenager with a laptop backpack and a cheap mouse in his hands waiting for them. Had the laptop I was looking to buy been available anywhere else in town, I would have walked out, but alas, it wasn’t, so I didn’t.
Then, I heard a familiar voice behind me.
Classmate: “Hi, [My Name]. Are you being served already?”
Me: “Hi, [Classmate]. No, two guys went in the back some ten minutes ago and haven’t come out. So, you work here now?”
Classmate: “Yeah. What can I get you?”
Me: “A Nokia 5230 and [Laptop].”
Classmate: “One moment.”
He went to get the laptop from the back, took a Nokia 5230 box from the cabinet, and grabbed a screen protector for the phone, and we went to the register so that I could pay. He signed me up for the extended warranty (free of charge — it was a campaign from the manufacturer and all [Classmate] needed was my email address).
The two guys who had disappeared into the back magically reappeared within a couple of minutes, just fast enough to witness me counting the 200 and 100 Euro notes before handing them to [Classmate]. They didn’t look too happy to realize they had missed a not-insignificant sale.
That laptop served me for almost ten years before I finally had to replace it, easily the best €800 or so I have ever spent on a computer I didn’t build myself, even without the faces the Richards were making when I left the store.
Curiously, the manufacturer never spammed me with BS offers even though I confirmed the extended warranty registration when I started using the laptop.
(Cue “Pretty Woman” references in three… two… one…)
Related:
Big Mistake. Big. Huge! Part 2
Big Mistake! Big! Huge!