I had to go and buy a new washing machine this morning.

What I am not happy about is that I had to spend money, MY hard earned money. But then, I’m also grateful that I had it to spend – well naturally I could have spent it on something vastly more satisfying, like a holiday, or clothes or something. While I do profess to be one of those people who likes to live in jeans and blundstones, I would rather not live in them out of necessity, rather than desire.

I am happy about it, because well frankly, even a washing machine is a piece of technology, and anything shiny, with buttons, is most welcome in my house. I even managed to get a good deal on a Samsung 13kg ‘Diamond Drum’ top loader that is being delivered tomorrow.

(Inserting here: playing on my itunes at the moment is ‘Hava Nagila’ from “Snatch” the soundtrack, and it’s hilarious how the faster it goes, the faster I’m typing -  my housekeeper honestly thinks that my taste in music is insane, and she’s probably not far off)

What nearly set me off into explosions this morning however, was the distinct LACK of service that I received from the store in question. I entered the large appliance section and made a rather in depth study of the models on offer in my price range, when it occurred to me that after about 10 minutes I had NOT once been asked if I needed help.

I looked around behind the row of large fridges, no-one.

I stuck my head into the stockroom and loudly called out, “HELLO!? CAN ANYONE ASSIST ME ?” to which there was no answer, and simply a row of empty desks and a kind of creepy ‘everyone has just been vaporized‘ kind of silence. Yes my mind actually ponders that as an option. I put it down to my parents not censoring the kinds of sci-fi movies that I watched growing up…

A few weeks ago, the exact same scenario happened, when I’d been looking at fridges and they actually lost the sale on that occasion. So I decided to try and up the ante this morning instead of shlepping all the way across the mall to the other large appliance retailer (from whom I eventually bought the fridge)and I hopped on my phone and tweeted the name of the store and the fact that they were unmanned in the large appliance section, and that they were about to lose a sale on washing machine.

Then I browsed to their website, found their telephone number and called and asked to speak to the store manager, who apparently wasn’t “in yet” (9h30am), and then told the woman on the phone that I was in the large appliance section and that there was no one there, and could she please send someone, she then says to me, “Is this about the washing machine?” which at the time I didn’t really click as being interesting, but she specifically worded it THE washing machine.

Though seriously I doubt if they are hot enough to know what’s going on, on Twitter (and that fast) that they should theoretically be able to handle things like that staff placement in the store. A few seconds later a woman came rushing out of the backroom and asked if she could help me.  She was a complete blessing in disguise, because frankly she was from the accounts department and therefore didn’t have any of those annoying sales person habits that annoy the crapola out of me, and we ended up having a good laugh over washing machines in general, and why one was better than the other etc etc.

So to cut a long story short I ended up buying it from that particular store, because of her, and the salesman who eventually turned up ended up being rather helpful too.  But I think that may be the last time I buy something there, because frankly, nothing IRKS me more than stores who don’t know how to treat there customers. It’s not like I’m asking them to polish my boots or anything, I just need to know why I should spend X on model Y or vice versa.

Okay, on an unrelated note, I noticed that Avatar is now available in blu-ray, 3D version!! Naturally this would require new hardware on which to be able to watch in 3D, but isn’t that a perfect reason to upgrade??

Also I saw on the Daily Telegraph website in the UK, that they are going to have some 3D coverage of the soccer world cup!? Isn’t that like every sports geeks dream come true? I know it is mine in terms of sci-fi movies. Just imagine sitting down in your living room, and the next thing of course after 3D will be VR, and soon the Starship Enterprise (or the Na’vi) will be swooshing around our heads and we really will be part of the action. Sometimes we don’t even realise that we are living in times which are positively Sci-Fi to the generations that have gone before us. My own father was born in a time when cars were only beginning to become commonplace.

Amazing.

I also got an email today from Ster Kinekor…The Twilight Saga: Eclipse releases June 30!!

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