January 6 – “Overcoming Adonis”

Here’s a quick update on the computer software issue.  I ended up having to make the drive into Texas yesterday.  I went straight to the customer service desk and told them the problem I was having with the computer not accepting the product key.  She took one look at the box and said, “Oh, we have had four others just like this returned in the last few weeks.  Same problem.”  Wait.  Four others.  Same problem.  And you still have them on the shelf?  She said I could get something to replace it, so I headed to the software department.  Out of curiosity I checked to see if they had more of the same box on the shelf.  Sure enough, they did.  They even had one that was just for Macs.  I asked one of the sales guys if he could help me find what I needed to convert VHS to DVD.  Of course he took me directly to the same box I had just returned.  He even sounded surprised when I told him it didn’t work.  He was the consummate employee, though, and took me immediately to a different section, where he handed me “a different company’s version of the same thing.”  The price marked on the shelf was comparable to what I had paid, so I took it to the customer service desk, hoping for an early resolution to the problem so I could get back to the Island.  Right.  She rang the item up and the price indicated that I had to pay $35 more.  Nope.  Not happening.  I told her about the marked price on the shelf, so she went for a walk to check it out herself.  I always accompany clerks when they do that.  I followed a clerk one time who didn’t see me behind her.  When she saw the marked price on the shelf she tore it off and stuffed it into her pocket.  Satisfied that she could call me a liar, she turned to find me standing right behind her.  Oops.  She tried to tell me it was mismarked and I would have to pay more, so I nicely, but rather loudly clarified, “So you’re telling me you baited me over here with that price on the shelf and now you are switching and telling me I have to pay more?  I don’t think so.”  About that time a manager walked by.  I got the lower price.  Fortunately, the guy who had directed me to the item in the first place joined us in our search, as did another of their geek squad guys.  They searched the computer data base as well as their on-site warehouse for whatever item was “supposed” to be on the shelf.  Never found it.  To their credit and to my surprise, I got the new item for the shelf price.  And it even loaded without question onto my computer.  Didn’t even ask for a product key.  Now I have software that should enable me transfer from VHS to DVD, but it is also supposed to enable me to pull out clips from videos and arrange them however I want.  It does a lot of other things as well that I will probably never get around to trying, but I think I can get started on our old VHS tapes now.  Anybody want to watch some old basketball game footage?

Psalms 54:4 says, “Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.”

Father, thank you for being our constant when things don’t make sense.  Amen.