When I was flying home last week, I had my Playstation Portable in my coat pocket. I was playing football in the terminal and I didn’t finish the game, so I just put the PSP in my pocket so I could get on the plane, get seated, and finish the game. Well I had Row 2 so there was no, beneath the seat ahead of you, spot and I had to put my backpack in the overhead bin. The consequence of all this is, when I finished my game of football, the only place I had to store my PSP was back in my coat pocket.
The problem with this is, I don’t have deep pockets on that coat. When the plane took off, and banked up hard, all the stuff in my pockets fell out, including my phone and PSP. The PSP ended up three rows back and towards the aisle, so it made quite the trek just falling out of my pocket.
I mention all of this because, in falling out of my pocket and skidding across the plane, one of the little buttons on it fell off and was irretrievably lost. My PSP is fine, and I can play all the games okay. It’s just missing this button.
Cut to today, when I drove around Saskatoon trying to find a store that could sell me a replacement for this button that I could just, stick on, and go back to playing as if the airplane incident never happened. I went to EB Games, which I thought was my best bet. No luck. I went to the Sony Store. He said I was SOL and should try calling Sony and he gave me the number. I went to Toys’R’Us too and asked there, because I was buying my nephew a birthday present anyway. The guy sympathized but couldn’t help either.
So I call Sony. First of all I went through automated phone service HELL. Eventually I get a service guy. I explain to him my problem. I lost the little button that goes on the joystick of my PSP. How can I get a new one?
He asks me a bunch of questions, is anything broken off, is the PSP damaged, and so on. I answer no to everything. I just lost the little button on my PSP. Can I please have any another one?
He puts me on hold for a minute. When he comes back he tells me:
They can not send me a replacement for this little button. I would have to send the WHOLE unit in for service. They don’t have replacement buttons for people to buy. My PSP would have to be discarded, and I would be issued a full replacement unit. To do all of this would cost $79.95 plus GST for a grand total of $82.95.
$83 to replace the stupid button on my PSP. Oh, and he got the province that I live in wrong THREE damn times!!
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Things That Piss Me Off
Why do windshield wipers have to come in 1500 different sizes/types/variations? What possible purpose does it serve to make me stand in front of a wall filled with windshield wiper replacement blades and have NO BLOODY CLUE which one I should buy?
I mean honestly, can't we pare this down a bit? Is it REALLY necessary to have them available in lengths from 12" to 28" with every possible increment in between? I swear I saw some that were at half inch increments. What purpose does this serve?
In 100+ years of automotive innovation, no one has thought to standardize the size of the damn windshield wipers? I find this bordering on farcical. I have a shredded windshield wiper. I would like to buy a replacement. Why do I have to study a book larger than the text for an introductory physics class to figure out which one I need?
And on that note, why can't they even standardize on one size for a particular model of vehicle? What the hell is this need to know the year of my vehicle too!?! Okay, I'm a jackass and didn't research this ahead of time. I have to consult the book. I try and look something up in this infernal, blasted thing and I have to know about 96 god damn configuration options for my vehicle, just to buy damn wipers. What the hell is this garbage!?!
I gave up. It was just too annoying. I'll sit down, do the doctoral thesis worth of research required to buy wiper blades, from home tonight. I'm sure this will require a computer, Google searches, and probably reference to an arcane auto parts site I'll find in a deep, dark corner of the internet, visited only by porn crawling bots and men of dubious morality.
Why do windshield wipers have to come in 1500 different sizes/types/variations? What possible purpose does it serve to make me stand in front of a wall filled with windshield wiper replacement blades and have NO BLOODY CLUE which one I should buy?
I mean honestly, can't we pare this down a bit? Is it REALLY necessary to have them available in lengths from 12" to 28" with every possible increment in between? I swear I saw some that were at half inch increments. What purpose does this serve?
In 100+ years of automotive innovation, no one has thought to standardize the size of the damn windshield wipers? I find this bordering on farcical. I have a shredded windshield wiper. I would like to buy a replacement. Why do I have to study a book larger than the text for an introductory physics class to figure out which one I need?
And on that note, why can't they even standardize on one size for a particular model of vehicle? What the hell is this need to know the year of my vehicle too!?! Okay, I'm a jackass and didn't research this ahead of time. I have to consult the book. I try and look something up in this infernal, blasted thing and I have to know about 96 god damn configuration options for my vehicle, just to buy damn wipers. What the hell is this garbage!?!
I gave up. It was just too annoying. I'll sit down, do the doctoral thesis worth of research required to buy wiper blades, from home tonight. I'm sure this will require a computer, Google searches, and probably reference to an arcane auto parts site I'll find in a deep, dark corner of the internet, visited only by porn crawling bots and men of dubious morality.