This is my new notebook. The hubs was so kind to get me one so that I can surf whenever and where ever. He wanted to surprise me with it but I ended up at the shop with him, just in case he needed a loud mouth to screw the sales assistant. I am a scorpion, what do you think?

I celebrated my birthday on 27^th Oct which was a Saturday. He was on leave on Friday since it was a replacement leave he earned cos he worked on a public holiday a few weeks back. According to him, he already had one particular notebook in mind but didn’t want to travel too far to get it. So, he ended up at Ikano Power Centre instead.

He wanted to get it at Harvey Norman initially but they didn’t have the freebies he wanted. He went to another prominent IT shop just opposite Harvey at Level 1. “Prominent” not because they are good but because the shop sticks out like a sore thumb in the midst of all the other shops. It is hard to miss.

At first glance, IT Planet Computer Store Sdn Bhd (I told you I wasn’t gonna spare names) seemed impressive. Very chic, had the class to fit the niche shoppers that roam the place. As soon as you step in, you know that it don’t belong. The air about it made me feel like an up-market Low Yat. What’s worse, there was this couple who went in the shop, looking and wandering, fell short and stopped at the counter where the sales girl was attending to some paying customer. Instead of asking politely what the couple wanted and directing them to another sales person who could help them, she shouted across the room to her colleague “OI, CAN’T YOU SEE I AM BUSY?”. The couple left. Duh? Wouldn’t you?

This guy called Michael Tay attended to my hubby. Granted, my hubby wasn’t wearing his best shirt and had his ah piau slippers on but nothing wrong with that right? I mean, as long as he got the cash, who the hell cares if he went with my grandfather’s sarong and pagoda singlet?

My hubby told Michael that he’s looking for a specific notebook. Instead, he was shown the iMAC? Are you daft? Listen to your customer dimwit. My hubby don’t need a MAC, we have enough of McD to last us a lifetime. We just want a damn notebook, damnit!! Ok, give him the benefit of the doubt, he had initiative. If he was my staff, I would be pleased.

My hubby told him “no, just a bla bla bla would do”. Ok, I wasn’t there to see the expression on his sorry face but I could sense even from where I was, he was kinda disappointed. He threw in some useful freebies and my hubby purchased the XP Home Edition as well. My hubby asked him if he could install it for us and he readily agreed. Note : Lesson to be learned here. Do not leave the shop until they have finished whatever that they have agreed to do for you.

Michael started to rummage through whatever that he was looking for to get the thing going while my hubby went to the payment counter. After he paid, he told Michael that he would come back later to collect it and Michael agreed. Halfway driving home, Michael called my hubby to tell him that the software he bought cannot be installed. He needed to get the XP Pro which will costs my hubby a couple of hundred dollars more. My hubby asked him ‘why” to which his reply was “Its not compatible with your notebook”. Huh? “Why didn’t you tell me that before? And why did you say it was possible while I was at the store?” Bloody hell!! Then, my hubby told him “I don’t want it anymore, please cancel my order” to which Michael quickly said “ok, I’ll see what I can do”. Tried to pull a fast one. He tried again to explain to my hubby why my hubby had to get the XP Pro but well, his explanations got shot down each time. Michael wasn’t a happy man.

At this point in time, I went into the shop. I observed that the sales people were only interested in people who dressed expensive and the ‘kwai’. So, we went to the wrong place isn’t it cos obviously, they had not put on their night visors to see that we (my hubby and I) had very thick wallets despite our appearance. Ok, so maybe we weren’t interested in the Mac. So what? It is not like we went in and bought just a mouse pad right? Look, I have been to classier store at KLCC dressed like a maid with my Bata slippers on and yet people in there don’t discount the fact that I could very well end up a paying customer. These people are so shallow or colour blind that they should be sacked for lack of humility. The best part was, the throws of kwai that strode in didn’t even buy a thing. Nope, not a single strand of grey hair of off Micheal’s head.

After about 30 minutes of waiting, Micheal was still attempting to install whatever he agreed to install for us. At some point I felt sorry for him cos it was so obvious he didn’t know how. That is not the worst part. None of his colleague who were there came to help him except for one but even then, she only did a little as it was quite apparent that she did not to want to be seen ‘helping’ him out. Take your office politics somewhere else, I only want my notebook. All I wanted was to go home and eat but we were still there for another 30 minutes, waiting.

My hubby then asked Micheal if he could have the CD containing all the relevant drivers. Micheal said “no, as we only have one”. Ok, my hubby asked if he could have it burned separately to which the reply was “it will take a long time”. My hubby said “Might as well since I have already been here for the last hour” (Hubby wasn’t in the mood to play a happy guy). Then Micheal said “It will cost you’. My hubby asked “how much?”. Michael replied “RM2” WTF???.

Seriously, I was glad to get out of there. I tell you, I really felt like walking out of there without the notebook, period! I wanted to ask my hubby to cancel the order and ask the credit card company to block payment. If the shop had resisted, there will be turning of heads and there will be another ranting post on this blog.