Tuesday, May 03, 2005

So I snapped

Has the climate in Belgium changed since I left?
While the temperature in Belgium reached 30C/86F this weekend, here in the north of Spain we had 21C/70F, heavy clouds and an occasional shower. And I just heard that people in Belgium are having Thursday and Friday off this week, while here only Monday was a public holiday.
Why is the grass always greener on the other side of the fence?

My weekend began with this little story.
In March I bought a new digital camera in the local Carrefour supermarket. It came with a promotion of 100 free picture prints, valid until the 30th of april.
So I rushed to Carrefour on Friday evening, carrying my cd containing 93 of my favourite digital snapshots. I just couldn't find 7 more that were worth a print or that I didn't have printed yet. And I was in a hurry, so I didn't really bother.

When I arrived at the supermarket, I handed my cd to the lady at the counter, mentioning the promotion.
She asked: Are there 100 pictures on the cd?
Me: No, just 93.
That's when she said to me in a silly tone: Then it's not valid. The promotion is for 100 pictures. Not 99 and not 101. Exactly 100.
I looked at her in disbelief and that's when I snapped…

You have to know that this was the fourth time that I went to Carrefour with a promotion, and the fourth time that they told me they couldn't give it to me for some obscure reason. In fact, when I arrived, I was already wondering what they were going to invent this time.
And so I snapped.

I made quite a scene, and I'm not very proud of it. I raised my voice more than 1 tone, told her exactly what I thought about their promotions, took my cd, and left. She didn't even see it coming, and looked at me as if she got hit by a train.

So I went home and told Mónica what had happened.
That's when we remembered that her father had bought the same camera when I had bought it, and that he was going to go to Carrefour also that evening to get his 100 free prints.
So she called her dad:
- Dad? Where are you?
º In Carrefour.
- Did you ask for your free prints yet?
º Yes. They are ready in an hour.
- How many pictures did you have? 100?
º No, just 73.

My mouth fell open.

The only explanation we could find was that my scene earlier had somehow changed the rules, and that now it didn't have to be exactly 100 pictures (We checked the promotion papers at home, and there was no rule saying that it had to be exactly 100).
So we rushed back to Carrefour, Mónica went to the counter to hand over the cd (I wasn't going to show my face again), and this time there was no problem.
1 Hour later they were ready: 93 crispy clean pictures.
Why do these kind of things always happen to me?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gawd, that sucks. But don't worry, it doesn't always happen to you only.

I hope you're feeling better now. At least you got what you wanted in the end.

amiethinggoes said...

maybe the counter person didn't really understand the promotion they're offering at first, only when you stirred up a commotion was it cleared to her by a superior or someone. well there are people like that.

and i think it was understandable for you to flare up like that. you're only human after all. :)