PrudentGT
Member
It all started on Wednesday, when I happened to be leafing through the Mercury News (I know, I know...), and saw, in a little box in a Big 5 ad: "Mossin-Nagant rifle, 7.62X54R, reg. $129.99, $59.99! I thought this was just too good to pass up, even for a rifle far older than I am.
So Thursday night work slows to a crawl, so I leave almost an hour early. This gives me about 20 minutes to get to the nearest Big 5. I drive like the proverbial bat, and, at 9:48, I'm told: "Oh, we don't sell guns here, try one of our other locations." OK, not a big deal, I'll just get up early tomorrow...
So today I drive over to the other Big 5. I walk over to the firearms counter and do my best to look like I need some help. In pretty short order a girl asks if I need help with guns and I say yes. This is where the fun starts. Tyrell, the manager, comes over and asks me what I need. I tell him I'm looking for the Mossin-Nagant for $60, it may be marked M44, but I'm not sure. I point to the ones I think may be on sale. He 'looks it up' and says it doesn't come up as on sale. He then hands me one and asks me if I want it. I say, 'yes, but I wanted it for $60.'
He kind of shrugs his shoulders, I hand it back and start to walk out.
On the way out, however, they've posted their newspaper ad. Hmmm.... 'Oh, hey, here's the ad I was talking about. You've got it posted right here. Here's the Mossin-Nagant.' I point it out. 'Oh, that ad's out of date. That sale's over,' he says. 'Okay,' I say cheerfully. I then find (in very small print): "Prices good until June 9." So, I say, "Um, it says here 'prices good until June 9?...' Tyrell doesn't ever become openly unprofessional, but it's clear I'm making him *gasp* work. I wander back over to the counter and he thrusts some forms at me. "Fill these out." Okay.
While I'm filling them out, he says, well, he says something, but I'm not quite sure what he's trying to say. So I do the 'active listening' thing to see if I'm getting the drift: "Are you saying you don't have any in stock?" "No, um..." and he wanders off again. I finish filling out the forms and stand around a bit more. Tyrell helps another customer, banters with the girl at the checkout counter, takes a personal call... He comes back and looks at the forms: "You need to put "nineteen-xx" for your birthday, spell out 'California' instead of CA, and you need to answer the last question. (In all fairness, I forgot about the N/A box for nonresident aliens, so he was right about that one). Okay, bit of a stickler, and I've never had a problem filling out these forms this way before, but whatever.
While I'm at it I change 'US' to 'United States' just so we don't have to go through that whole thing.
Tyrell, meanwhile, has managed to find a Mossin-Nagant in a beat up box, but I expected that much. I finish making the changes on the forms and start looking disinterestedly at fishing poles. "You still need to answer this question." "Which question?" "This one." He points to "If you are not a US citizen (I very much am), please enter your immigrant-whatever-number:" I've never put anything here before, so I ask. "You need to write in 'Not Applicable' then."
There were a few more follies, but in the interest of time, I'll skip to:
Okay, so finally I'm being rung up at the counter. Tyrell tells the young lady 'You'll need to manually enter it 'cause it's not listed as being on sale.' She rings it up. She says, 'That's okay, it came up as on sale...'
Just when I think it's all over, Tyrell mosies back up to the counter... "Sir, you need to write 'of America' after 'United States'...":banghead:
So Thursday night work slows to a crawl, so I leave almost an hour early. This gives me about 20 minutes to get to the nearest Big 5. I drive like the proverbial bat, and, at 9:48, I'm told: "Oh, we don't sell guns here, try one of our other locations." OK, not a big deal, I'll just get up early tomorrow...
So today I drive over to the other Big 5. I walk over to the firearms counter and do my best to look like I need some help. In pretty short order a girl asks if I need help with guns and I say yes. This is where the fun starts. Tyrell, the manager, comes over and asks me what I need. I tell him I'm looking for the Mossin-Nagant for $60, it may be marked M44, but I'm not sure. I point to the ones I think may be on sale. He 'looks it up' and says it doesn't come up as on sale. He then hands me one and asks me if I want it. I say, 'yes, but I wanted it for $60.'
He kind of shrugs his shoulders, I hand it back and start to walk out.On the way out, however, they've posted their newspaper ad. Hmmm.... 'Oh, hey, here's the ad I was talking about. You've got it posted right here. Here's the Mossin-Nagant.' I point it out. 'Oh, that ad's out of date. That sale's over,' he says. 'Okay,' I say cheerfully. I then find (in very small print): "Prices good until June 9." So, I say, "Um, it says here 'prices good until June 9?...' Tyrell doesn't ever become openly unprofessional, but it's clear I'm making him *gasp* work. I wander back over to the counter and he thrusts some forms at me. "Fill these out." Okay.
While I'm filling them out, he says, well, he says something, but I'm not quite sure what he's trying to say. So I do the 'active listening' thing to see if I'm getting the drift: "Are you saying you don't have any in stock?" "No, um..." and he wanders off again. I finish filling out the forms and stand around a bit more. Tyrell helps another customer, banters with the girl at the checkout counter, takes a personal call... He comes back and looks at the forms: "You need to put "nineteen-xx" for your birthday, spell out 'California' instead of CA, and you need to answer the last question. (In all fairness, I forgot about the N/A box for nonresident aliens, so he was right about that one). Okay, bit of a stickler, and I've never had a problem filling out these forms this way before, but whatever.
While I'm at it I change 'US' to 'United States' just so we don't have to go through that whole thing.Tyrell, meanwhile, has managed to find a Mossin-Nagant in a beat up box, but I expected that much. I finish making the changes on the forms and start looking disinterestedly at fishing poles. "You still need to answer this question." "Which question?" "This one." He points to "If you are not a US citizen (I very much am), please enter your immigrant-whatever-number:" I've never put anything here before, so I ask. "You need to write in 'Not Applicable' then."
There were a few more follies, but in the interest of time, I'll skip to:
Okay, so finally I'm being rung up at the counter. Tyrell tells the young lady 'You'll need to manually enter it 'cause it's not listed as being on sale.' She rings it up. She says, 'That's okay, it came up as on sale...'
Just when I think it's all over, Tyrell mosies back up to the counter... "Sir, you need to write 'of America' after 'United States'...":banghead:
flash a permited gun = kiss your permit and likely the weapon bye-bye. 