My tale of buying a 360 on Black Friday.

Oh... my... god...

This year marked the first time that I have ever ventured out to a store on Black Friday and let me tell you, I won't do it again.

First, lets back up a day before Black Friday. I tried to buy one of those hundred dollar XBOX360 core systems at Amazon.com that Thursday. I was on at exactly 2PM by my atomic clock and it took me 11 minutes to find out that the 1000 xboxes were already sold out. Five minutes to get the site to load and 6 minutes to get to the "buy" screen for the big letdown message. DAGNABBIT!

So in my frustration, I started checking other sites to find a deal on a 360. After checking several, I found it at Wal-Mart for the usual 399 but it did come with a free Moto GT whatever game I have never heard of, and a $50 gift card. "SOLD!" I said to myself.

So I drove down there and after almost an hour of searching for someone firing on all cylinders, I figure out that the special deal did not go live until 0500 Friday morning. So then the stock guy kinda laughs and says, "I'm glad I checked the system first because they are right there in the back and I almost gave one to you."

Yeah... great... I am so glad you checked the system so I can't get my precious right now.   (sigh)    Putz.

So now I realize that I am going to have to try and come back before work to get it because I expected they would probably only have a few of them. I figured would have to get up at 0400 to get there in time.

Now I had heard horror stories about Black Friday and until now, I did not know how true they were. Huge corn-fed women in sweat pants and flip flops with no make-up that obviously had not had their coffee yet. That is a sight that no man should ever have to see. Those people were absolutely nuts! Yelling at the clerks and at each other and I am just trying to keep out of the way for fear of a stampede.

So it’s about ten till five and I am told to stand under this big sign with a big arrow pointing down that says "XBOX Special Item." About that time a stock person walks past me with my precious under his arm and starts to put it on a shelf out of reach. I asked him if that was the one with the gift card deal and he stops for a second, says "I think so." and he hands it to me.  Boo-YA!   I grabbed it and headed for the register!

"Is this the one with the free gift card?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think so." mumbled one clerk.

Just then some manager lady or at least that's what her name tag said, turns and says to the register guy I am talking to, "Wait, you can't put those out yet!" and she grabs my precious and puts it back behind the counter!

"ARGH! Hey! That's mine!" I had it... right there in my hands! And now it was gone.

Anyway, so now I am on pins and needles trying to figure out what to do as the lady behind me and the same register guy are talking about an iDog and would it be good as a gift for a little girl and blah blah blah. As I tell the lady that I had bought one for my daughter and how much she liked it, the cashier guy says to me "Don't worry, you stand right here and I will get it for you as soon as I can open this register."

It was like a ray of sunshine suddenly came through the clouds.

But then I looked back at the floor where my precious had been and it was gone! "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" I looked all over in despair and then leaned way over the counter and saw that it had just been pushed back behind another box. Whew!

It seemed like hours for the cashier to open all the coin rollers and put all the money in the drawer and etc. Finally, out comes the credit card, a quick swipe and its mine. Then I asked again about the gift card. The manager lady that tried to keep me and my precious apart says that it’s a mail-in thing and the card should be in the box.

So, I am just about out of time and as I am about to exit the store, the hair on the back of my neck starts to stand up. I stop just before the yellow marker lady and ask if its ok if I open my precious to check for the aforementioned gift card voucher. I take everything out of the box. Its not there.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"  They say I would have to go back to the electronics department.

At this point, the people in the back of the store were even more restless than they were before. I am expecting to see bloodshed at any moment. I go back to that same cashier guy and tell him that there was no card. Well he gets sent away for something else and now I am talking to somebody new. They can't find the ad and then their web connection goes down and they can't find whatever code they need, and I hear that same evil manager lady say with her back turned to me, "Well I can't just give out a gift card if we can't find it in the system."
I shot her an evil glance that I bet she could feel through the back of her head.

So now I am worried again. After about fifteen minutes of them trying to find the code and whatnot, another clerk comes up and asks if I am the one still looking for the 360 with gift card. She says that I just have to go to the front of the store with my receipt and talk to customer service and they can get the card for me.

Yes! I started to run like a bat out of hell to the front of the store, but there were people and carts everywhere blocking all the aisles. It was like I was stuck in a giant game of Pac-Man and the ghosts were closing in!

I ran left, juked right, and even pulled a vintage OJ Simpson leap over the Samsonite move and finally got to customer service. With a "beep beep beep" and a swipe of a blank card, the transaction was finally complete.

All's well that ends well I guess, but don't look for me to be out there next year!