Software

Wow! Gosh I didn't realize software could be so expensive! Well I really needed it and could not wait for the bootleg versions as a friend had promised because I hardly ever see him and his fiance. Everyone is so busy and it's no one's fault but I realize I cannot always depend on others. I decided to bite the bullet and pay the prices. I did get two of them on sale and one of them being 10% off of the difference. Future Shop will give you 10% of the difference if you find a product somewhere else at a better price. I bought MS Office (Teacher/Student Version) at $179.99 (I also have a $30 mail in rebate), Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 (discounted to $118.99 because Best Buy had it for $119.99) and Zonelabs Zonealarm Internet Security Suite (full protection for my new PC) at $69.99. Boy was it crazy busy at Future Shop, people in Vancouver must be starting their Xmas shopping because it was a madhouse. Most of the sales staff at FS are not too bright and the few that I had dealt with tonight were not too sure about their products, discounts and procedures. Esp. the cashiers (probably just hired for the Xmas season with limited training). I had to argue with the cashier about the FS discount, she didn't think the discount applied to software, boy is she WRONG. I printed off a copy of the Best Buy ad which advertised Adobe at 199.99, showed it to her and asked her about the price reduction. She was a little confused about FS's discount and did not think I could get a discount esp. on software. I insisted that she asked someone about this discount but I think she was just trying to rush me out of her line because there was a huge long line up at the cashiers. I finally convinced her to ask someone and when she did, YES I WAS RIGHT. Ugh. I also paid for an empty MS Office box, cashier again looked confused and I told her someone in the software department told me I had to pay for it and ask the cashier (that is her) to call them so they could bring a copy to the front. She sent me back to software stating that it would probably be faster for me to get it myself! Wow, GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE!! I ended up back at software inquiring about a MS Office and another guy had no idea what to do and sent me in another direction. OMG, FS NEEDS to train all of their staff - temp or permanent!!! Assuming with such low prices maybe they forego the training!! I ended up at ANOTHER person and he was surprised that the cashier rang in an empty box. How could she scan an empty box? There is no SKU. OMG, he thought that I might have to return the item and buy it again. Due to the serial no. or something. We went back to the cashier and she told the guy, she had just manually typed in the SKU. But the guy was worried about not having the SKU from the original box so we ended up back at Returns (another 5 minutes later), we reach the counter and the staff at Returns stated it doesn't need to be returned as long as the SKU on the empty box or receipt is the same as the box I had in my hands. As we stepped away from the Returns, another guy said we needed to return and exchange!!! The guy that was helping me didn't know wtf!?! So he asked another guy (who looked like he was in management) and he stated that as long as the sku on the receipt matched the sku on the box, it would be fine. Finally, 30 minutes later, it was all straightened out and I was able to leave the store!! This shopping errand should have only taken me 10 minutes. I knew what I wanted to buy, picked it off the shelf, headed over to the cashier, get discounts / pay for it and get out of the store! Ugh. I hate FS, this is why I prefer to shop online even if I have to pay the shipping fees. I don't have to deal with clueless sales staff.