The Future Shop. I have yet to have a pleasant experience shopping with them, and I always complain, it never fails. And what do I do? I go back, again and again – it is quite convenient now that there is one open on west Granville – and once more I will complain about my experience. It is always the same situation, roughly. I am looking for something very specific, usually a cable, but tonight it was a cable AND memory card for my camera. I ask a salesperson to help me locate it, this person gladly does and attempts to know what I and they are talking about, however, the end result always suggests they have no idea. My last visit (prior to tonight) was for a 6-pin to 6-pin firewire cable. I couldn't find where they were located and after a brief training session I gave on what a firewire cable is used for, I was taken to the ethernet cable section, then USB cables – both of which I politely explained, were, in fact NOT firewire cables. That evening I spoke with two salespeople who tried to tell me that USB is what I was looking for, and that they did not carry firewire. Well, I eventually located it on my own and showed it to them; the lead salesman said, "Oh that isn't a firewire cable, that is the USB cable." I quietly held the package to his face and showed him the firewire logo and walked towards to register.
Tonight was a little different because I was somehwat confident in what the salesman was telling me, yet eventually I became displeased with the information I was given. Like I said, I was looking for a cable, first and foremost, then decided to look into a new 256mb memory card for my digi-camera. The cable, they were out of (possibly), so I asked about the memory cards and told him the make and model of my camera, "Oh yes, I know what you are looking for." Because I had failed to bring my camera with me, or even take a look at the current card before I went looking for another, this entire situation may very well just be my own damned fault – however, I repeatedly asked him if he was sure this card would fit in my camera, "oh yes, we carry that camera and I know for a fact this Pentax uses this type of memory card." Well, OK, he seemed to know his stuff. So, one hundred and sixty Canadian dollars later, I get home and of course, the memory card is completely WRONG! I at least was smart enough to not trust the future people and hesitated to touch the packaging, so there will be no problems making an exchange. Will I go back to make more purchases? At this point I say no, but I am lying, as always. One day I will be headed to the Skytrain and will have some crazy shopping impulse and decide I need a cable for, something.