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Christmas has passed, so now I can relay my lovely shopping story. Not that it was paticularly horrific, as I am sure others have had much worse, but since it happened to me, I'm much more interested in my story. Since I live in Michigan, shopping for my family is a little hard - I can't buy anything that doesn't fit in my luggage and can't come with me on my flight to Jersey for the Holidays. (Background info: Born and raised in Jersey, went to high school and college in New York City. Parents and family still live in Jersey.) Thus, I have to go shopping when I get here, leaving me the 23rd and 24th to go shopping. This Christmas, I knew my dad would love a TiVo (he's a TV Nazi like me, we don't watch what's on, we seek out what is good and record it to watch it when convenient. We even search the TV listing and make schedules to make sure that we catch everything.) and so would my sisters. In addition, the cable they have is a good company (Patriot Media), but the signal is split too many times - leaving the higher channels very fuzzy. Thus, I bought them a DirecTV dish with installation and two DirecTiVos, one for upstairs, one for downstairs. (If you do not own a TiVo - seriously! What are you waiting for? They're as cheap as VCRs if you have DirecTV. If you don't, you can get DirecTV installed for free plus get a $75 Circuit City giftcard. You make $75 going to DirecTV and it's cheaper than cable monthly. Keep the cable modem, move the TV to DirecTV and you still save money. Plus, the signal quality is better.) I went to Best Buy, simply because I passed it first on the highway. It was an absolute zoo on the 23rd, with the shelves picked clean. The employees were nowhere to be found, and I could not get anyone to set me up with a DirecTV installation (which they had advertised in their circular). I finally found a guy, and while he pointed me to the TiVos that I had already commandeered from the angry crowds, he insisted, and repeated after checking with his boss that Best Buy doesn't do DirecTV. I should just call DirecTV and they'll do it. "What about this display over here that days 'Get DirecTV from Best Buy!'?" He didn't know and left to go somewhere else. I called DirecTV and he confirmed that the guy was lying. When I asked if DirecTV was also available at Circuit City, the DirecTV rep told me that they did, and recommended I leave Best Buy because they clearly knew nothing. I love a rep that has distaste for idiocy - usually they are idiots, so it was a pleasant change (In DirecTV's defense - they do have the best reps around. Sometimes they're a bit clueless - but they are always helpful and will ask around if they don't know the answer. That's why DirecTV always wins best customer service awards.) Thus, I left for Circuit City. They have a two room dish/reciever package with installation that's $99 with a $100 mail-in rebate and $75 mail-in gift card. When I went to buy it, my barely English speaking employee (we'll call him Simon) wanted to ring me up (I presume for commission) and managed to not know how to do so. After fighting with me for a half hour because I understood the Circuity City cash register better than he did, he finally printed out a receipt and handed it to me to sign. I looked and he had charged me $150 for a $99 product. When I confronted him about this, he argued that since I was getting a $75 gift card and the rebate, it didn't matter, I was getting a deal anyway. After passing out from the lack of reason in my immediate area, I picked myself off the floor and fought with him for about ten minutes. I re-explained the whole thing and brought him over to the display. He then went to check with his boss (apparently located in Outer Mongolia) and disappeared for ten minutes. After I hunted him down (he was at another register, trying to figure out what he did), I found another employee that showed him what he did wrong. All fixed, right? Wrong. Now I had to go the the front desk, and get my $50 refund, because even though I didn't sign the receipt, my card had been charged. Having no time for explanation, he tried to yell at the desk manager to give me back my money. Clearly confused by the incoherent mumbling of Simon, I explained my plight and the manager glady gave me back the money. Now we move on. We walk back to Simon's area - when he decides the best move is to give me a full refund and start over - even though the transaction is now done. He comes back to the front and screams at another manager and then leaves me there at the desk. I explain that everything is okay and I don't know why he is doing this - but the manager proceeds anyway - after mentioning that she doesn't even know this guy's name he's so new. So now owning nothing and having lost the last hour and fifteen minutes to the Circuit City Gods and about 20 minutes to the Best Buy Gods, I take over for Simon and tell him every button to push and scream at him when he makes a mistake. After another fifteen minutes, I finally leave with my two new TiVos and dish plus installation. How beautiful is shopping on the internet? Merry Christmas