[rhyds]

Electrical retail customer service. Allow me to explain...

Last night, I get a call from my mother telling me her microwave has waved its last. So, being the dutiful son (and living the closest to an electrical shop of any description) I do an online reserve at the nearest Currys (30 miles away). The email says my order will be ready for collection within 1 hour. As it takes just about that to drive through traffic to get there I was quite sure it would be a case of walk in, give my reservation number, pay for microwave and then walk out with it.

When I got there the shop was pretty much empty, so I ask one of the shop floor staff to help me with the order, expecting to be shown to the till and have the microwave brought from "out the back" or similar. Oh how wrong i was....

First of all the chap leads me to the microwave display and asks me to help him find the right one. I found one which looked similar to the website picture but was labeled as a "conventional oven" for £60 or so more than the website listed it. Naturally I assumed this wasn't the microwave oven I was looking for. 10 mins of looking later, and resorting to checking the model number of the order against the whole gamut of microwaves it turns out the one I'd spotted the first time was in fact a microwave, rather than conventional oven, and was indeed up for £70 and not £130.

So the chap now grabs the microwave and takes it towards the checkout, but not before bashing it in to the odd end of row display on the way.

And of course I was asked if I wanted a £15 extended warranty on it...