View From the Bushes

One of the more tragic subplots of the office rennovation story came to a conclusion last night. See, I bought most of the furniture from an Office Max where a friend of mine works. When all was said and done, I had spent just under $500. The very next week (the week I was on vacation) everything went on sale. My friend called and told me about it; all I needed was the receipt and I could get $110 back. Of course, this immediately triggered a corollary of Murphy's Law. Only receipts which have no purpose will be kept and easily located, and any receipt which has any value will immediately be lost (or destroyed by your children).

After finding out about the deal I spent the next several hours looking for the receipt (which for a variety of reasons should have been easy to find), but somewhere in the chaos that was Christmas and the vacation it had disappeared. I found receipts from 2000, I found Office Max coupons from last year, I found every other receipt even remotely associated with Christmas, but I could not find that receipt. I'm not sure about you, but when you are looking for something important and you can't find it, it tends to consume your life.

Of course you would think that in this day and age it would be a simple matter, if you had the amount, the time, the credit card number, etc. that they could print you a new receipt. Not so... apparently for Office Max, finding a receipt is the equivalent of performing major surgery, and even if it can be found it doesn't have any of the necessary information to do something like give you a rebate. Fortunately when all was said and done, my friend came through (which I guess is why you buy through you friends in the first place). They did a receipt-less return, exchanged it for identical merchandise and added in the discounts. Unfortunately a $25 coupon I had used the first time around was lost in the melee, but I did end up with a $90 gift card. Which, while not as good as cash, is almost as good considering that I'm sure I'll probably spend at least another $90 at OM completing the office. Well, that's the story for today.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross