tcbutler.co.uk

So, having completed a U-turn on deciding not to buy an netbook, I found myself on a mission to part with the cash as soon as possible.

A few options presented themselves – not least popping down to Tottenham Court Road to buy it in person. However, 10 phone calls later, and it was clear that that wasn’t going to work. Google searches revealed site after site with tempting promises of the cheapest postage and the best price… but all of which ended with bare shelves and weak assurances of stock within 2 weeks.

Then… PC World came to the rescue, or so I thought. While their website was out of stock, their new (as I found, VERY new) Collect@Store service allowed me to reserve an item and pick it up an hour later in store. Genius! High Street Kensington had one in stock, it’s just down the road… so I ordered and headed off, barely able to contain my excitement.

Thence the queuing began. 20 mins in, I got bored and went for lunch for an hour. Wandered past – 6 people in the queue again. Wandered off for a bit. Came back – 3 people in queue. Set myself a target of 25 mins queuing max. After 25 mins, expanded that by 1 minute, about 10 times… bit like how I deal with my alarm clock in the mornings.

Finally – the front of the queue, and payment time. Assistant chirpy, had an Eee PC himself, assured me that there was one in stock… and sent me to the front of the store to give my receipt to the security guards… good lord. 15 mins later, and the security guard had found me a completely different model, and decided to draw upon his non-existent understanding of the product to try to convince me that it was in fact the right one.

Failing, inevitably, I had the pleasure of watching the other security guard inexplicably (and inconsistently) searching other members of staff as they left the store (undermined entirely by him wandering off for 5 mins at a time to turn off alarms around the store as a stream of staff, presumably laden down with USB keys and whatever else the crème of the Dixon Stores Group’s employee base spent their day dreaming about. Finally, the conclusion was that they didn’t have one in stock at all, and I had to queue again to get my money back.

Bloody waste of time.

Long story cut short, I was desperate enough to try the same thing with the Fulham branch the following night, and, aside from the 25 minute wait while they retrieved the correct model from the store room (of course, the one they had “ready” for me wasn’t the colour I ordered) things went smoothly. I even had the pleasure of explaining to the assistant what it was he’d dug out for me.

And that’s how I came to be the owner of (this) Eee PC.