Yay.

Mom is ok and back home. She says her cat missed her. :-) It probably did.

I need to be writing my Magnificent Octopus clean-up, but instead wasted about three hours on what was supposed to be a thirty-minute discussion about computers. I don't get why some men are so stubborn. I was getting help from someone I know; we were IMing while I was at the website. I tried to say at first, as politely as possible, that I don't personally prefer to deal with this particular company. I just don't like them. The one experience I had trying to order from them over the phone with a corporate discount was frustrating enough that, in the middle of ordering, I just said "forget it" and hung up, albeit politely. I think they are a pack of scam artists and undertrained reps. In short, through Eviljob I get a corporate discount. On our Personnel site (it has a name, but that would give it away), there is a blurb from this computer company to the effect of, "give this code, and get a certain percentage off of personal computer and peripheral purchases". Ok? Easy enough, right? Wrong. First, they tell me there is no such offer. Then I get put on hold while doofus checks. Then they say that's online orders only. Then I get put back on hold while doofus checks again. Then they say it's only for purchases made with the corporate card. Then I get put back on hold...ad infinitum. Finally, as I'm struggling to open the cap on my Geritol, Doofus' Supervisor decides it actually *is* a discount I can use, paying with my own money, and over the phone, too. You know--kind of like the original blurb said?

Go figure.

So, ok. I start the ordering process. I come out with a total. Is that with or before the discount? I get put back on hold. He comes back. New total; the previous one was without the discount. Ok, since it's a difference of $x, then I would like to add a thingamabob. Ok; we add the thingamabob. New total is significantly higher than it should be. Did the corporate discount drop off? No. Ok...what's accounting for the huge price change, then? That's just the price. Could you check? No. Ok, take the thingamabob off. The new total is $x. Higher than the price before...this is without the discount. No--it includes the discount. No it doesn't; yes, it does. I would like to speak with whomever you have been consulting in managing the addition of this corporate discount because, frankly, I'm not convinced you are correct. You can't. Why not? You just can't. Ok, I would like to speak with your Supervisor. You can't. Why not? He said he does not want to be bothered with anything about this order again. Truthfully, I've worked in a call centre environment before, and that sounds more like an action against you than me; please put your Supervisor on the phone. No. Why not? Listen; it's only $x. I sell systems all day long where I don't have to haggle over $x. Why are you making such a big deal about it? I'm making a big deal about it, because *your* company chose to put an offer on *my* company's Personnel site offering this discount; so far in this conversation, you have tried seven ways to Sunday to talk me out of using it, now it's not being added, and you are lying and telling me that it is when it clearly isn't.

And so on.

Finally, I just gave up. I know that, probably, the doofus didn't know how to add it, or something. Maybe he was just hired the day before. I don't know and, by the time I got off the phone, I didn't care. I ended up gladly paying a couple hundred more elsewhere. And I decided to steer clear of this company.

So now fast-forward a few years, and this guy I know wants me to order from them. It's online, so ok. I agree to go to the site and at least look.

Three hours of haggling with him later, of politely trying to say I don't care to deal with these dillweeds, I'm getting ready to purchase. Ancodia has given up; she knows when people aren't listening, and she's conceded.
Then *HE* decides Ancodia should not purchase. Huh?

Like this whole thing has been an exercise in "can I get you to jump when I say jump"? Which is typical of way too many of my relationships. This is what I get for being reasonable. Or at least able to be reasoned with.

I really wanna know why this is.

I try to be nice. I try to be adaptable. I try to not complain, not whine, not ask for things. There is no reward in that. I'm not going to stop, but still... Why does it seem that people, especially men, seem to seek out where I'm going to draw the line and try to push me over? And then, like what happened tonight, drag me back? If we'd had more time, he probably would have switched on me again. That's how I feel, at least.

I just don't get it.