There's bad customer service, atrocious customer service, and Best Buy

I recently bought a Wii, which is perhaps the most fun purchase I've made in my life. They're still very hard to find, at least here in the New York metro area: you need to be lucky and hear of them available online (I saw them available on Toys R Us' site) or in a store you can get to in time. Some people take their chances at the Nintendo store at Rockefeller Center: even today, their daily shipments sell out immediately after the store opens. People still line up starting at 6 a.m. for the 9 a.m. opening, hoping to be among the lucky few.

Well, I bought only a basic package with just one Wiimote and nunchuck, and I'll need a second set for when a friend and I play games this weekend. Normally I don't ever bother going to Best Buy, which has a deservedly bad reputation. Even their best sale prices are rarely worth a consideration. Well, there's one on my way from work to Grand Central, so I figured I'd check their Wii accessories for the sake of saving time. First, I fruitlessly called several times to make sure they had some in stock. The phone kept ringing and was never answered, so I popped in on my way home from work. There were plenty of Wiimotes on the shelves, but no nunchucks, and no sales staff who'd pay any attention to me. It took several minutes before I could get a hold of someone, in this case, some kid who looked and sounded straight from the ghetto. He said in a disinterested voice that he'd check, but several minutes later he still hadn't returned. I walked out the store in disgust.

I don't know why I bothered, because any of us who've tried looking around Best Buy already knew what was going to happen to me. Yes, I would have saved a bit of time rather than going to another store, but I could have decided to spend more time in the first place and avoid the high probability of aggravation. Tomorrow I'll just go to the Wal-Mart in Wilton, Connecticut, a bit of a ways from my friend's house but not too bad.