Hey, I'm waiting on a file transfer from one drive to another. I couldn't think of much else besides this with which to spend time.

I used to work at Fry'* Electronics up until 2 weeks ago, and the employees there knew & trusted me. Today, I wanted to return a power supply and get another one. I got the recept, the power supply, the retail box, and even the little bag of 4 screws - still intact - that came with it originally. I packed it all up nicely, and I went to return it.

I arrived at 8:47, and Fry'* closes at 9:00. When I got there, I spent 2 minutes getting to the return counter. There, I saw that I had forgotten the AC power cable, which was at my house (40 minutes away). To make matters worse, I had driven up with my mom'* car, and not my Bonneville.

I suggested that I would return the power supply without the cable, but upon buying the new power supply, I'd put the new cable into the old box. It makes perfect sense considering that the cables are 100% universal. However, I was told that "the cable wouldn't be compatible" with the old power supply. That'* just not right. Not only do power supply manufacturers not make their own power cables, but there are probably only 2 or so companies at all who make them anyway. The person who convinced the returns counter worker was the store'* assistant manager. He didn't like me much.

I ran out of the store at 8:49 and called a friend who lives 10 minutes away. I asked to "borrow" his power cable, and he agreed. I ran to his house, and I got a power cable. It wasn't by the brand of my power supply. It wasn't even a power supply'* original cable. It was his monitor'* cable. I then went back to the store, and I arrived barely in time (at 9:04).

There. I won.

Electronics stores are not computer stores. Don't expect expect them to be. And don't expect all, if any, of their employees to know anything about computers except what they're told. Especially the returns desk. All they know is "Do you have a receipt for that?".

I bet if you'd have never mentioned the missing cable, you'd have an extra now....

Someone else saw that the cable was missing, and then they all went nuts. Besides, I have about a hundred or so spare power cables. I don't know how that happened.