not a simple return (lyn)

Have no time for breakfast, as I just want to get one errand done.  Being busy is a great deterrent to eating.  Grab a multi-grain bar around 11 and leave the house.   I am returning my new Nikon point-and-shoot camera.  The one I researched and chose based on the rave reviews.  I’ve had it since October (the Coolpix 8200) and find the delay long, the pictures so-so, the flash annoying, and the location of the on/off button to be too near the zoom/focus button.  I have a copy of my receipt.  The camera.  And the memory card.  I wait 15 minutes for a bus.  Go north almost 40 blocks.  Wait in line.  Get to the counter, and then realize I’d forgotten to take Alexander’s pictures off the memory card.  That, and I’d forgotten the charger too.  Understandably, nice Emely (not a misspelling) cannot take it back. I grab lunch (a sample of bruschetta on a cracker) and buy a box of mini cupcakes for guests this weekend.  I leave Costco with the camera I came in to return, then  wait in line another 20 minutes for a bus home.    

I get back to my apartment, two hours after leaving it.  Transfer the pictures from the memory card to my computer.  Put the now empty card into my wallet with the receipt.  Find the charger.  Put that in a bag with the camera and even find the little case I thought I’d lost.  I go back to the bus stop.  Wait a few minutes.  Go back to Costco.  Wait in line.  Hand the sales clerk my camera and the charger.  I go to get my wallet with the receipt and the memory card in it, but it’s not there.  I am less concerned that my wallet’s been stolen than I am with the prospect of having to repeat going home-and coming back to Costco yet a third time for the same mission.

The manager comes over.  Maybe because it’s Christmas, or maybe because I’m about to cry, but she is understanding.  She talks to me like I am a lost child who can't find her mom,  “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of this.”  I almost expect a hug.  She accepts the return without my receipt (she can look that up), without my Costco card (she can look that up too), and without my memory card (just because).

I buy another point-and-shoot, the Lumix DMC-ZS10, and hope I’ll like it. I come home and see my wallet next to my computer.  Fours hours to return a camera.  I'm just grateful it wasn’t six!