A reader squirts, “I just came across your website today…pretty funny stuff! I have to relate to you an experience last week that for some reason really left me fuming.”

Please don’t come across our website. These socks don’t come cheap. That’s not the point of this post, however.

Andrew went to get his uncle a nasal fur trimmer from Sharper Image. He approached the counter, device in hand, thereupon entering in a delicate softshoe with the clerk sparking Andrew’s desire to trim the hairs in the back of the cash machine pumper’s retina.

That’s because “…shoppingggg… in the reaaalllll worllllld… is com-pli-cated!“

Read Andrew’s story and vote to tell us whether he got his Bic flicked, after the jump…

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Andrew writes:

“So I go into the Sharper Image on 57th Street at about 6:30, just off work and need to get my uncle a birthday present…I walk in, grab a nose-hair trimmer and take it up to the counter and tell them I need it gift-wrapped. The smug dude behind the counter asks if I would like to include batteries with my gift. Sure, I say, why not. Then would I like a service protection plan for “whomever the gift is intended for.” No thanks, I say. “Are you sure, it’s only $10 and it lasts two years…” No thank you, I say. “Are you sure?”

Yes, very.

Okay now all that is pretty much expected these days. It doesn’t really bother me. HOWEVER…this is where it gets good. I give him my credit card and he hands me a copy to sign. I take a pen from the counter to sign it. I sign it and hand it back to him. He hands me my receipt and card. Now at this point I have my wallet open and am putting the card and receipt into my wallet, still holding the pen between two fingers. I am literally still putting my card in my wallet when he says…

“You can just leave that pen right there on the counter so that another customer can use it.”

Like I was gonna walk away with the chewed-up capless black Bic (of which at least four were on the counter).

Is this grounds for getting pissed?”

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Let’s vote!

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There’s no reason for the clerk to say, “Are you sure?” twice, especially when the second one offers no new information, except possibly that he thinks you’re stupid and can’t make up your mind. The bit about the pen is ridiculous, sounds like he was just pissed he couldn’t inveigle you into the protection racket.

At the same time, it’s not that big a deal. Annoying? Imperfect? Yes, but Andrew should be to Bic as water is to duck’s back, you know?

Who knows, maybe the Sharper Image employees don’t think very highly of purchasers of their nostril trimming products, reserving esteem instead for the buyers of 1950’s themed electric massage pinball machines.

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