"All that glitters is not gold." -- Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare
Read part one of our story here
So off we went back to the Darty, each of us lugging the now opened box containing six speakers and a DVD player. We entered the store and were immediately accosted by a sales representative. What ho! Actual customer service?! We were not thusly greeted upon our first entrance mere hours ago.
The man looked quizzically at us and asked, "Does it not work?"
"Oh, it works," I said. "But we don't want it."
He pointed to the cash register, where I was headed already. Off we trudged to the same register where we had paid 400 TL for our Panasonic DVD player and surround-sound stereo system. I presented my receipt and said, in my best Turkish:
"We would like our money back."
The smile on the sales lady's face quickly flattened. "It doesn't work?" she asked.
"It works," I said. "But not for us."
I knew this was puzzling, and I attempted in my best Turkish to explain that a region 2 DVD player would not play our US DVDs, only European ones. Because that was the case, a lot of our media wouldn't work on this machine.
"Ah," she said. "It works, but not for you."
Exactly. But this was not enough. The manager, too, had to hear our story.
"There is no such thing as a region," he said with a huff after we explained the situation. "This DVD player will play all DVDs."
Um, no, it won't. See the little "2" on the side here? Yeah, see, we didn't see that when we bought it -- our mistake, obviously -- so now we want to return it. Everything's here, in the box and I've got the receipt. Look how organized I am.
The manager asked to see my debit card, the one I had used to pay 300 TL of the 400 TL stereo system. Immediately he shook his head. "No, no, this won't do," he said in Turkish. "See here? It doesn't have a shiny silver stamp on it like this one" -- and here he pulled out his wallet and a Visa card -- "so I can't put the money back on this card."
I stared at him. I didn't understand. My card was a Visa card. They took the card, took the money, but they couldn't refund the money with the card? Well, that's just dumb.
By this point, a man who spoke fluent English was acting as mediator between the manager and myself.
The manager offered an alternative: he would send all the paperwork to Istanbul, which would then refund my money in 2-3 weeks.
I burst out laughing. "Are you crazy?" I said. "No way, absolutely not. I have lived long enough in Turkey to know that that is not going to work. Uh huh. Come up with another solution."
The only other solution, as you may have guessed by now, was to take 400 TL in store credit. But I had only paid 300 TL on the card, I said, so I should get 100 TL back in cash. That only makes sense. Plus, I couldn't possibly spend 300 TL in the store. There was literally nothing else that I needed.
But getting my cash back wasn't an option either. Why, I am not really sure.
"The machine will not let us do that," the manager said.
"Well, you're the manager, can't you override the machine? That's what you're there for," I replied in English.
"Perhaps later we can give you the cash, but we cannot give it to you now," came the response.
Uh huh.
So off we went through the store with a 400 TL "gift certificate" looking for ways to blow our money. We looked at DVD players again and settled on the cheapest one we could find. After all, if it couldn't play our DVDs, all we needed it for was the USB port, and we certainly weren't going to pay 200 TL for that.
I looked at coffee machines, a simple drip one for 70 TL, and picked it up. At least now we can make coffee for more than 2 people at a time. That's a plus.
But as hard as I tried, I could not find anything else to buy.
I returned to the register and presented the new DVD player and the
The girl frowned. The manager also frowned. "We still cannot give you the cash. It is not possible. Perhaps later we can give you the cash."
So I looked at computer accessories, laptop speakers, blenders, all kinds of wires and plugs and things that I didn't need. I just couldn't foresee blowing the money on crappy Chinese-made products that would likely break in a year.
Finally, I had had enough. I was tired, the store was incredibly hot and I was sweating and I was frustrated.
"That's it," I said to Jeff. "I'm done playing this stupid game. I don't want to buy more crap."
I strode towards the cash register and approached the lovely lady who had helped us before. I tried to keep my voice level and sane.
"Now, let me make something clear," I said. "You have been very helpful. You have been more than helpful. This is not your problem, it is the store's problem. Now, I do not want to buy any more crap. I do want to buy that DVD player and the
The girl was sympathetic and tried everything in her power to accommodate me. But, as the manager pointed out, the machine -- that is, the store's computers -- would not process a cash refund. They simply wouldn't allow it.
I was beginning to hyperventilate. I was handed a glass of water and told to sit down. The next time I looked up Jeff was giving the manager a piece of his mind. I think some choice words were involved.
Suddenly the manager came up with an idea. Why don't we refund you the cash for the DVD player that you are going to buy and then give you the balance on a gift certificate?
HUH?
The manager, without ringing up the sale of the new DVD purchase, scanned the box into his system and within a couple of minutes, pulled some 110 TL (the cost of the DVD player) out of the register and handed it to me.
"Now," he said. "Now, you can purchase the DVD player and the
I was, and still am, confused by this. I handed back the DVD player, the value of which I had just been handed in cash, and the lady behind the register rang it up, along with the
I still have about 110 TL left to spend at the Darty, and though I am absolutely loathe to go back, I have convinced myself that it is time for me to invest in a food processor or a blender of some sort.
I'm going to need it to make the daiquiris I will require after another trip to that store.
PS. If anyone knows how to hack a region 2 Next YE-9900 DVD player to a region free one, would you be so kind as to send me the instructions?
