If you don't live in the USA, Best Buy is probably the largest consumer electronics chain in the USA. A bit like Dixons or Curry's in the UK, (sorry I don't know the Australian equivalent for all our readers there).



Anyway, so there I am in ?Best Buy' and I couldn't find the software anywhere. There's a lesson there in itself of course.

Getting someone to help was the next challenge. Even though the store was quiet, it took at least 5 mins to get helped. When I finally found someone and asked them which version they recommended for my needs, I might as well have been talking klingon, and it wasn't just the British accent that confused them.

So I took my best guess about which version to buy, grabbed the product and went to pay. At this point the cashier gave me a blank look and said the product didn't have a price on it. I always thought that scanning the barcode thingy was all they needed to do, but apparently I was mistaken. It was a new item and it wasn't showing up in the system.

I wish I could tell you that things improved but to cut a long story short I walked out without Microsoft Office that day. Despite my very best efforts to thrust a wad of cash in their hands, they couldn't seem to find a way to accept it. I'm not kidding. The entire incident reminded me of why I avoid stores like this, and Best Buy are not alone of course. Later that same day I was reading about the Home Depot shambles. Did you hear about that? Their CEO, Bob Nardelli was ousted with a $210million severance package. You read that right, 210 MILLION. Despite being objectionable to shareholders (he refused to answer their questions), dictatorial as a manager, and weak returns ($33 billion down to be exact during his tenure), he was rewarded with $210m plus another $32m retirement benefits after ?serving' the company for 6 years. I don't know about you, but to me that's really screwed up. Most BIG companies seem to be doing so badly that it's no wonder that small, independent traders on eBay that really care about their customers can do so well.

So I'm officially naming Best Buy and Home Depot as ?Dumb and Dumber', although there are plenty of others who easily qualify, I'm sure you'd agree.

What's up with ?big dumb' companies these days? They seem to be getting dumber by the minute, don't they? Everywhere you look there's examples of the stupidity of how these idiots are running their businesses. In this environment, with just a little effort, it's even easier to be a success on eBay because it's not difficult to stand out from the ?crowd'.