Source of Aggravation by Circuit City

Another bitch of the day. (warning, graphic language ahead, hehe.)

I walk into The Source by Circuit City. My mission is to find an over-the-air solution for my mom's TV. She is getting tired of paying cable TV fees, and honestly, can't really afford it.

I do some research into getting some new gear in order to tune into the new OTA (over the air) digital broadcasts.

Be it known that on June 12, 2009, the Americans are supposed to cut-over to digital broadcast completely, and free up much needed analog broadcast frequencies for other uses. Digital taking up a lot less bandwidth, this is a huge airwaves savings and generally a good thing™.

The down shot is that all these older TVs out there will need a digital to analog converter. Simply put, it's a STB (set-top-box) to put between the TV and the antenna, and bob's your uncle. Yep, it's that simple.

Hell, this little chunk of equipment will actually allow you to get High-Def digital TV from the ole' rabbit-ears! That's pretty damned cool.

And by the way, if you have a TV and, or VHS/DVD/HDD-recorder that is manufactured with an ATSC tuner built-in, just slap on the rabbit ears and enjoy!

The upshot for the Americans is that their government has seen fit to supply 40$ coupons to acquire these OTA STB for their old TV sets. Sweet!

The CRTC is still debating the entire conversion problem.

Furthermore, our beloved broadcasters aren't yet aligned with this whole digital conversion and would much rather you pay for your TV reception through a satellite or cable carrier. Then they don't have to fork out for the new fangled digital transmitters. Bastards.

But that's not my bitch-of-the-day. No.

Back to The Source by Circuit City. I walk all around the store looking for the piece of equipment that will allow my mom to tune into this new digital airwaves thingy. She lives near Montreal, so she should be well served with a plethora of transmitting antennae. The converter is nowhere to be found. I do spy some cool looking reception antennas but, since I don't have the converter, there's no point even looking at those yet.

Finally I break down and ask a nice fellow at the counter for some guidance. In French of course:

Me: "I'm looking for the converter to tune into the new digital broadcasts."

Gentleman-behind-the-counter(BTC): "That's illegal! We're not allowed to sell those!"

And he turns around tending to something or other.

Me: "What?"

Idiot-BTC: "That's FTA and it's illegal!"

Apparently I'm being annoying now.

Me: "What's FTA?"

I'd heard the term and knew enough to be a satellite term, and not airwaves.

Dickhead-BTC: "Free to Air."

Now he's just being condescending.

Me: "Then why do you have it on your web-site?"

I'm just getting way too smug, but also just so sickeningly pleasant, as I can be in these circumstances as I circle for the kill.

Idiot-BTC: "We do?"

Getting defensive are we? HA! Now I gotcha, you arrogant prick!

Me: "Uh, yeah. It's called an analog-to-digital TV converter and you have one brand I think it's TiVax or something like that on your website."

Moron-BTC: "What did you search for?"

Now he's realizing that not only did he speak out of turn, but didn't actually listen to what I was asking for, and furthermore is caught with his fly open on his own stock. He's typing away furiously on his terminal.

Me: "digital TV converter, DTV converter, something like that."

Dumb-fuck-BTC: "Tivax STB T8!"

Me: "That's the one."

Jackass-BTC: - reads off the entire freakin' description! -

Me: "Yep, that's it! Can I see one?"

Stupid-shit-BTC: "Nope, they are special order only!"

Me: "What? None of your stores carry any? Like none in the entire region?"

Dick-wad-BTC: "Nope, they are special order only."

Me: "Oh well, thank you very much, have a great day."

I can't help but roll my eyes on the way out.

Post mortem: I'll use a little baseball terminology since Canada was handed its ass by the Italians at the Baseball Classic thingy.

Strike 1: They actually do have them in stock at three other locations in Gatineau for a total of 5 units, and another three places in Ottawa for another 7 units. So the little fucker lies too! Hmm.

Strike 2: As for his opening statement, regarding FTA being illegal to sell? If it is, someone had better tell those satellite gear suppliers throughout Canada that they are being unlawful. So the fool is ill-informed to boot. This does not bode well.

Foul-ball: I can forgive him not knowing what he has in his store. Can't know everything! Although his attitude would clearly lend itself differently.

Strike 3: Mister-know-it-all not listening to the customer in the first place? Nope, sorry, that's strike-three nimble-nuts!

I bought a converter at Future-Shop instead.

No wonder Circuit City is going bankrupt. Duh!