Hey Asus– I emailed you on Wednesday to request an RMA for my randomly rebooting router.

Here it is Friday and, beyond the confirmation of my request, I have heard nothing.

Three days and no response? Poor.

Now I am on the phone– a toll call– to get an RMA for a router that is broken. The replacement should have been sent 2 days ago.

Asus Support and Asus Warranty Service seem to be pretty crappy so far.

That is all.

Here is today’s Kroger experience.

I went in at 2PM to get all of my food for the weekend. As I walked in, I noticed a man in dirty clothes, walking through the parking lot. He was looking inside every car he passed. He stopped by a lady with her baby, and talked to her for a second. This guy was clearly begging or stealing.

I informed the two security guards who were outside smoking, and pointed specifically to the guy. I did my shopping, and 45 minutes later, the guy was still walking around the lot, looking into cars, harassing Kroger’s customers.

Why did the security guard not tell him to leave their property or face arrest for trespassing?

Fast forward 3 hours, 5:00PM. I am showing Jaime the food for the weekend and realize that the person who bagged my groceries failed to put my pint of blueberries, 2 lemons, and 3 limes in my cart. Grrr.

My general rule is this. If you make a mistake on my purchase, and I have to travel back to your location, I get it for free. Almost every retail establishment agrees. So I called Kroger to make sure I would be able to get both my food and my money back as a result of having to fight 5:00PM Friday traffic. The lady said maybe, so I held for the manager, who said it was no problem. Good.

I go to the store, and grab my citrus while Jaime grabs the blueberries. The ones she picked had a rotten one right below the surface, so I stopped to swap it for a different one. As we walked to the cooler, we watched a guy open up a package of blueberries, reach in with his bare hand, grab a few of them, pop them in his mouth, and close the package.

He looks at us as if he was caught, probably because he was caught. I grab my berries and casually say, “That’s disgusting.” He asks what. I state that opening a package of sealed fruit, reaching in with his bare hand, and closing it back up is what is disgusting. He asserts that it is not disgusting, and questions how he’s supposed to buy fruit. I explain that fruit is a gamble. He says it is not– he can sample as he pleases.

What?!?! So if you want a watermelon, well, core out a sample. Are those mushrooms fresh all the way to the bottom? Let’s open ‘em up and figure it out. How about that banana? I suspect there may be a brown spot on this one, so let me just peel it a little bit. Idiot.

I reiterated my point that what he did was in fact disgusting and we started to walk away. He asked what was disgusting about it, and my response was short and simple: “Did you wash your hands…?” We continue walking. He then tells me that the blueberries are no good (fat chance, considering blueberries are a June and November crop and– hold the presses– it’s JUNE). I noted his description for when I got my money back from the manager.

When I talked to the manager, I took an opportunity to inform him of the suspicious man earlier, and of the man who wants to audition closed, measured packages of fruit.

After a bit of an ordeal, I get my money back for the fruit I had bought, but wasn’t placed in my cart when I paid.

Oh yeah, and why does Kroger suck? They didn’t apologize for failing to put my groceries in my cart after our transaction was legally complete, thereby requiring me to drive back to their store and wait in line, and completely negating my planning to do all of my weekend shopping at a low-shopper, low-traffic time.

That is all.

Has anyone else observed that lately the general public is getting less smart?

Two examples, both which occurred within a minute of each other.

1. I was in one of our squares. The squares are simple– anyone in the square has the right of way, and anyone entering the square must yield. You can see the yield sign on this Google Map.

So today as I rounded the square, a girl on the phone blows the yield and, were I not paying attention, would have rammed my car. I tap my horn, she gives a look of alarm, and guns it. I continue on behind her, since I was in the square and anyone entering the square must yield to me. The guy behind her comes dangerously close to hitting my car, and then proceeds to honk their horn about 40 times. I HAD THE RIGHT OF WAY, IDIOT.

2. Pedestrians are reckless, and that is dangerous in a tourist town. In our city, you must stop for a pedestrian who is in the crosswalk. As I came around the square, the car that was two ahead of me slowed to wait for a pedestrian in the cross walk. The car ahead of me started to slow, and a pedestrian darted out between two cars and attempted to walk in front of the car ahead of me. The car ahead of me, while slowing, was going too fast to stop for this jaywalker. As soon as he clears the car, he darts out in front of my moving car. I slam on the brakes, and this guy– head down– walks right across the road, 20 feet from a crosswalk.

I casually mention that the crosswalk is 20 feet away. He walks up to my car and asks what my problem is. I simply state that the crosswalk is 20 feet away, and that he jaywalked in front of a moving car. He informed me this was a tourist town. I explain that I understand, and that is precisely the reason why pedestrians are required to use the cross walk– for their own safety– and that is why we have a minimum of 8 crosswalks per square. He then walks to his car, which was the first one off the cross walk. He had to walk to the crosswalk anyway.

If he had crossed 60 seconds earlier, the lady from my first post would have hit him, and likely killed him. Why not cross safely, and with the protection of the law requiring other vehicles to stop?

Eh, that would be too reasonable. This guy owned the road… so long as his idiot self didn’t want to use it when the other idiot was blowing her yield.

The masses may be asses, but some individuals are really screwing up the curve.

That is all.