More Customer Service Issues

Okay. So here's the deal. I haven't been receiving the best customer service lately. Maybe it's me. Regardless, I stopped by Barnes & Noble on my home last night to pick up a copy of Inkdeath that my aunt had purchased for Abbie. She paid for the book over the phone and had it ready for me to pick up at the store. Their instructions to her were for me to just drop in and pick it up at the register in the music section under the name "Newman". Here's what happened:

I went to B&N on my way home. Parked in the main lot (which B&N calls the "back" for some weird reason) and went in the store. The music section is right there, and that's where I was told that they were supposed to have the book. I went straight to the counter, and Mr. "I Skipped Algebra to Work this Evening" asked if he could help me.

I told him that I was picking up a copy of Inkdeath that had already been ordered. He told me that I needed to go to the book section. He said I could get the guys at the helpdesk to show me where I could find a copy.

"Well, I'm not really looking to buy a copy," I said, "The book has already been bought. I just need to pick it up."

"Oh. Well in that case," I was informed, "you'll need to go to the other registers to pay."

"Dude, listen," I was leaning over the counter by now. "A copy of Inkheart was bought by my aunt, she's in Oregon, this store told her that it would be here under the name 'Newman' for me to pick it up."

"Gotcha. I'm sure the customer service desk in the center of the store can tell you where it is."

"By 'here', I meant that they told me it was at the register in the music section. Will you please just check," I was getting a bit frustrated at this point.

"I don't know why they would put a book in the music section. Is it a book on tape?"

"It's not a book on tape, and I don't know why it would be here either. All I know is that she called, she paid, and they told her to pick it up at the music register."

"Well, I'll check, but it's not going to....oh, wait....huh....would you look at that....somebody put a book in my drawer. Are you 'Newman'?"

Shaking my exasperatedly, "Yeah, that's for me."

"Okay. Let me just ring this up real quick."

"ARRGGGHH!!! It's already been paid for."

"Oh. It looks like we got a credit card for this already. I just need you to sign the credit card receipt."

"Really? You do know that my aunt, in Oregon, who is certainly not me paid for this with her credit card. I don't really understand how my signature is going to be helpful here, but whatever."

I signed it and ran.

The good news is that I have the book and Reagan and Abbie are both reading their current books as fast as they can so they can get their hands on Inkdeath.

One of Us, One of Them

I'm so glad that I have something to write about every Tuesday again. This was a pretty good episode that answered a few of the questions presented in the premiere. Highlight below for details.

Starting with Tracy, we found out that she really isn't Niki Sanders. The body in the coffin, the dual birth certificates, and the fact that Dr. Zimmerman claims to have "created" Tracy all point to a possible clones or twins scenario. Now I wonder if there are more than two. And I wonder if Dr. Zimmerman created them with powers intentionally of if that is just a weird byproduct of the process.

Hiro was trying to get the formula back from Daphne, but failed. We're starting to see the crack in his and Ando's relationship. I'll be that Ando really does turn evil and figure out way to gain powers. It always happens in the comics. The greatest nemesis of the hero is someone that he used to be close to. Anyway, the Haitian was blocking everyone's powers while he made the trade with his half of the formula. Apparently, the assignment he was on for Angela was to retrieve her half of the formula. No thanks to Ando, Daphne ended up with that half and is presumably taking it to her employer. I can only suppose that her employer has some kind of pre-cog ability that allowed her to know when Hiro would open the safe and when Haitian would make the trade. Using that, she was able to direct Daphne to be in place at just the right moment.

Present-day Peter was still trapped in the body of the convict, and he finally learned to use the power associated with the body he was in. Some kind of voice or sound wave that knocks people over. Unfortunately for Noah, Future Peter took Present Peter to the future to see what was going to happen. I don't know about you, but I kinda like the tougher more confident Future Peter. I do still wonder, though, why Present Peter couldn't use any of his other powers while in that body. Maybe it's a limitation of the body that he's in.

Noah is working for Angela to get the Level 5 residents put back in place or killed. Her brilliant plan is to partner Noah with Sylar. I can't really figure her out. Apparently, Sylar really is her son that she gave up for adoption, and now she seems to want him to gain power. I think she intends to use him as a weapon since Nathan wouldn't take office for her and Peter won't fight for her. Anyway, Sylar let one guy escape while he was busy taking the sound wave power and whatever Noah thought of him before, it's even less now. I have to admit, though, I really did enjoy seeing Sylar jump into the role of a Federal Agent and get them inside the building. I sure hope that they are not going to try and get us to like the guy, though.

Matt is the annoying one this season. Somebody please buy the guy some face cream. The crusty dry skin is part of being the desert, but I don't really care to see much more of that. And what is the deal with his eyes changing when he put on the headphones. What's playing on them? And why can't Matt just read the African guy's mind to find out what's going on? That storyline is getting pretty lame in a hurry.

Finally, Claire wants to fight. Or more specifically, she doesn't want to feel powerless. Her real mother, for some reason, decided that the best way to teach that was to take Claire to nearly the point of death. Interestingly, while Claire was sweating and suffocating, her mother was not. Does this mean that her mother can withstand fire as well? Or does the fire that her mother creates have some special property that allows her to not feel the heat and lack of oxygen?

Needless to say, she won't be winning Mother of the Year anytime soon, and she's just pushed Claire over the edge. Claire took the Primatech box and is out hunting the same guys Noah is after. I wonder how long it will take for them to meet up.