Playstation 3 Madness, Part 2/3

So, here I was at [Store Name], looking at the ~50 people in line. Ouch. There would be 26 PS3s at the minimum, probably no more than 40 at this store. I also saw a few people across from the crosswalk, seemingly in the same boat as us. A car drove by them, and the people in it said that they "thought nobody was supposed to come until 8:00" Thinking they may know something, and not having anything to lose, I went to them, and asked what they knew. My friend Turns out, they were in fact in the same situation as us... even planning on staying in their car and all. Their plan was to protest this whole thing (peacefully, of course) It was only about 7:00 at this time, so it's possible people would be cleared out for that level playing field we came for. We were in that area across from the crosswalk, getting some dirty looks from people. Soon before 8:00, a cop shows up, just to make sure no fights occur. 8:00 comes, and we decide to go in front of the door. The cop was right there, so we knew the odds of a fight happening was next to nothing. (plus, it's Woodbury... a pretty safe place)

As one would expect, the people in line were not happy. But how else would our complaints be taken seriously? The manager came out, and he listened to both of us. The people there said that they should be first, since they were there first. We said that we were told 8:00, tried to coem before, but were kicked out. They were rewarding people that went against the rules, and punishing those that followed them. The manager said he'd have to figure things out. In the meantime, he did give the people in our group (about 15 of them) $25 gift cards. Soon, a person from the corporate headquarters came, and we repeated our side of the story. One kid's mom, who was with us in the beginning, even mentioned calling an attorney. We were told to go to write down our names and numbers, and go to the back of the line. They also told us that they wouldn't tell us to do that unless they thought it would be worth it. Not having much other choice, we did that.

In the back of the line, there were some rumors spreading that they would try to get extra units from other stores. Soon, the son of the woman that threatened to use an attorney told me that their mom did talk to him (the attorney, that is). He went straight to [Store Name]'s legal department. Within 30 minutes, people on the list, myself included, started getting phone calls. We were asked to come back tomorrow, and were given individual appointments. They said that they have something planned, but cannot say what "for legal reasons" (not the first time I've heard that expression from them) However, they said, I "should be veeeery happy." Since my friend was not on the list (he was in the other line, thinking it would be more likely for at least one of us to get a PS3 that way) he never got a phone call, and we stuck around a bit. Then, we figured it may not be a bad idea to try to get him on that list, since we were together (and had reasonable proof of it, if we used our college IDs) We waited around a while for the manager, and ended up leaving our number so he could call us back. On our way home, we found out that he could not get on that list and will not be able to get an appointment like I did. Understandable, I guess, but that would have been nice.

Well, this is where I need to cut things off, unfortunately. I still have to go to [Store Name] tomorrow, and see what will make me veeeery happy (that didn't sound right). I would like to mention that during the times I have talked to the managers, they were VERY friendly, and did understand our point of view. They probably wanted us to be first in line, but wouldn't be able to (for legal reasons, of course). Granted, I'd prefer that this whole thing didn't happen, but they used what they had very well, and were always very polite. Oh yeah, I'd like to apologize for any lack of organization here.