It's not so much retail heartbreak as it was headache.

I had some time to waste before work one morning back in January and found Orange Box for sale for £15. I figured this would be the prefect time to test out my new PC. I was shopping at Game, so needless to say I pinched myself when I didn't see a zero after the one and the five. I called a friend of mine to ask whether this was a good deal; he reckoned it'd cost about £25 on Steam and so it was a good idea. I jumped in the queue and arrived at the desk I queued for twenty minutes. With a slightly smug smile on my face, I handed over the case. "I'm sorry, I think we're sold out of this." My smile vanished.

"Then would it not be an idea to put a notice up saying you're sold out to save people like me queuing for twenty minutes to be told that?"

Remember that episode of The Simpsons were Homer gets sacked and claims it was his first day? Oh yes, the shop assistant went there. Trying to tell me that Game - apparently - decided to have someone start work on about January the second or third. Because clearly they don't take on Christmas staff and the guy hadn't been there since about October. I'd like to say at that point I was very British and with a stiff upper lip went and wrote a letter to my local member of parliament. Instead I just went to work. But it didn't stop there, oh no. I wasn't taking that. So I wrote a LiveJournal entry about it. That'll show him.

That's not the worst experience I've had. It's certainly the least funny. A couple of weeks ago I was in Wetherspoons and ordered a glass of coke. They normally ask if you want ice in it and I don't usually get ice. I had a glass handed to me with ice and I said "Sorry, could I have one without ice?" The guy then took my drink off me, took the ice out with a scooper and handed me back the glass of coke that was now about a third empty. My friend laughed. Hard. I did not.