Hide and Seek

I managed to get a new camera the other day. I talked to the company rep about getting it about a month & half ago. Everyone involved with the special order request seemed a little resistant to fulfilling the order, except for the rep.
Originally, I had requested a GZ-MG77. Two weeks went by without a word. In that time, JVC announced the release of a newer model. I tracked down the rep again. She called the stock person about the 77. He said he had forgotten about it. The store that the rep works at normally carries only a very few (4-5) 77's at a time. They had been out of stock for quite some time.
Anyway, I told her about the new GZ-MG505 & that JVC had just released the model. She had not heard about it. So I requested that the order be changed to the 505. She said, 'No problem'. Another two weeks went by, the store had gotten several 77's (10-12) in. That's like twice what they normally carry. But still no 505 displayed or in stock.
A few days ago, the rep called me directly to let me know the camera was in. I went to the store and met her assistant, who either pretended or didn't know anything about the special order. Neither did the store's stockpeople. After about 20 minutes of proving that I was not leaving before buying the camera or speaking to the senior rep in person when she arrived, the assistant started making calls. He called someone with JVC order fulfillment, & got no where. Then he called the senior rep who was in route to the store. There was a bit of yelling going on that I could hear, as the assistant indicated that there were no 505's in their clutch of special orders that day. At that point, I think she hung up on him. Remember, this is the newest camera JVC makes.
I waited another 10 minutes, with nothing productive coming out of the efforts of several sales people appearing to franticly look for the unit. You know how salespeople try to look like their helping you with all that is humanly possible, but their eye contact & body language tell you a completely different story.
I had adopted a friendly, understanding, but firm stance as an innocent victim. I indicated that I had the senior rep's personal cell phone number, & offered to call her to help place where the unit was. By this time, 10 to 12 customers had gathered, interested in what the commotion was about.
Suddenly a plain, unmarked box was produced from somewhere other than the normal stock room area, which I had been standing in front of the entrance to the whole time. It was just a plain box with just JVC's logo on it. I believe that everyone there could detect the total disgust of the stockperson holding it, & it wasn't because it had taken SO long to find it! Inside, wrapped in several of bubble wrap, was a single box that was green & black; Not the blue & white of the normally stocked models. This one was different, and as it was lifted from the packing, the gathered customers surged toward it to see why this camera is different. The 505 isn't even in the product lineup literature.
The sales person could not have tried harder to stop the sale, "You know, this is a very expensive camera ??".
"Yep!!", I replied. "I'll be paying for that in cash.".
"Humm, Humm... Its not scanning into the system...". (Gee, how did he know it was expensive if its not in the system?)
I think at that point, the assistant rep didn't want to get caught by the senior rep, went to the stock terminal, called up the stock number, and forwarded an authorization to the sales computer; All within about 10 seconds. (Modern Technology; What wondrous things we can accomplish these days!!) At that point the register spit out a partially printed receipt. The sales person asked "And your going to pay...".
I never let him finish, "Cash!".
Gathering the bag & looking over my shoulder after the payment, I watched 4 store employees & one very sweaty JVC rep, all looking very forlorned, as they fought off a pack of about 20 customers who were quite displeased that there was no information or display model of the camera that guy just bought. They even tried to lift the single promotional booklet that had been packed in the shipping box with the camera. I politely reached into the crowd & took that too. I turned the corner just before I heard an especially irate customer say,
"What do you mean 'Special Order', you don't have any in stock?!"
"What do you mean the store dosen't carry that camera?!"