Monday, April 23, 2012

The saga of Lonesome Dove

Before I start whining, let me show you another pretty iris.


One of Cliff's favorite westerns is "Lonesome Dove", the four-part miniseries.  I recently ordered the DVD set for him, taking care to check and see that it was closed-captioned.  


Cliff can't enjoy watching anything on TV without it.  In fact, he won't even attempt watching anything without captions.  
Last night he decided to enjoy his favorite western.  For some reason, when I would go to the DVD menu and select closed captions, it refused to allow it.  Cliff tried his best to make out what was going on without them, but it just wasn't working for him.  
This morning I went to Google and found a discussion indicating that the TV had to be set for captions in order for some DVDs to work.  This really didn't seem right to me, since on all our other DVDs, captions work just fine.  But I thought, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."  
After a half-hour fiddling with the remote, it hit me that I was messing with the wrong remote, the Direct TV one.  I had not seen our actual television remote in at least a year, but Cliff told me where it was.  We never use it, ever.  
So of course I had to get the TV instruction manual to figure out how to use the TV remote.  
I finally found the information I needed and turned on the TV captions.  
Still no captions on Lonesome Dove.  OK, I had better find out where I got this and see if they can help me, or at least give me my money back.  I checked Amazon.com for recent orders.  No Lonesome Dove.  Cliff was up by now and suggested I look on the outer box the DVD came in.  Ah!  A Best Buy sticker that had been half-way scratched off!  
I went to my account on the Best Buy site and found I had not ordered anything from them in over a year.  
Insert a deep sigh of frustration here.  
"OK," I said.  "That only leaves Ebay and Half.com.  Maybe I will complain to the seller."  
Sure enough, I got the set on Ebay for under $9, shipping included.  As I was getting ready to contact the seller, I saw the name.  
Seattle Goodwill.  
I don't believe I will bug a charitable organization about captions.  At least our money went to a good cause.   
Two hours of a perfectly good morning, totally wasted.

9 comments:

  1. For a small fee I will come over and just repeat what they say... :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. You might look into getting Cliff a hearing aid. They seem to be all the rage all of the sudden.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a way to start off your morning...sure hope the rest of the day goes better for you. Happy Monday!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Loved that Iris. Don't worry, Rachel will fix it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cliff already has a hearing aid. One ear is totally shot, so he only has one hearing aid on the other ear, and it isn't anything to brag about.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your so lucky to have your daughter close by. We get ourselves into some good jams and have to wait. By the time a kid comes we've forgotten all about what we needed help with.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I can't help--I have the series on VHS. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Such a shame. Poor Cliff. Poor you. Running around trying to FIX things. Goodwill is a GREAT charity. I LOVE them and there are wonderful deals to be had there for only a dollar or two. And every dime is a contribution, I know. But I wouldn't let them off the hook for the $9. If something doesn't work, a complaint is only fair. Just so they know, the customer wasn't happy and probably won't buy from them again. It keeps them honest.

    ReplyDelete

I love comments!