prescience.

first, i'd like to quickly set the record straight: all them people talking in their cars on their "celly" are just that important. i guess we aughta just "deal".
finally: a story of my own:
last winter a customer brought in some righteous tele boards i was envying all over the place and wanted to borrow, but we never worked out the logistics. this very recent christmas era, he brought said righteous tele boards in to fix a bushing issue (i'll skip the technical description except to say it's plastic and therefore prone to wear.) and i told him it'd be free of charge if he let me ski them a little. he agreed, and we set about with our fix. after a bit of consternation and grinding and a judicious application of two 3 mm wide strips of duct tape (duh.), we were set, and i got to ski said righteous tele boards. i could have left it at that, but i wanted the customer to have the actual bushings from salomon, the manufacture of said righteous boards. after forgetting to call them for two weeks, i finally remembered the monday after christmas. the warranty dude i spoke with said the parts weren't under warranty any longer--no surprise; the skis are five seasons old and i agreed with him--but he could get me the parts for around $14 after shipping. i thought, "bargain!" cos i'da retailed our fix for $20 per ski. one week later, a package arrived from salomon and "lo and behold", pins! now, for those who are unfamiliar with such "tecky" terms as "bushing" and "pin", this is akin to requesting a razor for your empty box knife and getting instead another empty box knife and no razor. upon digesting the disappointment, i dialed up our friendly salomon warranty department and spoke with the gentleman who answered the phone. i stated my case and he answered, "huh?", which got my blood moving a bit quicker, cos i hate when i tell a story to someone who's being paid to listen and he doesn't actually listen. i stated it again and he said, "which ski?" i told him which ski and he asked, "which part?" i told him "bushing" and he said, "how bout you look in the catalogue on page 67." i told him i don't have a catalogue (which was an unintentional falsehood as i found out later) and that he should be able to tell the difference between a bushing and a pin--there may have been six or ten "f-bommz" in there--which as a warranty dude at an international ski company, he damn well should. he said, "i need you to cooperate with me a bit more." i said, "i need you to do your fkn job!" and hung up on him and told my coworker that we'd just fabricate em ourselves from now on. (see where i saw the future? only but a day later!) the warranty dude then called back (cursèd star 69) and asked for the "manager". the "manager" then told me to apologise to the warranty dude, which as you may know is REALLY painful when your only fault is anger and the warranty dude's was manyfold (as opposed to manifold) and far greater and possibly quite detrimental to a mechanic/client relationship. the capper? salomon doesn't even manufacture the bushing i was looking for aftermarket. the first warranty dude i spoke with should have known his bidness and done tole me!! the other capper? (like the stacked standing lenticulars on rainier at or near the end of a high pressure system's tenure.) i hadda call them back the immediate next day to ask for a different part and speak with the same character out whom i did cuss. and to top that off, (much like the high clouds that rest just above the stacked standing lenticulars) the owner of the second pair of skis for whom i was getting the other parts the following day mistook wax dust for ski destruction (an easy thing, i know) and demanded of the "manager" an entire new set of skis, causing in turn a fit of near apoplexia in the "manager" cos as you know, dust washes off. it ruins not the surface upon which it rests. the manager went from 0 to 60 in, oh, i don't know, 1.56 seconds. nearly touching off an interdepartment death match. which ida done kicked fkn ass at. ach. "getting sicker", indeed.