A (2 days after) Christmas Miracle

OK, so I know that it is probably not very PC to extol the virtues of the meglomart giant we'll call Sprawlmart. It seems every day there is another expose of the retailer and how it mistreats its employees and I certainly don't want to endorse that. But, thanks to their mistreatment of said employees, there's no denying that Sprawlmart's prices are dirt cheap. So when trying to figure out what to get my big bro for Christmas, I headed to the big W in sky and bought a fail safe gift card.

Now, if you have been keeping up with this blog, you know that the box in which this gift card was packaged has gone missing in San Diego. While I can not recoup my losses on the American Idol Barbie or the handsome day planner, I thought there might be a possibility of getting my money back on the gift card. Thanks to my husband's OCD about keeping receipts, I still have my sales slip containing the serial number for the gift card. So, I called the Sprawlmart in Woodland Hills and they suggested that if I come in to the store, they may be able to do some sort of exchange. Of course, we are still in East Tennessee, but I am told you can make exchanges of Sprawlmart items at any of their 4.7 billion stores. Off to Jeff City to stand in line - which by the way was skillfully designated by a row of milk crates and a hand lettered sign that read "return start here." I waited my turn while the husband perused the UT paraphenalia. When it was finally my turn, the girl called me to the counter and I explained my situation. She immediately said, in a sweet southern belle accent, "I'm sorry honey, 'ere aint nuttin we can do. 'Em cards is same as cashe (long a)." Ug. Well, that's that, I think. But the large girl in the red shirt and nametag reading "Misty" butts in and says "you can check to see if it's been used, you know." Then she steps in and begins to type all sorts of things into the register, sticks in a key, beep beep beep, and then a receipt prints out. "Nope, ain't no one used it yet." Well, I guess that's that. She tells me that I can call the number on the back of the card and they might be able to do something that way. Of course, I don't have the card, I say. And she is kind enough to give me a blank, empty card to take with me.

Feeling a bit defeated, we head out toward the parking lot. Just as we pass the wall covered with "have you seen this child" posters, I hear a new voice saying "ma'ame - another girl thinks she can help you." Huh? A customer service rep from Sprawlmart actually chased me down to try to help me? Wow. So, we go back in, jump to the front of the now pretty long "returns" line and step up to a CSR named Paullette whose name tag says she's provided friendly service for 20 years. I suppose, she would be able to help with 20 years of Sprawlmart experience. So, she starts typing and keying and beeping and before I know it she's asking me if I have a preference as to what type card I want - "flower or Christmas or gas or just the logo..." I am not picky, so she grabs a big red rose faced card, does some more typing and beeping and then, to my amazement, hands me a new card with my balance fully transferred. She smiled, thanked me for my patience and, then, Missy actually thanked me for helping her learn how to handle that task. Wow.

Did I say Wow yet? Because, that's really what I feel I have to say. In a million years I would never have thought that I would experience a Christmas miracle in the bright fluorescent carvernous Sprawlmart. But, lo I say unto thee, it is true. And it was good.