Screen trafficking

[resonant]

We ripped the screen in the back screen door, so I took that panel out and took it down to the Hardware Store of the Undead for repair.

When I went to pick it up, I forgot to take along the little pick-up tag they'd given me.

The old guy who waited on me looked up my name on a clipboard, and found my screen. Then he made me give him my driver's license, and laboriously copied down the twelve-digit driver's license number.

"Do you actually have problems with people taking screens that don't belong to them?" I said.

"We sure do," he said. "That's why we have this policy."

Comments

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

That is completely bizarre. On the other side, I recently had something repaired at a shop that didn't take credit cards (*gasp*) and I, of course, had no cash. The guy let me take my item and told me to just come back with a check. I was in shock.

[visionshadows.livejournal.com]

I used to work in a hardware store and we had a similar policy. We took licenses to check names, but didn't write the numbers down. And yes, people really do take screens that aren't their own. It's craziness.

[kudra2324.livejournal.com]

i guess i understand the checking your license, but the copying down the digits just seems weird.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Okay, that's just seriously weird. LOL!

[celandineb.livejournal.com]

*blinks* But... why? Are screens that expensive that someone would bother doing this?

[evilprettykitty.livejournal.com]

Yep, my mother worked at a hard ware store for years and people would take screens and glass windows that weren't thiers ALL THE TIME. It's so freaking odd.

[visionshadows.livejournal.com]

I could never understand it. And there's also the people that dropped off screens and windows, put a deposit down and never picked them up!

[skuf.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha! That's great, *gg*.

[neery.livejournal.com]

But... what in the world would anyone do with a panel from your screen door? What are the chances that someone has a door with the same measurements that's broken in the same way? And who would go to all the trouble to find out what your name is so they can go home with your screen door panel? I just don't get this.

[mzcalypso.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the problem isn't that the screen panels look so much alike. We had one done and I wonder if they did give me someone else's, because it was just under 1/4 inch off and I had to take it back... they redid it without charging extra (they had the original measurements,and it didnt' match.) Our hardware store keeps the things back in the workroom, though, where customers have to ask someone to retrieve them, so people just taking them is not a problem.

What makes no sene is how or why anybody would a) know that a person had a screen waiting for pickup, or b)come and ask for someone else's door screen -- wtf? I mean, I have met one or two people who were that nasty, but a door screen ...?

I love real hardware stores, where the owner works there and knows where everything is, and can tell you what will work. The big-box stores are putting 'em out of business, but there's no comparison in real service - it's worth the extra few bucks.

[giglet.livejournal.com]

love real hardware stores, where the owner works there and knows where everything is, and can tell you what will work.

Amen!

Tom and Wanda (who own the best and the closest hardware stores in town, respectively) are my heroes. They taught me how to dry out my basement, change my locks, solder pipes, install new light fixtures, fix a broken window, repair my clothes drier, and identify my keys. And many many other things.