Another quick update - I got a call from Phil at Ku-Sat to let me know that the 5100 shipped today… Should be here tomorrow or Monday!

I hope it’s not here tomorrow, cause we’re leaving for Edmonton around 1:00.

I almost forgot to mention. I did end up buying a 5100. I ordered it from KuSat which is the online place that hosts the Canadian Satellite forum that I get almost all of my latest ExpressVu news/rumours from. I guess the forum hosting is paying off for them :)

I shoulda known better. ExpressVu’s new receiver, the 5100, which is the first commercially available PVR product in Canada is apparently making it’s way to stores this week. Anyways, I’ve coveted this receiver for quite some time now, and have planned to buy it as soon as possible.

Long story short, I called Audio Warehouse to see if their stock had come in yet or not. The guy on the phone told me that they had, and he could sell me a receiver + dish setup for $699. I happen to know that that is the MSRP. I asked him if they could sell the receiver separately (which lists at $649), and he told me no. No big deal, I figured they’d get them at some point soon.

Anyways, Erin and I were out on the town last night, and stopped in at Krazy Kiley’s (dunno if they’ve got a website) and asked if they had the receiver in. “They won’t be available until the end of the month” the salesman tells me. Whoah. That’s one of my pet peeves. When I get lied to by sales-people, even if it’s not intentional (maybe he didn’t know any different) it’s still not the truth. One of the online forums that I occasionally visit has several people who have walked into local stores and bought the 5100 (albeit not local to Saskatoon) off the shelf. Anyways, I politely told him that Audio Warehouse has them, and then leave.

We were out anyways, so we decided to pop by Audio Warehouse, and see if they’d be willing to break up a receiver + dish set for a customer with cash in hand. Well, apparently the guy on the phone was confused, because they didn’t have their stock in yet, but were expecting it “Real Soon Now(tm)” Oh well, I didn’t think they’d be willing to split it up anyways.

Next stop was the “I shoulda known better” stop. We went to Future Shop (link withheld to protect the innocent) because there were reports that all the future shops have received their stock. I waited by the ExpressVu display for a bit, not getting any nibbles from the sales staff for a few minutes. Eventually though, I did manage to get one to come by and talk to me. Yes, they have the 5100 in stock. No, they don’t sell the receiver separately. “Why would you want to buy the receiver without the dish - you don’t get the programming credit.” the salesman says. I told him that we’re currently subscribers, and that therefore were not eligable for the credit (and incidentally, mucho payola for FS as having sold a system to a new subscriber) “Just cancel your subscription and register under a different name” he says. Now, I’ll be lying if I said that the thought had never occured to me, but then, I didn’t actually plan to do it, and besides which it is fraud. It’s one thing for a bunch of buddies to talk about scamming “the man” like that, and it’s another one entirely when a store employee does. I mean, how can you trust the guy after he’s suggested fraud to a complete stranger. Doesn’t really matter though, because we weren’t going to buy from him anyways.

On the way out of the store, Erin spotted “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” in the DVD section. Not normally a thing that I’d mention here, but several months ago, FS had a flyer that advertised that specific DVD for a good price ($13.99) so we went in to buy it. They didn’t have it (not surprisingly) so we put our name on a list to be called when it came in. Needless to say, we hadn’t been called. I wasn’t that upset about it though, as long as they still had our name & number on file, and we could get it at the sale price, I didn’t really care that much. Well, they didn’t have our name on file anymore. I talked to the “customer service” person, and asked her to look it up, and of course she couldn’t find my name. She said “Sometimes if you don’t come in within a certain time period they’ll take your name off the list, and put the product on the shelf” I told her that I hadn’t been called. She said “Oh, well if there’s no answer, they won’t leave a message” The truly frustrating thing is that I’m 99% sure that I gave them both my home & work numbers, so unless they called at 2:30 in the morning, someone would have answered at least one of those phones. Granted, they’re selling it for $15.99, so it’s only $2 more, but I didn’t buy it there, strictly based on the principle of the thing.

For those of you who don’t know about my anti-future shop bias, I’ll have to tell some stories in the coming days/weeks/months. It’s almost as if they really don’t want my money. I hope best buy comes in and tears the management a new one when they take over officially.

Simpsons quote of the day: “My cat’s breath smells like catfood” - Ralph Wiggum