Well, first of all. Let me wish you all a very happy new year. I hope 2010 is a prosperous and good year for you all.

We went to New Years Eve in the Palmerston North Square last night. I have to say I was a little disappointed. After deciding we would wait until the little children’s acts were done we went in about 9pm. We arrived and found somewhere to park ourselves on a blanket.

Well, the sound system setup was not great. It was very overdriven by the bass. We got there and a Beatles cover band were playing. Could’ve sounded pretty good if the sound system didn’t sound overdriven.

Then we were subjected to some wanna be band from Masterton called Deaf Lemon. Yeah, they must be tone deaf. They totally killed songs from Guns ‘n Roses and the Chili Peppers (and not in a good way) which I guess wrote them off me. then with the the language the dopey chick who couldn’t sing was using wasn’t exactly suitable for a “family” event. I was highly disappointed.

Then things got better. That ‘80s Band came on stage at about 11:35pm, wow did they make it worth going. seemed to have sorted out the sound system too which made it all that much better. Don’t get me wrong, all in all we had a great night but the sound system and the band “Deaf Lemon” did let down the evening some what.

Hopefully the Palmerston North City Council will get it right next year

Earlier on I posted about my Logitech V450 nano mouse dying suddenly.

Well, The saga continues. My mouse was purchased at DSE in Glenfield, Auckland (Where my parents live) It was a Christmas present.

When it died while we where at DSE Powerhouse in Palmerston North, on Friday 30th January 2009. I specifically asked if they needed the original receipt in order to get a replacement.

We were told, "No, you only need a receipt number" So I double checked, So if I get my dad to scan in the receipt that would be fine. "Yes" was the response.

So, I thought cool. I can print off the scanned receipt and take it in and get a replacement v450. Well. No that’s not actually the case.

Went in this morning (Monday, 2nd February 2009) with mouse and scanned receipt in hand. The sales assistant tested the mouse on one of their PC’s and it is indeed not recognised. So she starts the replacement process, Get’s another mouse of the shelf and takes my details for "Replacement purposes" which is all good, I have no problem with that.

Then this women walks in from out side carrying what looks to be personal shopping from another shop in the area and walks behind the counter. I thought she was just another sales assistant.

When all of a sudden. She says, I’m the Assistant Manager we can’t process this. Ok, Am I missing something. Friday we get told "you only need a receipt number" and no word from the girl processing the replacement who has the Scanned receipt in her hand said anything about it when we handed the scanned copy to her.

We tell the assistant manager that on Friday, we got told only need a receipt number. To have her say "Head office requires us to see the original, our staff know this" (How does one make that sound rude on a computer ) Then she starts grilling us about who told us that. Fortunately while we couldn’t remember his name we had bought something so we figure, we’ll ring her with that info.

The sales assistant was extremely rude and lacked any form of professionalism.

We get home and found the receipt for the item we bought on Friday and rang DSE Powerhouse Palmerston North to pass this information on. Well, The "Assistant Manager" is busy, so we say we will ring back in 5 minutes. To which we get told, that’s fine. So ringing back, and now it’s like the Assistant Manager is avoiding us. Anyway, we say we would like to be rung back by 11:30am.

To which we are, The Manager rings us and explains, they have had some issues with people making false returns on copied receipts so we need the original, This was discussed with staff on Thursday, 29th January 2009. Ok, Fine, Why the hell didn’t the "Assistant Manager" explain this instead of just being rude and obnoxious, or even the sales staff say anything to begin with. In the meantime the Manager was apologising all the way for his staff.

So, after wasting time I now need to get dad to snail mail the receipt to me so I can get a mouse that works.

DSE Powerhouse Palmerston North, you really know how to waste peoples time. Personally, I think if you want customer service, Go elsewhere. I’ve never had any problem with Manakau in Auckland, but DSE Powerhouse Palmerston North is a very big disappointment.

well, I guess Welcome to the new year. It’s hard to believe it’s 2009, it seems like it wasn’t that long ago we were all waiting for the Y2k bug to hit with a vengeance at the end of ’99. 9 years later and I’m still waiting. What’s even scarier 2010 was so Sci Fi when I was born. hahaha.

I hope every one had fun on New Years Eve. We went into the Square in Palmy. There was great entertainment, even with the couple of heavy rain showers which made things a little damp. We had a great evening.

There were some very cold looking girls there though, It always surprises me why people don’t take warm clothing when you know it’s going to get chilly. All in the name of getting a shag huh..

Shaun Preston was awesome on stage performing Elton John, Kings of Leon and others, songs.

The sound system I think was much better than last year and I would’ve loved to have heard strike again, but the entertainment that was put on was great.

Someone (hmm. that’d be me) forgot to take a camera though. My cell phone camera isn’t that great in low to no light. So I didn’t get any photo’s worth keeping unfortunately. But we learn from out mistakes. Just like not taking a cushion to sit on, My arse was sore for 2 days. Next time we are so taking some folding chairs to park on.

I hope everyone has a great 2009.

We decided to go have one last look at the Farmers Santa Cave, we are unsure if it will be setup when Farmers move premises. So it may be the last time we ever get to see it again.

Some of the displays still look like they need some tender loving care and work done to them. Though we were impressed that they have fixed a few of them already. The twirling cats and the monkey band, look like they have had some major work done to them.  So a big thumbs up to Farmers for the effort they put into maintaining the displays. It will be a shame if it goes for good.

Though I still don’t know about the merry go round, There were some kids getting off that, looking decidedly green around the gills

Surprisingly it wasn’t as busy as I’d thought it would be. We arrived at around 11:20am and I had thought we’d be queuing for a heck of a lot longer than we had to.

If you’re in Palmerston North, I’d highly recommend taking the kids down to see it. You may not get the chance again, once Farmers move to the new Plaza building.