What Kind Of Day It Has Been

Today is the worst day I can remember in a while. Just really, really shitty and frustrating. And it's my blog, so I'm going to vent.

A little backstory: Our air conditioning at the store, which went out in August, was out for about a month while we tried to negotiate with the management company to get it fixed/replaced. Two different companies told us we needed to replace us, but the management company wanted bids, and they wound up going with a local company that decided to only replace the compressor. So instead of spending $8000, they spent $1500... and I had to pay a $1000 deductible. Which sucked. And we went a super-hot month in Texas with no A/C.

Cut to two weeks ago Friday, and Dave notices that the A/C isn't working. We think maybe we're just being paranoid, but it's definitely warm in the store. Finally, after putting in a call to the management company, we turn it off and back on and it starts working. OK, maybe just a quirk, but I get the number of the A/C repair guys so I can set up our new quarterly maintenance schedule with them anyway. But with everything else I've got going, including setting up for our comic book trivia event at the end of the month, it gets put off.

So cut to last Friday, and the air goes out again, around 3 in the afternoon. This time it doesn't come back. Fortunately, since we were through the bids and everything back in August, I'm able to get ahold of the management company and get something set up with their A/C company... for Monday.

One hot, annoying weekend later, the guys show up on Monday afternoon, find that there are burned-out connectors (no doubt one of the many problems that caused the other guys to suggest we replace the unit rather than just repair the compressor). They fix those, and then find that said connectors have burned out the new compressor. They've put a rush on it, hopefully it'll be in on Tuesday. Which I take to mean that it's probably going to be Wednesday at least.

Background over. Today is Wednesday, new comics day. I get up at 8 AM, as usual, and go to get the comics. No sweat there, the books are ready, they're all in the boxes (a few minor damages, but we let that go). However, it did decide, after months of no rain, to rain yesterday, and so the store, without A/C, is not only hot but humid, and so some of the comics are crinkly, and the general feel in the store is hot and gross.

We are much relieved when the air conditioning guys show up around 1 PM. They don't come in and say anything, they just go up on the roof and start working. That's fine, as long as they get the job done. Then I get a call from my night employee, who is sick. He can't come in, and everybody else is working day shift. I'm the owner, so now I'm working 8 AM - 11 PM. Rough, but hey, at least I'll have A/C.

Or not, as it again begins raining while I'm out picking up our games order. As I unpack the game order and realize that I accidentally doubled a couple of games, resulting in a quarter's supply of a game turning into an eternal-we'll probably never sell this many supply, we notice that the A/C guys are gone. Maybe they just didn't come in to tell us it was fixed? Nope. Flick the air on, nothing happens. They just left. Didn't come in to tell us what happened. Did they leave because they couldn't work in the rain? Did they find they needed some other parts? Are they playing a giant prank? We have no fucking idea, because they didn't bother to come in and tell us. Calls to the company go unanswered, mildly irritated voicemails are left.

Then our Diamond reorder shows up. This is our weekly restock of graphic novels and single issues we've sold out of. On occasion, they mis-pull one or two books, and we're out a book for an extra week or so. On this particular occasion, though the tracking numbers show two boxes, the boxes are marked (of three) and there are 69 items missing. It seems pretty clear that one of our boxes is either sitting at the Diamond warehouse or shipped out to another store. I call in to my Diamond rep, but it's close to 6 in New York, so I'm pretty sure I won't be hearing anything back until tomorrow at the earliest.

So... here I am. A/C doesn't work, we're missing inventory (and resulting sales), we're overstocked on some games we'll probably never sell, and I'm working a 15-hour day on four hours of sleep.

On a relative scale, it's all fairly minor... but it sure felt like a shitstorm of mega proportions to the folks who were here today.