Sunday, August 21, 2011

The banner is hung and the continuing saga of the bias tape

With several weeks to go until "rally Day", this year's banner has been hung in the church entry-way. Last year's banner has been moved to the right side of the double doors. You can see by my smile that I am glad.

Today, on my way home from church, I
stopped at the store with the rotten bias tape and this is my report.

Finding a clerk, I showed and explained the problem with the tape. The clerk asked me if I had the sales slip. well, no, how long does one need to keep those slips? I told her that though I had purchased the tape a number of years ago, the store sticker was still on each package along with the bar-code.
She asked me to wait and went off to the office. A while later, she came back carrying the damaged tape and told me I had made the purchase five years ago. I responded, yes, I said I had purchased the tape a while ago and was that tape only expected to last a few years? I told her I had a quilt made over a hundred years ago by my Great Grandmother and the bias binding was still in good condition. I wondered what was the life expectancy of the products they sold.

Well, the clerk told me to wait again and disappeared back to the office. When she finally returned she was carrying four new packages of binding. I had seriously thought of asking for navy blue instead of black but in the end I was feeling a bit sorry for the poor woman having to deal with this unsatisfied customer, and a foreigner, at that. Now I am wondering if I should keep this binding for five years before I use it to make sure that it, too, will not deteriorate. I am hoping the tape will be returned to the manufacturer so they can fix the problem. One good side was that, although the price of the binding has gone up since I bought those packages, the store did not make me pay the difference.

Two wins in one day. AND ... although my poor computer has died at last ... taking my photos along with it, I am working on a substitute that has all different programs, a different keyboard arrangement, and does not speak my language, my husband was able to figure out how to download the picture and store it where I could find it.

Now, I was almost tempted to take a break from blogging and learn the language until I saw him struggling by trial and error to make this computer do his bidding. I think this computer does not speak English or Japanese as much as it speaks computerese.

14 comments:

  1. Julie, your banner looks fabulous on the wall. you should be very proud of it- and I am still amazed that it is hand made! Sorry to hear about your computer. Hope you can rectify the situation soon!

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  2. Love the banner! You do beautiful work.

    Oh no! You lost all your photos! I had that happen once. After that, I bought an external hard-drive to keep all my important data. Always a good idea to have a back-up.

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  3. Wow! The banner is gorgeous. What a wonderful job you did - and all by hand. Please don't give up on your computer as I enjoy following your blog so much. Have a sunshiney day!

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  4. Oh, Julie, I would certainly smile too, if I had made such a wonderful banner! Congratulations, my friend, it's GORGEOUS ;>)

    XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
    NADINE

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  5. You seem to be handling losing your photos rather well! I would not be as graceful as you about that. Love that banner, it is just gorgeous!

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  6. Your banner is gorgeous!!! I hope your computer learns Englisch :):)

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  7. lovely banner Julie, great result on the bias tape saga, hope your get sorted out with the computer

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  8. My goodness! How did you manage to post to your blog with a strange computer?

    I also enjoy your blog and hope this computer problem is resolved.

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  9. The quilt looks beautiful on the wall, you really did a wonderful job with the design and fabrics. I don't think I have ever taken something back, that I have had that long, good for you. I am usually the return queen in our house, I get upset when I buy something that does not hold up or work the way I want it to.

    Debbie

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  10. I am glad you stood your ground with the sales woman. She should have given you a replacement right from the start without testing you like that. Congratulations on your banner. It looks so good hanging there. A pity about the computer, seems like they are not designed to last very long.

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  11. Julie the banner is just beautiful - I'm so glad you were able to include a picture with you in it. History should be preserved wherever we can and you as the creator of this piece are a part of it's history. I'm so sorry your computer has quit - I know well the pain of switching to a different one. It's very frustrating! blessings, marlene

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  12. Love your banner. It looks so striking hanging there and you do look happy about it. Isn't it funny how things go in stores? I had two coupons that my grandkids got on Canada Day for the local tourist store for a free kids ice cream. I had kept them for the "right" time. On Friday after their swimming lesson and after they both ate a good lunch I decided we should use them - especially as this was their last swimming lesson and the store will probably close in a few weeks. When I told the young woman in the store that I had the coupons to use she said "you were supposed to use those on Canada Day. I'll still take them but I want you to know you were supposed to use them then." (Huh? Why do you want me to know that?) I showed them to her and commented that it didn't say anything on them about being used that day. She said "No, but you were told that they had to be used that day." "No I wasn't." "Well it's just that people are bringing them in now (duh, your store is closing soon) and using them for adults (well it does say a kid's cone but it doesn't say a kid has to eat the cone) and I know you are using them for kids (because the kids were with me) but they were supposed to be used then." I couldn't figure out why she was saying all this to me except that she seemed to think I needed to be reprimanded for not following the unwritten rules. I thought that if I was a "tourist" she surely wouldn't have been so rude, but then store owners and clerks here are not known for cusotmer service. Anyway we got our free ice cream and I bought one for me, so they made up any loss in the price of that. Sorry for my rant but I have wanted to tell this story to someone.

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  13. Hi Julie! Oh, that banner looks just beautiful... great pic of you, too!

    I am truly surprised the store exchanged the bias but glad they did. Maybe a new project using it is in order...? ;-)

    Sorry about your computer... hope you learn "computerese" without too much aggravation. I recently learned about the "save" button while preparing my 12-page handout for the applique workshop. My computer went "off"... there one minute, black screen the next. Everything I had typed... gone. So I began again and "saved" as I went along quite frequently for fear of losing it again. I need to tidy up my files and put my pics somewhere else. I would hate to lose them!

    Have a wonderful day! ...Karen

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  14. Sorry about the computer. Computers don't like 'people' no matter the language.

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