Please help me decide whom to be frustrated with

@Thomas,

I think the suggestion of an auto parts store is probably a good one, though you might have to buy a kit including a replacement licence plate frame as well.

Just out of curiosity I did inquire at our local neighborhood hardware store (an old fashioned place - not a big box store). They had the screws. It must be a New Jersey thing: probably the governor's fault.

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@Mame,

Thanks for the warning! As it happens, I'm thinking of taking up kickboxing for fitness. It may come in handy for other uses, too. Smile

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@georgeob1,

Glad to see that Schwarzenegger brought some Germanic hardware skills to your state. I mean, when his built-in nuclear mini-reactor breaks down, what is he gonna do---wait until they start up specialty shops for terminators? It's important to have well-stocked hardware stores for such standard parts, as well as employees who know how to use them.

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@georgeob1,

I'm surprised they did have it. License plate holders are usually secured with something like a 1/4 - 20, or 5/16 - 18 screw. Most hardware stores would only have those sizes in a hex head bolt, which would look decidedly odd on any vehicle not belonging to the military.

Still, the local borg is not consistantly staffed with knowledgeable people. One kid asked me what I was looking for, and I told him I needed a scratch awl, but a saddler's awl would work. He repeated "scratch awl" very slowly (probably to let me know such a thing didn't exist) and headed off to the paint department. Paint Department!?

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@Thomas,

I agree and sympathize with you on this aspect of the contemporary world.

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@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

dyslexia wrote:
before I sold my Porsche it needed a new battery, I went to the auto parts shop for the battery, "Nope", they said, "no Porsche battery in stock but we do have a Mercedes battery that's exactly the same"

Car batteries aren't standardized across car manufacturers in America? Seriously? Thanks for telling me. You may have just saved me from another avoidable SNAFU.

Of course they are. Kid just didn't know the meaning of "exactly the same". BMW, of course, will try to con you into into buying the BMW brand, and one model of Porsche has an optional lithium ion number that will set you back the price of a set of tires on most other vehicles.

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@Mame,

Mame wrote:

Of course, if the clerk was a guy, the odds are that you'd get the wrong directions, so best if you just buy a damn map.

Yep. That's why I never ask for directions. Thank goodness for GPS receivers!

Chai: The making-up-answers-until-you-chance-into-the-right-one routine could easily have happened even if a male had asked the question.

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@Thomas,

Thomas, if you're ever in Austin, there's this taco stand, and behind it is a blue building with a green door, and ALL they sell are license plates screws.

It's a real niche business.

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@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

[Chai: The making-up-answers-until-you-chance-into-the-right-one routine could easily have happened even if a male had asked the question.

oh swell.

so if I accidently fall while holding garden shears, and it plunges into the abdomen of a passerby and makes a minisule knick in their abdominal aeorta, I should just try to stem the geyser of blood myself, because I can't trust any nearby men when I scream out "HOLY ****! I KNICKED THIS PASSERBYS ABDOMINAL AEORTA! WHAT SHOULD I DO!"

Seriously (as if I don't already know the answer) why would someone make up and answer when it will either propogate erroneous information, or further complicate the situation?

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@chai2,

Because they want to be helpful, or seem to be helpful Smile

I encountered this all the time in Vancouver. Confused tourists walking around with makeshift maps drawn on tattered napkins Smile

It's actually quite funny to see some of the directions they got, but you know you have to help them out. Uh, no... Gastown's thataway - eastward, on this street. Throw that 'map' away!!

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@Mame,

But don't they (meaning people, because I have seen women do this too) realize they are actually making themselves Unhelpful?

Can think of a specific right now, but I know there there have been untold number of times I have thought, "now why did that jackass tell me to (fill in the blank). That's not right, and s/he has made so much more work/trouble for me."

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Quote:

Let's say you walk into an American hardware store and ask the shopkeeper: "Some idiot just stole most of the screws holding my license plates. Can you sell me replacements, please?" What reaction do you expect from the hardware store guy?

The car next to yours will have the right sized screws. You must have had a screw driver to put the new screws in so use your screw driver to get the new screws.

Ok so why didnt you have half an idea about what size to get? Surely you looked and said to yourself I'm gonna need about 8g x 10mm maybe a little smaller or a little longer. If you guess wrong you need to make two trips... no biggie.

Even if you have ended up with the wrong size why do you need the original store clerk to return goods. Get a register reciept, It will have the time and date on it. Most probably whoever is behind the counter will be happy to exchange.
Why would you expect the store clerk to know. You think he gets training on the possible application of every nut and bolt the store?

In my hardware store they employ two types women and boys. Their job is to point out where things are and ring up your sale. The ladies on the front counter can be amazingly helpfull if you give em enough info.

If you want detailed info on how to or what to uuse you go down the back to the trade and timber section and talk to the ex tradies. mostly these are retired tradies/maintenance guys or someone who has been with the firm for years and years and had seen it all before.

Thomas I think your expectations of hardware store clerks are unreal.

Want good help in a hardware store then start paying for it.

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@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

hands you a screw that turns out to be absurdly long, absurdly wide

if the screw was absurdly long and wide, why did you leave the shop with it in the first place?

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I watched a show similar to those 1800 house living in in Victorian times where people have to live/dress/eat the way a family would have way back.
In this case it was a group of shops in a high street in England. The shop keepers worked and lived through different eras - 1900's, 1920's, the war years, 1960's each for a week.
It was interesting in the 1960 era to watch variouse stores (butcher baker and dress maker) go out of business because of the advent self service stores with volume trading and mass produced lower priced price goods.
Even though the smaller traders tried home delivery and price cutting they still could nto compete.
At the end of the experiment customers were asked about the experience. They all noted that they liked the personal service and better quality goods and did not want that style of store to go out of business but only had themselves to blame because eventually the price and convenience factor won out.

(I hope that explains the show adequately unough to get the point across.)

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@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

Thomas wrote:
hands you a screw that turns out to be absurdly long, absurdly wide

if the screw was absurdly long and wide, why did you leave the shop with it in the first place?

Yeah, if the screw was absurdly long and wide, I'd still be there.

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The automotive stores can sell screws that cannot be unscrewed with a normal screwdriver. I believe most insurance companies and the police even recommend these screws so that thieves cannot steal the screws or the plate.

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@Ceili,

I didn't know that, thanks for the clue..

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I'm with you Thomas. I generally find you CAN get that stuff at a hardware store, and the people in them are good at knowing about their stock, and would certainly not look clever and give you something as if they knew it was right when they didn't know.

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@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

Thomas wrote:
hands you a screw that turns out to be absurdly long, absurdly wide

if the screw was absurdly long and wide, why did you leave the shop with it in the first place?

The key words are "turns out", and the turning out didn't happen until I put screw to license plate. Back in the shop, they only aroused mild suspicion---which I quickly overcame because I trusted the shop keeper's presumed expertise and obvious confidence.

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@Mame,

Heading along in the same direction of wanting to be helpful:

Quote:

The lesson to learn is that most people are over-generous to lost travelers and want to help in any way they can. If you ask someone for directions in Mexico and they don’t know the correct way, they will not tell you they don’t know but simply give you the best guess they have.{/quote}

http://www.gobackpacking.com/Blog/2010/08/04/directions-rule-3/

The extraordinarily kind people in Mexico seem to have a real need to be helpful even to the point of leading one far astray.

BTW, you should never trust those beady eyed New Mexicans.....

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Please help me decide whom to be frustrated with

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