CEX down Western Road is one of my favourite shops. They are a chain of secondhand stores dealing in DVDs, computer games and phones. I have no interest in phones or computer games, but am very interested in DVDs. CEX usually have something I want, and usually for a very good price, but can they ever find their DVDs? Of course fucking not. I exaggerate of course, but as Em said 'you can understand them not finding DVDs occasionally, but it seems to happen all the time'. I couldn't help but agree with her, but surely they can't be that bad..? I have decided to keep track over 2013 of how many purchases I make (or try to make) in CEX and see just how often DVDs are missing / unable to be found.
So, in 2013 I have made three purchasing trips to CEX. The first one was fine DVD found no problem. (The Dr Who story Nightmare of Eden). On Sunday the CEX curse struck again, and they were unable to find another Doctor Who story (Deadly Assassin). Oh well, I thought, one out of two wasn't bad... After work today, I popped into CEX (it's on my way home) and was pleased to discover, yes, another Doctor Who DVD I wanted (Day of the Daleks). All seemed to be well, and I paid (on my card) and was kneeling down when I thought I'd just check the right DVDs were in there (it has happened on more than one occasion that I've got home only to discover the wrong DVDs were in the case - very annoying). I opened up the box, and... no. The wrong disc was in there. I sighed - not really surprised and returned to the counter. They couldn't find the right disc and had to give me a refund - which took another five minutes... So, well done CEX two weeks into the new year, and two out of three times I've tried to buy something there I wasn't able to! This makes an astonishing 66% of times (A third!) that I wasn't able to buy something they were (ostensibly) selling... Surely they can't continue this badly..? Let the 2013 CEX missing DVDs tally commence!