I miss Mayberry

Today, in the 90 degree heat, I loaded up my car with 3 months worth of bottles and cans to return. Seeing as I live on the 3rd floor, this is not easy to do by myself. I had to lug 9 packages of diet coke, and a whole lot more 6 packs and 12 packs of beer (and no, we did not drink all the beer ourselves, we do have friends, thank you very much) down 3 flights of stairs and load them into my car.

But, we're putting that money aside for our DC trip at the end of the summer (which was supposed to be a Cali trip, but unfortunately that did not work out this summer... fingers crossed for next year...) so we can afford to take the metro all week. (please correct me if I'm wrong about the DC subway system being called the metro). Anyway, back to the original story - I finally get to Sketchville, USA - otherwise known as Pleasant Street in Brockton to return them. I pull up and see large signs all over the place: "Glass bottles - 4 cents". Um.... I paid a 5 cent deposit on my glass bottles, I want 5 cents back. So I was really annoyed at that - how can they only give you 4 cents back on your deposit? The fuck? So I took out my diet coke packages and brought them into the place. At least I could salvage something from my trip, right? Wrong. I walk in and wait for a few minutes for someone to deign to help me and some short dude finally walks over to me and tells me he won't take them back. This is the following conversation:

"you have a lot we don't take"
"you don't take diet coke?"
"no deposit"
"there's no deposit on diet coke"
"no deposit"

I looked around dumbfounded at the 3 other people returning diet coke cans. I looked back at Short Dude and stared at him. He finally relented and said he would take the diet coke, but the lemonade doesn't have a deposit. Okay, that's fine. Our mistake for the lemonade, I never actually gave any thought to whether or not I paid a deposit on them. But Short Dude was just annoyed at me because I had a car full of glass bottles that I was not going to return for 4 cents. He heard me talking to Andrew on the phone about it, and I guess he was mad that I would go somewhere else to return my glass, but I was going to return the Diet Coke to him. After he agreed to take the DC back, I told him I'd find somewhere else to go for everything.

Honestly - what is up with the 4 cents? People pay a 5 cent deposit on their beer bottles, therefore when they return them, they deserve 5 cents back. People that take 4 cents are crazy. I know it's a penny and it's not much. But I already PAID that penny, now I want it back! I upheld my part of the bargain, I paid my 5 cent deposit. Now I want my nickle back, dammit!

And to be rude to someone who isn't willing to get 4 cents back when she deserves 5 cents back is terrible customer service. I don't like to give business with no customer service my business.

On a better note, I did find a big liquor store on my way home that took everything back and I put $10.15 towards the DC trip. At least one of us will be able to get around while we are down there!!