The Shuffle

FRENZY a Daniel Jones story

Links to
FRENZY on Amazon U.K
FRENZY on Amazon America
FRENZY on Amazon Germany
FRENZY on Amazon Canada
FRENZY on Nook
Frenzy for the rest of the world
twitter@author_king
markkingtheauthor@gmail.com





You just can't beat good customer service and when it happens it's normally the reason why that particular company is successful. Although even then they can still get it wrong.

For a long time, too long to care about in my case, I have wanted to shed some of that flabby weight around my waist that taunts me every time I look in the mirror. I try to go twice a week to the gym at my local club the Oasis, and sweat my way though their 7am spinning classes, but other than that I struggle to achieve much more. I used to go street running five days a week, but my bones are now more like jelly than stone so that's gone the same way as my waist line, out the window.

I've tried compensating by using the running machines in the gym, but there was something missing which stopped me from enjoying it as much as I did when I was on the streets, and I found it quite boring to stay in the same spot for forty minutes; then the other day it hit me on the head like a falling apple. I used run while listening to some pumping music and would be in my own little world forgetting about life's little worries.

So I thought to myself, why don't I buy something that I can use purely for running? I know I will go buy myself one of those Apple Shuffle things, I decided. The last time I went running while listening to music I had a Sony Walkman C.D player that was the size of a brick.

So off I went to the Apple store in Norwich. I must admit I was a bit nervous because one thing I do know about anything that involves electronics is that it's guaranteed to leave me totally frustrated.

So there I was in the store. I had a look at some of the Shuffles on display in there brightly coloured shiny cases and a voice in my head kept saying, 'go on just do it, go on you know you want to' so I made up my mind to buy one. I liked the look of it, it was sleek, stylish and most of all looked simple to use. I went over to a bloke in a blue T-shirt and asked for some help. He asked my name, typed it into a hand held machine and within a couple of minutes a young chap appeared, and answered all my questions, and then it got even better. It cost £40 to buy but before I handed over the money the assistant checked out various sites on the Internet, found a rival retailer selling it for £34, and matched the price. What excellent customer service. I would have gone away from the store paying £40 and been none the wiser.

I went home happy and I could see why Apple is a company its rivals look up to. But and a I say there is always a but, that was the easy bit. When I got home I down loaded the i-tune app onto my laptop and bought my first piece of music. It was a fast pumping dance album that took me back to days as a raver and I couldn't wait to use it on my Shuffle.

Then it all fell to pieces. Could I get this music to sync between the two? Could I hell! After an hour of frustratingly trying everything possible I knew how to do on the damn screen in front of me I was getting fed up with hearing a digital female voice on the shuffle telling me, 'you must first sync with i-tunes;' although in some strange way I did find this digital voice quite sexy. So before I totally lost my cool and crushed my new Shuffle in a fit of rage I admitted defeat, and called the customer service help line using my mobile, which once again ended up costing me.

This is what I can never understand! Why do all these companies invent great products only to then hand it over to the tecki guys; who then seem to spend all their time turning it into one of the hardest things to use on the planet?

So there I was this morning at 6.45am in the gym on the running machine in my own little bubble, sweating like an over-weight, middle aged white man, why I dreamt my way back to my youth on the dance floor raving like an pumped up gorilla on heat, and boy o boy did I enjoy it.

Regards
Mark.