Hell and Heaven

...or their equivalent in hardware stores.

As I’ve blogged previously, we’ve been preparing to ready our condo for Joema’s transfer. Since we're in a hurry, one early evening when I got home, my parents and I went to the nearby Handyman in Robinsons Metroeast. We were there before 8pm, their store closes at 9pm. I told my parents we can just buy the bathroom fixtures there because on our previous visit I already saw some items that I liked. There was no one to assist us in the aisle for the bathroom mirrors and vanity shelves. We had to ask someone (who was chatting with his co-worker) to help us and show us if they still have stocks for the mirror I liked. Okay, he was able to help us there but he kept on telling us to get the more expensive one blah blah blah. I don’t like people telling me to buy the more expensive things especially if they can’t justify why the expensive one is better than the cheaper one. And that guy CAN NOT give us a proper explanation. As for the vanity shelf, he told us that it’s better to buy the oblong one because the mirror we’re buying is oblong too. What the?!?! Why can’t he let us choose no! He asked a girl to help us instead for the vanity shelf. The girl doesn’t even want to show us the other shelves available. And then when we were asking her about shower curtain rods she just gave us a blank stare and then proceeded to go to the other aisle. We were left there to fend for our ourselves. We asked an attendant who happened to pass by but he didn't help us either. OMG! So even if they already gave us a cart with the mirror and the shelf I told my parents to just leave it there and I don’t want to buy anymore! Haller! Their customer service sucks! In the two times I’ve been there, their service attendants are always chatting with each other. You have to pry them away from each other to get some help. That is, if they can really help you. Grrr!!!

Now on the other hand, Ace Hardware in SM Megamall (and other branches I believe) is heaven. You can ask anything and they can answer you. Joema and I went there to buy the bathroom fixures, our light fixtures, even the exhaust fan that needs to be installed in our bathroom. See the architect from the condo told us what we need to buy for the installation. When we went to Ace, we didn’t know that there were exhaust fans for ceiling and wall installations – and they are two different things. Joema and I were insisting that we should buy the one for the wall because that has the flaps at the back (we remember distinctly that the architect told us to buy the ones with the flaps). But the very good attendant at Ace told us to buy the one for the ceiling and explained to us why. So helpful and so knowledgeable on what he’s doing! I can almost hear the angels singing hahaha!

Showing us the different types of exhaust fan. That's an aluminum flexiduct right there - the silver cylindrical thingy

When we went to buy our lights, the guy there was extremely helpful as well. He had to assemble four light fixtures but we didn’t hear any complaint from him. This is why when we went to Antipolo city hall to apply for our marriage license, Joema was joking that there should be someone from Ace hardware there to answer our questions hehehe.

You light up my life :)

Eagerly assembling the light fixture

So finally when we had to buy the vanity mirror and shelf for our bathroom. The attendant at Ace showed us the different selections that they have. And when we told him the size that we needed he showed what we can buy. And then he showed us the different designs we can choose from. For the vanity shelf, he showed us the different colors and then suggested the colors of the holders as well. For the shampoo and soap holder, we were choosing the cheaper ones and the attendant there just gave us what we needed. He didn’t insist on us buying the stainless ones that are really expensive. In the end even if we paid a lot for those things we bought, we were really excited to make the condo look like our home. My family and I even went back to Ace the following weekend to buy other things that we forgot to buy.