This afternoon I called TRU Liverpool to see if they had any AoE Slogs left. I was told that there was. I spelt out the name to the person that I was speaking to and also provided a basic description of the toy, to ensure that he wouldn't confuse it with say Slug. The person said that he was holding the toy in hand and it matched my description, assuring me that it was definitely Slog. I asked him if he could put it aside for me, and he said yes. I then offered to give him my details, but strangely he said that it wasn't necessary and that the toy would be simply put aside for me. Uh... okay. So 21.5km and 35 minutes later, I arrive at TRU Liverpool to collect Slog. It dawns on me that the last time I purchased a Transformer from this store was back in 1995. It was a MOSC G2 Skram. After that fond trip down memory lane, I had a quick peek at the TF section and couldn't see any Slogs. I proceeded to the service counter and informed the girl working there that there was a Slog put aside for me. She checked. There wasn't one.
I described the person's voice that I spoke to. The girl almost balked when she realised who it was. Now usually when a counter operator calls for someone, they wait patiently for them to arrive or call back. But this girl repeatedly calls for him, pausing only to serve other customers! I'd never seen such urgency, especially from a TRU staff member! I even overhear her saying things like, "Where's 'Bob' (not actual name)? Does he even have the Transformer? What's he doing? Is he even coming down?" with tempered frustration in her voice. Eventually another staff member arrives holding AoE Deluxe Slug in her hand and asks me if this was the toy that I was looking for. I explained to her that it wasn't, and that I was looking for Slog (and again, gave a basic description of the toy). The second girl profusely apologises and said that Bob hadn't put one aside for me!
Absolutely dumbfounded, I asked her how this could have possibly happened, and why Bob would have told me that he was putting the toy aside and then not bothering to do so. I could see that she was also unhappy with Bob. I asked if she could source one from another TRU and have it sent to a TRU branch closer to me (e.g. Parramatta). She said that she would make some calls and see what she could do. While she was doing this, I remembered that someone had also sighted Slog at Livo Big W, so I ran over there (on the plus side, I got a good work out from it ). I saw Voyager Drift, but no Slog!
I then briskly walked back to TRU where I saw the second girl that I'd spoken to (the one who said she would try to source another one for me) craning her neck out the exit (the store was officially closed now) looking for me. When she spotted me she smiled and told me that they'd managed to find Slog! By this stage there were quite a few staff members gathered around trying to find the code for the toy, and the manager was there too. I could hear some of the staff members complaining about Bob; it seems that Bob did take this toy off the shelf, but then misplaced it - probably just put it down somewhere random then forgot about it. I asked the girl who served me if he does this often does this sort of thing, and she nodded while rolling her eyes. So kudos to the rest of the staff who persisted and managed to find Slog. However the other staff members were both unsurprised and frustrated with "Bob" indicates that stuff ups are a regular occurrence with him.