Scotland

Scotland is a wonderful country, a country of diverse contrasts, and this is most evident in the countryside. Many folk in Scotland live in rural areas where getting to the local supermarket is a full day trip rather than a simple jaunt around the corner or popping along to the outskirts of the city in which you live. When it comes to Christmas shopping can be something of a problem and as I live on a very remote island I thought it worthy of mentioning my experience of shopping in Scotland this time last year.

Last Christmas was, for my family, a season of mixed emotions. We had call to visit the hospital in Edinburgh and though we were only going to be staying overnight we thought that we would take the opportunity to do a little Christmas shopping. While the likes of Aberdeen and Glasgow offer some fantastic shopping experiences we were happy to be able to wander around the multitude of shops in the nation’s capital.

Nothing beats the atmosphere of Christmas in a big city and we thoroughly enjoyed our day wandering around the shops of Edinburgh. It had been a while since I had been anywhere beyond my garden path so the whole experience was something of a rush. Yes I get a buzz out of Internet shopping but something has to be said for the thrill of discovering a fascinating shop full of lovely gadgets that you can fully inspect before parting with your cash, something you can obviously not do via the Internet!

I had a fair bit of spare cash that year but, due to the fact that we had flown into Edinburgh, we could not buy a great deal of large items. However I could not stop myself from buying the family Guitar Hero World Tour. Though the box was huge we managed to get it to the taxi with the help of a shop assistant and it was accepted onto the flight as we had little else luggage. All was going well.

Christmas came and went and Guitar Hero World Tour went down a storm but we discovered that the drum pedal was not working. As I am a bit techy I knew it was a problem with the main unit and this is where our troubles began. The manufacturer would replace every part over the Internet but NOT the main unit, this had to go back to the point of purchase. Now this was a nightmare for us as there was no way we could travel hundreds of miles to return a faulty item so I called the shop to arrange postage.  No way would they accept the item via post they insisted I hand deliver it…

After a couple of weeks arguing I threw down the gauntlet and started a campaign against the store. I was furious as the store in question had a website and IF I had ordered from the website the faulty item would have been picked up and replaced without question and without cost to myself. Anyway, in the end they agreed to do it by post but I had to arrange and pay for the post and then get a refund. What a nightmare it was and I will NEVER buy from a shop again – ever.

This year all my Christmas shopping is being done over the Internet. Of course there are benefits of buying from a shop but I can think of only a handful. Yes a shop assistant will be more than willing to help you decide upon a purchase but what is stopping you from taking this information back home with you to make a cheaper purchase via the Internet – I usually find everything cheapest on Amazon