Now this is stupid!

I just bought a second power cable for my PowerBook with the intention of leaving one power supply at my one office and the other at home so I don’t have to unplug my power cable everytime I move to the other office.  So the power cable arrived and I went to pick it up only to find that it doesn’t come with a connector called a "duck head" which is an innocuous connector that slides on to the corner of the power cable and allows you to actually plug the power cable into your plug socket.  Without it, the power cable is pretty much useless.

I asked the sales assistant (I know Apple sales people are referred to as geniuses but I wouldn’t go that far with the sales people in this store) where the "duck head" was and she informed me that the power cable doesn’t come with a "duck head" but they could get one for me the next morning at a further cost of R99 (the power cable costs R1 150).  My first thought was WTF?  How could the power cable not come with a R99 piece of plastic and metal that makes the power cable usable in the first place?  I understand that one option is to buy one of these devices to replace an old power cable and you just slide the main unit on to the "duck head" but another use is to buy one of these cables as a secondary power cable.

I am still trying to get my mind around how amazingly idiotic this is and how no-one thought to ask me if I wouldn’t perhaps want one of these "duck head" things, given my stated reason for spending another R1 150 on a new one.  This certainly didn’t occur to the sales assistant who shrugged and said she could get one for me tomorrow which doesn’t really help me because I don’t live in the frikkin’ shopping centre and work at the other side of Johannesburg!

Am I an idiot for taking this useless bauble?  Should I just return it?  I’m tempted to do just that but then I’d still be using one power cable at two locations …

I do think I need to stop using this particular Apple store though.

Update:

I returned to the store after my rant and found the guy I usually deal with in the store.  He quickly grabbed a duck head from some device in the back, charged me R95 for it and off I went.  Apparently the power cables are no longer sold as retail items and have to be ordered as spares or something.  So this suggests that Apple isn’t really supporting PowerBooks anymore.  I’m still annoyed I have to pay for a vital piece over and above the expensive power cable itself …