Anywho, back to the actual issue: customer service is not that difficult a skill to acquire. I promise you, I could get you up and running in a matter of minutes! However, apparently no one has taken the time to fully train Portland retail employees on this subject!
To make a short story long (I know you were hoping, but no!) I'd discovered a number of tight cds at extremely nice prices. After much discussion and math regarding the prices, discounts, coupons, etc. I'd decided to go with only [there were other items, they just weren't in the purchase or discard pile] the new Grits disc (@ $13.99 with a %50 discount.) Then Jeremiah ["helpful" music dept cashier guy] informs me the frequent buyer card discount is %40 (back in the day they were %50, I swear... it's been a while since I've finished one,) reading the fine print confirms this, I succumb to my reduced discount level. Next he informs me the discount is on the regular price: $16.98. So I switch cd selections... and go for the Kutless cut (@ $13.99, plus my %40 discount card.)
To put things in perspective: Jeremiah actually handed me the cd himself (grabbed it straight off the shelf and everything,) because I'm lame enough I couldn't find it on my own. While still on the phone with Tor (we hung up as I began the attempted purchasing process,) he had mentioned that a coupon would be off of the regular price. Flipping said cd over, the regular label (denoting Kutless with actual words... and a bar-code, n' stuff) also listed $13.99. This being why I was originally leaving the cd, to use Tor's coupon and get it at $9.99...
So, now, Mr. Jeremiah scans in my Kutless cd... and makes faces at the computer screen that clue me into the trouble to come. It's ringing up as $16.98! Grrr-ous maximus, again! Checking other cds, I kid you not, not a one in the store has this God-sent $13.99 label. Every single one is accurately marked $16.99. *taking a deep breath* What followed is what threw me completely of guard. He proceeded to tell/try and convince me that he couldn't adjust things to sell it to me at the listed/marked/in my hand price, plus the discount. Oh, and to make things more intense... all "managers" were gone. I noted I'm from out of town, I had been there the night before... only to find them closed, etc. No love!
After much debate, schmoozing, and encouragement/"don't take it personally", I insisted on talking to someone else. Basically I wasn't leaving without that cd, at that price, with that discount! Of course, he gets on the phone, gets a girl over to us, she hears the dilemma, and without a flinch says "sell it at the price marked!" Duh-squared! Finally someone who knows what "appeasing the customer" is!

Woo Hoo! I got me my Grits, my Kutless, my Jonah, my Larry-Boy, and a free cd hand-out thing!