I love television. I think I have made that abundantly clear over the past few years. But the funny thing is that I’m not picky about the television I watch, which seems a bit counterintuitive. I tried to change that last week, but a retailer wouldn’t let me.

I have a 19-inch set in the basement where I like to hang out. In our bedroom, we have a smaller set.

I decided to spring for a new 19-inch set for the basement, but wanted to upgrade to a kind of fancy LCD set that I could eventually use to get high-definition service.

This would allow us to move the basement TV up to the bedroom and save the strain on our eyes.

I poked around the Internet looking for a good deal and finally came along a set I could see myself enjoying from a store where I already had a credit account. I placed the order online and made plans to pick it up at a store near my office.

I hunted around my computer room for the credit card the store had issued me, but I couldn’t find it. No big deal, I thought. I have lots of ways to pay.

Unfortunately, the store had a different idea. I don’t want to disparage them too much, but let’s just say that this wasn’t the best buy that I had ever had.

Anyway, I showed up at the store, handed over the e-mail confirmation and waited for them to bring out the TV. They asked me for my ID and credit card and I explained the situation as I offered a major credit card in place of the store card.

No dice, they told me. I could only pay with the card I said I was going to pay with.

In other words, they wanted my money, but only on their terms. Could you imagine telling someone you would pay them $100 with five twenties, then have them refuse when you showed up with ten $10 bills?

To make a long story short, I don’t have a new TV. The way I see it, if a store doesn’t want my money, I don’t see why I should give it to them.

A few friends told me that I should call customer service and have a tantrum, but I don’t like doing that. Part of it is wanting to avoid confrontation. The other part is that I don’t think I should have to fight and threaten just to get good customer service.

Like I told them in the e-mail I sent canceling my order – a lot of people sell television sets. I’ll find a store that wants to do business with me.

I wanted to crack though because this was my second failed effort to get a TV. The first place I targeted was out of the set I wanted.

Somehow, I’m sure I will survive. But having been that close to a new TV has me jonesing for one pretty bad. I’m only human, after all.