For months my laptop has been freezing up on me at the most inconvenient times. Really, is there any time that is convenient? And last week the darned thing started something new...any white areas would turn pink and the images would distort and then the computer would shut down. It would also try to restart, but unsuccessfully. So it would shut down again. And it would try to restart again, unsuccessfully. And this would go on until I was lucky enough to get it to shut down. Now sometimes after it sat idle for a while it would start up normally. But as soon as I opened a game of solitaire or was working on something really important (that I hadn't had a chance to save yet) the dance would start again. I was ready to pull my hair out, but I wasn't quite ready to give up and call tech support.
Yesterday a very nice young man volunteered to call tech support for me. I accepted so quickly I don't think he even managed to get the last words out of his mouth before I had answered. He's been there when it has been doing it's little dance and I've asked him if he had any ideas. His idea was to call tech support. His idea was to make the call for me. His ideas were great!
So he called and was quickly connected to a very nice lady who was probably located in the USA or Canada. She could have lived next door. But alas, she could not discuss the computer problems with him since he was not the owner. I'm not sure if I was saddest because he could not handle the tech support or if it was because for every 1000 times you call tech support, you get an English speaking support technician 1 time.......and he had just wasted my one time. Now I was destined to have to try to understand the strong middle east accent of the technician for my next 999 calls.
So I was going to do what I do best and procrastinate. The computer was working fairly well today so I thought I could probably get a couple days out of it before I had to give in and make that call.
This afternoon I was checking my email and about 2 minutes into it, this is what I had on my screen....
It was a nice change from the blue screen screen of death I've been getting a lot lately. You know the one....bright blue with the warnings that I've caused a fatal error and I should abort immediately and take cover! Yeah, that blue screen of death. But as nice a change as it was, I couldn't hardly touch base with my facebook, check my email, or play a game of Bejeweled with the blue checkered screen. So the time had come....I had to make the call.I've learned a lot today about tech support. It used to be that you called and were put on hold forever but all that has changed. Now you get through to a technician right away. And they get started helping you with your problem right away. After taking down your name, address, phone number and shoe size, they ask you what the problem is and immediately put you on hold. And they let you stay there for a very long time. And then every 2 or 3 minutes your tech comes back on the line and asks you to be patient for another few minutes. I am convinced that they are helping others during these wait periods.
So after waiting for my little helper to look up my account he returns to tell me that my warranty on this computer has expired. I explained to him that I had purchased a 3 year warranty with the computer. He argued with me a while about how he had no records of any warranty being purchased. He went into great detail to describe my computer and had the date and hour that I purchased it, but for some reason did not have any information on the warranty I purchased with it. So I, being prepared for just this glitch, produced my warranty and gave him the order number. And he waited me to please be patient for a few minutes while he looked it all up. This means of course, that it was time to check in on his other computer owners who he had on the line. And when he returned he read to me the warranty number. He asked me when I ordered the item and I told him February 19, 2008. The same date he read to me earlier as the date I ordered the computer. Then he said I was correct about the date of purchase and that the warranty was expired. I am now starting to get a little peeved. So I told him that the date of purchase was correct and asked him if it showed the warranty to be a 3 year warranty. He agreed that it was and then again told me that it had expired. My voice got louder and according to my daughter, I was quite animated as I told Abu that "in MY country 3 added to 2008 is 2011 and it is now 2010 so the warranty is NOT expired until next February." Again......please be patient for another few minutes while I look into this.
When Abu finally got on the line again, he informed me that I had an another year on my warranty and then he added "You're Welcome". I was quick to point out that he had not done me any favors as I had paid for the warranty and it was never expired.
After another few hours of diagnosing the computer problems Abu agreed to send me a hard drive to replace mine. I was not satisfied that this would correct all of the problems but I was getting pretty tired of spending the evening with Abu and would have settled for almost anything. So in wrapping up my technical support experience, Abu asked me to wait on the line until another technician could confirm the order. And then he added that it might be a long pause or a serious of many, many beeps, but I should continue to hold. And then right before he put me back on hold he added, "And just to confirm....I extended your warranty for another year so it will be in effect until February of next year". And before I could thank him for generously giving me what I had paid for, he was gone. So I had already invested a whole evening into this and I was not about to end it all before we were done. So I put the phone on speaker and did the dishes, made a pie, visited with the kids and did some other chores around the house before the next agent came on the line. This gentleman also had a strong accent but he was easier to understand than Abu and he never once asked me to be patient while he put me on hold. I mentioned to him that I didn't think that replacing the hard drive would solve all of my problems (let it go......too easy!) and he asked me what other issues it had. After briefly telling him, he asked if I'd feel better if they took the computer back and did a thorough check on it and repaired all of its issues. Finally! I quickly agreed to it and I can now look forward to getting my computer back free from problems. I asked this young man "Where have you been all of my evening?" In hindsight, I should have asked for his name and extension. But then I might not have a chance at a second date with Abu...and after all he did for me......
