I'm proud to say that I'm writing this post from my laptop. She's not running on all of her memory, but she's plugging along. It was a harrowing day with Dell yesterday and I've just barely recovered from the trauma. Mommy needs a cocktail.

As promised by Dell customer service, the Dell guy came out and replaced my motherboard yesterday afternoon. It booted up fine (or so I thought) and I breathed a sigh of relief. There it was, my desktop with the forty million icons all over it. It truly was a thing of beauty.

I quickly rushed the Dell guy out the door so I could pet and coo over my little buddy. As soon as he was out the door, I carefully caressed the mouse. Nothing. My heart stopped cold. I wiggled and wiggled that mouse for all it was worth. Nothing. Nada. Zip.

"Ok, I'll just reboot", I thought. It didn't even get to the desktop this time. It froze while trying to load Windows.

"Ohhhhh Kayyyyy, let's try booting in safe mode", I said outloud. I hoped that my little buddy would hear all of the trouble I was going through to get her little heart started. Again, it froze up.

Just for good measure, I tried to reboot it again in safe mode. It froze up in the exact same spot. One of the drivers wouldn't load.

I dialed the number to Dell and proceeded to wait for 20 minutes before customer service finally picked up. It was a guy named Alexander who had a headset with a problem and a heavy Russian accent. A recipe for a migraine.

I told him what had happened, mentioning where exactly it was freezing up. He said, "Do you mind if we reformat your hard drive?" Whhhaaaaattttt? He asked me if I backed up, and I replied "of course". Big fat lie. I haven't backed up in like three months. He then tried to get me to reformat my hard drive again. I wouldn't bite.

I was on the phone for just over two hours with Alexander. I think it might of been his first day. Really. There were several times that I wanted to seriously beat the living crap out of him. Mostly it was when I heard him say "interesting...." after telling him what happened when I'd try out another one of his theories.

Finally, at the end of this two hour marathon, he said, "Let's try one last thing". Wouldn't you know it, that 'one last thing' was the winner. One of my memory cards was bad. It's on the way in the mail.

Several things made me believe it was his first day, but I think the last conversation we had confirmed it. He unsuccesfully tried to transfer me to their quality control department. When he couldn't figure it out, he asked me if I would call back and when a customer service rep answered I was to tell them to transfer me to their quality control department. I told him that there was NO way I was going to be on hold for another 20 minutes. He checked with his supervisor and I was let off the hook.

As soon as I got off the phone with Alexander, I backed up every stinking thing on my computer. That, and checked in the mirror for cauliflower ear.

RisibleGirl was blabbing on about another adventure on 01/04 at 07:01 PM

Go visit Einstein's blog!

  

Nancy wrote:

I SO hear you!
One year ago I got my new Dell desktop. Over the next three days I beleive I spoke to every employee of theirs, in every country that has telephone communication (and in several unkmown languages), at one point even apologizing to someone saying "I'm VERY SORRY, but you will have to put me on the phone with someone who speaks better English than you do because I honestly DO NOT UNDERSTAND A WORD YOU ARE SAYING, Thank--you."
But three days later ~ including about 4 hours total on "hold", my PC was working great as has ever since.
The headache finally went away about 6 weeks ago ;~)

  

Your bloggin son wrote:

Hey Mom, this is an instance where I'm supposed to step in and say you should have gone with an Apple. If there is anything I've been 100% happy with and at a total loss for buyer's remorse it's been my Powerbook. Keep in mind that us kiddos know a think about these newfangled computin' machines. Not to say you're unfamiliar with these crazy adding machines, but I was the one that fixed the blinking clock on the vcr and reprogrammed the coffee machine for you. Next time you've got a problem, skip the Russian and call me.
Your son in blog,
Jay-Bizzle fo Shizzle

  

Tricia wrote:

LoL, dang!! Sounds like quite a day. I don't even want to consider the horrifying ramifications of what would happen if my computer died. No. Will not contemplate. Glad you have things (at least somewhat) back again.

  

Ellie wrote:

Stopping by from BlogExplosion. My last laptop was a Dell, and I had a long harrowing customer service experience as well -- luckily it all worked out. But before the end the guy had come onto me over the phone! creeepy ...

  

RisibleGirl wrote:

Jay-B, darlin', you young whippersnappers do not have the market on programming VCRs and coffee machines. I'm the one that does that sort of thing in my family. I've also built a desktop PC from scratch. Now go to your room for even *thinking* that I'm not a computer geek!

I love my Dell, really! But the main reason I bought it was because I get a GREAT discount through my company.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi

  

Iki wrote:

I seriously lucked out with my HP. I've always built my own computers, but this once I decided to just order one and save myself the hassle. It's almost 2 years old and I haven't had a problem with it. That's amazing. (I got it because of the employee discount too. Get a discount for a Dell too, but I'm saving that for the laptop. *lol*)

Next entry: Hello, my name is Lori D.

Previous entry: Thoughts for a friend

In case you're wondering....
On this day clear back in 2008 I wrote: American Idol
On this day clear back in 2007 I wrote: Italy trip 5/6 through 5/9
On this day clear back in 2006 I wrote: My kitchen was FINALLY put to good use
On this day clear back in 2005 I wrote: What does your birthdate mean?
On this day clear back in 2005 I wrote: Conspiracy Theory

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