Sunday, October 16, 2011
I Ain't Happy!...
10/16/2011
I accept that I am fully responsible for what happens to me in my life. This is The Best Day Ever!
That said, this new laptop is about to drive me up the proverbial tree.
If you read my last post, you may have gotten the idea I conquered the laptop woes I was experiencing. The bottom-line truth is “not.” The laptop went into overtime.
Friday, after writing about my technological acumen and posting it, I booted up my new laptop. Almost immediately I noticed Outlook was not performing as it should. There was also some other weird stuff going on, as well. Something was profoundly screwed up. But I knew, having paid a gazillion dollars for Dell support – which is basically half the GDP of India – help was just a phone call away. So, Saturday morning about 11am I called the Dell technical support phone number.
I know this is probably wrong, but I got some guy on the line I could hardly understand through his heavy accent. I think he said is name as something like “Ganbinghangardanpunjab” or something on the order of it. He was really a nice guy, though he seemed a little put off when I answered his questions with a “Yes, sir.”
Obviously, this young man was way more than competent and a hell of a lot smarter than I. He took control of my laptop, via some internet voodoo, and I watched as the cursor moved from file to file and view to view. But, nonetheless, it took him close to four hours to correct my issues. My left ear hurt from having a phone plastered to it for that long.
The issues at hand involved what I had transferred from my company laptop to my newly purchased personal one. I moved too much. Some of the programs from my Microsoft Windows Ancient moved into the newer Microsoft 7HP and really screwed things up. “G,” once he had completed undoing what I messed up, said would help me correct it and move the files I truly wanted from the old to the new. Joyously sweet!
Again, and immediate thought entered my rapidly aging cerebellum - panic. When I transferred the files from the old to the new, I cleaned them out and deleted all the files I had transferred from my old laptop. One of the things “G” had to do to correct my problem was to restore the factory settings of the new laptop, thereby deleting all I had transferred. More panic until I remembered I have a spare hard drive to the old laptop that I back up about once a week. Whew! Saved, rather than hoist in my own petard, but “G” did talk me into purchasing some additional “protective software” at a cost of $233.00. This $800.00 laptop is now up to $1500.00 plus. I have become such a sucker for a well posed come on.
Long story endless, I got it fixed, so I thought until this morning. Some of the old issues returned, so I placed another called to Dell. My new best friend’s name was something “Singh.” Bright guy, too, and he, too, fixed a problem, and along the way attempted to sell me another “protective software” package at $199.99 per year. I ended the call when additional dollars were required for a package of software to do the same crap the one I purchased yesterday is supposed to do. What the hell am I, a walking target? Do I have a bullseye on my back?
Well (trust me, the end is near), after hanging up with What’s-his-name Singh, the issues I experienced before I called him returned, so yet another call to Dell is required. But now I know a little more, though not enough, but at least enough to know I don’t need any more software. What I really need is to simplify this gadget. Perhaps something more in my league would be a Commodore 64, for those of you old enough to remember them?
And that is all I have to say about that…