I'm Baaaaaaack!!!!!!

So the final chapter in the 'Journey to Tech H#ll' is complete... at least I hope. Ready for the 'Rest of the Story'?

As we all remember the last time we were able to visit with our poor laptop was on Dec 23. At that time I refused to leave the building with the computer without testing it because my extended warranty was officially up on Dec 22. Subsequent inquiry (which also led to me getting a replacement battery) brought to light the fact that actually when you have work performed during the last part of one of these extended warranties it is extended by 30 days automatically... but I didn't know that at the time and wasn't taking any chances LOL!!

It took longer this time for the laptop to go out and return. I'm figuring that this was because of the Christmas and New Year's holidays. It did finally return on Jan 8. This was not a good day (for reasons I will post later), and it didn't help that they called me just to inform me that it had been returned and still wasn't operational. This time I spoke to the 'Tech in Charge' whom I assume was/is a manager. He told me that they were again going to send the laptop off, but that this would be the last time. If it did not return fixed this time he was going to see about having it replaced. Now, before anyone goes "Awwww How nice!" Let me tell you about the 'Lemon' clause in my extended warranty that reads "If a repair requires -4- trips out and still is not fixed to satisfaction, the equipment will be replaced with a new/refurbished unit of equal or better quality" HUGE sighs and moans by me, but since real life was kicking me in the butt at the time I just said "Whatever... Call me if it ever comes back"

This afternoon (Yes, on a Sunday.. go figure) I received another call from one of the techs saying the laptop was back, but still not repaired. This poor guy didn't know the whole story and tried to tell me I would have to either replace the Ram I had bought from them, or just remove it at my own cost. I let him have an earful and told him I would be in to speak with one of his supervisors as soon as I could get there.

Arriving I gave my now large stack of service orders to the tech on duty at the counter and told him I was there for my -unrepaired- laptop. Yep, I probably said it loud enough for the other people in line to hear. I was not amused that the laptop had been being repaired since 12/4/06 and still wasn't fixed. Luckily one of the guys who knows the story on all of this walked by and said, "I'll take her, I know what's supposed to happen..."

What was supposed to happen is that I ended up with a brand new laptop. It is not what I had in mind for my next laptop, but it is comparable with my old laptop and is NEW, which is a good thing. I did shell out the $350 to have the 3 year insurance put on it. I figured that it was probably a good idea the way my luck had been running! LOL!

Tonight I sit here downloading things, putting programs back on here and realizing that in all of the backing up of pictures and things in early December the one thing I hadn't backed up was my favorites/Bookmarks from my Firefox browser. We went in to town for pizza and I popped in and asked if they could drop that off of my harddrive and onto a CD or e-mail the file to me........ They offered to do so, but I would have to pay $99 for the 'back-up' service. Eeeek! I decided there wasn't anything in that list of sites that I couldn't find again... but, there go all of my saved sites for the last -3- years. I guess I'll be spending some time surfing just trying to relocate the sites I use. Worst part? I had several 'possible blog entry' type of things saved  Eh, what you going to do??? At least I have all of my pictures backed-up.

So the ordeal is over (at least we hope) and now I start to get things back to normal. I will put a pic of the new laptop (and specs) in an entry later this week when I am a little more organized. Saddest part? I would have preferred to have my old laptop back and repaired as it was set up just the way I liked after almost 3 years and I new just how to get it to do everything I wanted. I'll be playing with and tweaking things on this one for a while before it feels comfortable. Sheesh, I haven't even got it set up on the wi-fi network yet. My old laptop is the one I used for all of the setting up and I will now have to see if I can add this one without changing anything, or if I will have to take everything back to 'factory specs' and start over... but I'm leaving that for another day and just 'hard wiring' myself into my router for the time being. So, if I'm missing for a couple of days later this week you can assume that the re-wiring of the wi-fi didn't go well.....LOLOLOL!

Oh, and the battery I mentioned earlier? I have it, but it doesn't fit any laptop we have now.. I'm going to call the company it came from and try to return/exchange it. Otherwise... anyone need an HP battery for a Pavillion?? Oh, and the 1 gig of Ram that started this whole ordeal???? They gave it to me when they took the old laptop because it wasn't part of the original set-up. Unfortunately it is not the right kind of ram for the newer computer, and is also not the right kind of ram for the old Sony laptop that G has... I'll need to find someone that can use that ram... It would be silly to just let it sit around, I paid $200 for it and I just can't see it going to waste and sitting here gathering dust if I can find someone who can make use of it. Oh, and why couldn't I return it???? Because it was more than 30 days since I bought it and they can't take a return that's older than 30 days. I told them that on 12/4 it wasn't more than 30 days after purchase, but they didn't seem to care ROFL!