Tough week, Not Much Sleep...

Warning: Extremely annoying whining ahead.

The visit with daughter was great, but I am left tired and a bit on edge - - it was an extremely busy week. She may be coming home for good sooner than expected, and I suddenly feel like a woman giving birth prematurely.  I need a few more months to prepare!!!

Husband left for a business trip in Los Angeles early this morning, and took my beloved laptop with him. He has decided that he needs a portable computer because he does a lot of traveling for his job and his Blackberry is no longer sufficient.  So, he is going to use my laptop and I am to get a new one.  I can't very well complain - - but any sentence that begins that way is the beginning of a litany of complaints, of course. Complaint list:

1.  Husband didn't inform me that he wanted to take my laptop until the last minute. Daughter left yesterday (sob), husband will be gone until Friday (sob) and now my computer is gone too. (Sound of Gail falling completely apart) 

2.  We are left with two computers and three internet addicts in the house (me plus 2 sons) for 4 days.  They are younger and stronger than I, but I am much sneakier and more determined.

3.  I went online yesterday and impulsively bought a new Dell.  Eldest son said they had the best warranty - which you pay for, of course.  We'd been burned in the past when we bought him a new computer when he left for college.  We purchased it at Circuit City, and I bought their fracking useless and extremely expensive 4-year warranty, figuring with him living in a college dorm, traveling back and forth to class, coming home for visits, etc, it would be a good idea.  Well, son was in school for no more than a month when he spilled a cup of coffee on it and fried it completely. Oh, but we had an extended warranty!  Yeah, you are smarter than I am and already figured out the stupidity inherent in that thought, didn't you? The warranty did not cover accidents. One month old laptop - completely ruined, and no recourse. (He had to make do for the next couple of years with my husband's ancient Toshiba.  Husband is much nicer than I and gave it up without a whimper.  Then again, he barely used it, and didn't miss it). 

Forward to my order from Dell this weekend.  It costs a lot more, but THEIR warranty covers everything and anything that can happen to the laptop except for acts of nature like floods and lightning, or deliberate breakage as in losing it and throwing the damned thing against the wall.  So far have I've never lost it to that point...But they will replace it completely if, through any act of unintended stupidity or through any technical glitch, it should be rendered useless.

4.  I think I overpaid.  Or maybe not.  I don't know. I shopped impulsively because I felt pressed for time.  I do need a computer - I work on it, I keep track of stuff on it, I keep in touch with people on it, I read news on it, I shop on it, I blog on it and I am dependent upon it. And so I felt a sense of urgency.  And I thought that if I ordered it yesterday, I'd pay for fed-ex shipping and have it today. (Count up Gail's stupid mistakes that you find as you read though this.  Tally them up and be glad that you are smarter than I.  Whatever you do, don't tell me the total at the end.) 

I wanted that warranty, and I wanted Dell's technical support.  I looked online and read reviews, and everything seemed to say that this was a good computer.  After ordering the thing however, I kept reading and came across a little tidbit about Dell which I'd known but completely forgotten.  That is: They farm their technical support out to a foreign country which shall remain nameless in my attempt to be PC and not insult anyone.  The educated citizens of this place may very well be - ok , they are -  a technically adept people. They are bright, they are polite.  They WANT to help.  The one problem is - they don't speak intelligible English.   And anything that is done with them takes hours, and is complicated, and one is never quite sure that one is understanding what they are saying, what the problem is, or what to do about it.  I've dealt with them before, but I'd totally forgotten.

5.  Windows Vista.  I couldn't very well buy a new computer without also buying the latest OS software.  Damn, I should have gotten a Mac, shouldn't I.  I thought about it.  If I'd had a bit more time, I'd have gone down to the Apple store and really taken a close look - - but I recently read that though Macs are more user-friendly and less buggy, they are slower than PC are.

I want fast.  I can't stand slow computers.  I want that URL up there on my screen yesterday.  I do not want to be left drooling and staring at a blank screen and a spinning cursor for one moment longer than I have to.  And so, I decided against the Mac.

But now I have to learn a new OS.  And it's so new, they haven't worked all the bugs out of it yet. And I am left wondering if I've made a mistake.  And with this computer's warranty, I will never get rid of it, will I?  Anything that happens to it, it can be fixed or replaced.  I will never have an excuse to get anything different again.  I will forever be chained to Dell and their English-mangling tech support people.

(Alisa - that is called "computer claustrophobia")   

6.  I won't get the new laptop for over a week.  Now I've ordered it, I want it.  What's taking so long? Oh, they offer fed-ex shipping.  The only problem is, they apparently don't make the computer until you order it.  Or they are made, but everyone wants something different - processor, memory, software, etc, and so each must be finished to order.

I am certain this will not be the last of my griping.  Stay tuned for when the thing arrives. Last time around, I bought from a store.  I could see and touch the product.  I could lift it and see how heavy it was.  I have a feeling this new one is going to weigh a ton.  Husband, who is really such a good guy for offering to steal take my computer and buy me a complex unwanted replacement, will simply have to carry it for me when we travel.

I should have gotten the 12-inch screen featherweight ThinkPad instead of the Dell, shouldn't I?

Aaaargh.

 

Comments

[Oceanguy]

Glad the visit was a success!

I need two new computers and the whole "vistas" thing has me looking seriously at Macs. I was forced to upgrade to XP and didn't like it. Another purchase left me with Me and that was another bad experience.

I'm being very deliberate though while hoping a disaster doesn't force an impulsive decision... But the Apple store will get a couple of visits from me in the next week or so...

[Gail]

Good luck. Starting to look early - before you need to - is a very good idea. If you decide on a Mac, I hope you blog about your reasons and how you like it.

[Mark]

Can't you just cancel and send it back? Or is there a restocking fee?

Something else to consider- Dell only outsources consumer PC tech support- business PC tech support is (I'm told) done right here.

And I do have a MacBook Pro laptop- for web browsing and Office sorts of things I have not noticed any real speed differences. But there is a learning curve and they are expensive. Other than that it was probably the best PC purchase I ever made.

[Gail]

Mark: I checked, and yes, there is a restocking fee, which would make returning it prohibitive. I will probably get used to the new computer and eventually end up being satisfied with it.

But darn, I should have gotten a Mac!