I have a knack for ignoring things when they go wrong, until they really can't be ignored any longer. Case in point: My Sony Vaio computer, which had been error-messaging me like crazy for months now. I just dutifully saved my files on my thumb drive and hoped for the best.
So when it finally error-messaged like it had never error-messaged before, I realized something needed to be done. I calmly put my computer into my bag and drove to Geek Squad at Best Buy. I knew right where it was, thanks to previous computer mishaps. Or, at least I thought I knew right where it was. After driving around in circles along industrial parkway routes, I detoured into a parking lot and consulted my handy iPhone Google Map feature, where it pointed me in the right direction just a couple blocks down.
So imagine my surprise and dismay when I come across the picture to the left:
My first instinct, besides shaking my fist into the air and crying out "noooooooooooo!", was to laugh and to admire how they had procured a bag that exactly matched the weird shape of the Best Buy sign. My second instinct was to wonder what the hell I was going to do. After all, the store at which I had bought this computer (and had smartly bought the extra coverage for their help desk, I might add), had closed its doors months ago. And now Geek Squad wasn't even able to come to my rescue? But that was before I took a closer look at the small sign in the window, pointing out that the stores hadn't closed down but that the location had just changed. And I couldn't help but take a picture, because if that isn't the most unhelpful set of directions I don't know what is. (If you can't see it, it's just telling me to go East and then has an arrow pointing to Best Buy sign, and as my boyfriend said when I explained my tale, "but honey, when you get flustered you don't know your East from your West!" ExACTly my point!)
So I figured out, again with the help of my iPhone, how to point myself East and ended up finally at Geek Squad. I won't bore you with the rest of the details, except to provide a handy timeline of My Year of Computer Woesl:
*November 2007: my computer gets stolen from my home office, and all of my unsaved work is gone, including my shiny book proposal I was just about to send out
*November 2007: in my state of shock, I buy a computer with the only criteria that it's a cool color and it's in my price range. It's supposed to be my "happy computer" to have something good come out of a criminal creeping into my office when I'm not home.
*November 2007: four days after I buy my new computer, I get a virus. Meanwhile, I'm frantically trying to reconstruct some work because I have a big work deadline and now I'm typing on a loaner computer while mine rests at Comp USA where I bought it.
*March 2008: I start having some error messages on my computer, so I pack it up and bring it to Comp USA where I had paid extra to get coverage with their help desk the last time. I arrive to see the store has closed and a manager gives me a hand-out telling me that I need to call an 800-number for service from now on. When I get back home, my computer miraculously behaves so I just ignore the problem.
*March to August 2008: I ignore the many error messages on my computer.
*August 2008: After aforementioned struggles, I bring it to Geek Squad. Since I have a one-year warranty with Sony, they send it to Sony. I warn the Geek Squad guy that I am in danger of throwing my computer. He advises against it, but says it wouldn't be the first time he's seen it.
*August 2008: Two weeks later, I get my computer back and Sony says they can't verify purchase so they haven't done anything to the computer. Geek Squad tells me to re-set my computer and that should fix the problem. I do so, and problem is solved.
*August 2008: Amid the hubbub, I buy a MacBook Air. All is now well in my computer land. For now.
Megan
