Early last Saturday, in accordance with my morning routine, I turned on my computer. To my dismal, after a couple of minutes, I received a message that the system could not be initialized due to a corrupt operating systems file. A joke right - never had any indication of a problem - computer only four years old (okay, I know in dog/computer years that is really 28) - so let's turn it off and on again. Same problem. Again. Same problem. Again! Again!! Again!!!. What to do? Of course, I have not done a backup since the beginning of time. Was going to order/buy another computer but had not got around to it. Seminary studies start up again in two weeks and a computer is an absolute must. Stomach now churning, beads of sweat dripping off forehead, dry mouth, feeling faint - what to do, what to do? Since when did we become so dependent on this piece of hardware. Thankfully, I just purchased an iPhone so at least I could still get my emails and connect to the Internet.
So, I call Dell for support. Ha, ha, ha. After an hour of trying to connect, got someone in India. I could not understand the representative and had to wait another fifteen minutes to connect to another rep. He laughed when I told him how old my computer was and said (what did I expect). What happened to product reliability? Then he said that I would properly have to wipe my memory and disk storage completely clean and reinstall the operating system; of course losing all my existing programs and data in the process. Yeek!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not willing to throw out the baby with the bath water, I starting calling around to the various computer "fix-it" doctors and geeks. Typical pricing ran $100 an hour, would take four to six hours, and it would be two to three days before they could work on it. All that time without a computer and for that pricing could buy a new one! Finally, found someone who agreed to come right out and look at it. Nice young man (college type) showed up and after an hour of trying this and that concluded that he had to take m computer to the shop to save the contents and reinstall the operating system.
Finally, got the system back on Tuesday evening and was so pleased to get my "baby" back (please forgive the personalization). Total charge was $200 but I got a break as he spent more than two hours on the restoration. What is the morale/lesson to be learned from this experience. I guess is not to become so dependent on a machine, backup your data and programs on a regular basis, do not put all your eggs in one basket (if affordable, have a second computer available).
So, I call Dell for support. Ha, ha, ha. After an hour of trying to connect, got someone in India. I could not understand the representative and had to wait another fifteen minutes to connect to another rep. He laughed when I told him how old my computer was and said (what did I expect). What happened to product reliability? Then he said that I would properly have to wipe my memory and disk storage completely clean and reinstall the operating system; of course losing all my existing programs and data in the process. Yeek!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not willing to throw out the baby with the bath water, I starting calling around to the various computer "fix-it" doctors and geeks. Typical pricing ran $100 an hour, would take four to six hours, and it would be two to three days before they could work on it. All that time without a computer and for that pricing could buy a new one! Finally, found someone who agreed to come right out and look at it. Nice young man (college type) showed up and after an hour of trying this and that concluded that he had to take m computer to the shop to save the contents and reinstall the operating system.
Finally, got the system back on Tuesday evening and was so pleased to get my "baby" back (please forgive the personalization). Total charge was $200 but I got a break as he spent more than two hours on the restoration. What is the morale/lesson to be learned from this experience. I guess is not to become so dependent on a machine, backup your data and programs on a regular basis, do not put all your eggs in one basket (if affordable, have a second computer available).
1 comment:
Good customer service is a thing of the past. Companies are only interested in getting customers to buy new products, not fix the old ones. Most Economists would argue that because this means more people are buying more stuff, this is good for the economy. They fail to take into account the fact that the Earth has limited resources. I pity those who inherit our mess.
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