Habeeb and the lost data

Well... Dell dropped the ball on this one.... Last week lightening blew out my ethernet port. I called (what a useless adverture that was.. can I activate a class action suit against Dell for fraud/false advertising? Everytime I see the television ad with the guy calling tech support at all hours of the day and night, he gets someone who sounds like an American-born-English-is-my-first-language person who can carry on a conversation that isn't part of a script. Do you think I have a case? The last two times I have called I have gotten Habeeb's cousin "Robert" who lives in Bombay. Both calls (had I blindly followed the techs advice) would have resulted in the loss of a considerable amount of data (yeah, yeah, my fault for not backing up but lets be realistic... how many of us back up our home computers? The only reason my work computer gets backed up is because it's done automatically everynight.). The first was the replacement of the hard drive without attempting data recovery... Habeeb/Robert told me my only option was to replace the drive. HA. BB managed to recover my data from the dead drive, un-virus it and install it on the new drive. Sheesh. In this latest round, after putzing around and going to command prompt and the tech realizing that, yes, I was not lying, the ethernet port was dead, his solution was for me to reload Windows. WHAT????? You want me to do WHAT????? Why on earth would you want me to reload Windows???? Well, it is well known that almost all problems are caused by software problems and reloading Windows will take care of those problems... blah, blah... HEY, HABEEB, I TOLD YOU THE LITTLE ORANGE LIGHT WASN'T BLINKING!!! THE PORT IS DEAD!!!! The rest of the call did not go well. I told him I paid for the extended warranty and they could just send a tech out with a new port. He had to check with his supervisor. Yes, they could do that, but according to my records I didn't have an ethernet port on my computer. Well, then, Habeeb, can you explain to me how I have managed to be connected to the internet via cable modem for the last 2 years? But your records say.... DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME??? I HAVE A PORT. I DON'T CARE WHAT YOUR RECORDS SAY. NOW GET OUT HERE AND FIX IT. I will have to talk to my supervisor. MAYBE I SHOULD TALK TO YOUR SUPERVISOR.... and so it went.) last week and got Dell to agree to send a new port (my dead port is part of the motherboard.. which I doubt they will replace, but all I need is an ethernet card...) and send a tech out to install it.

Meanwhile, BB is whispering in my ear that he has several ethernet cards that he will gladly install for me so I can be online again as soon as the modem is replaced. Of course, he tells me this AFTER the less-than-satisfying call to Dell. So, staying true to my roots, I cut off my nose to spite my face and said I would wait for the Dell tech and card. Besides, the earliest the cable people can come is Monday and I am out of town from Thursday to Sunday night, so who cares?

Well... the Dell tech calls Thursday, while I am out of town at my meeting. I call "Ed" back during a break and tell him that I am out of town for a long weekend and that I will call him Tuesday to set up an appointment. He says okay.

Oops... I forgot to call Tuesday. So I called today. Left a message. He called back (while I was away from the phone). He left a message. Said seein as how he hadn't heard from me for 5 or 6 days, he sent the part back to Dell and I would have to call Dell to have them send the part back. I will call Ed back tomorrow and remind him of our conversation. I will try not to shout.

And then there was yesterday when the cable guy came out. The video technician. Oh joy. The first words out of his mouth are all about how he doesn't know anything about the internet thingie and they just sent him to swap out the modems and he doesn't know how to install them... and and and..... 1 hour and 45 minutes and 16 calls to other techs for tech support for the tech... the modem is barely functioning... I have no idea of what he has downloaded into my laptop (as the big 'puter is still without a port) and I just want this kid gone.... sheesh.... Why didn't they send an internet tech? WHY, OH WHY???

And whatever became long-suffering BB (who has now listened to my lack-of-access rants all weekend)?

He came over tuesday night, popped an ethernet card in the big computer, cleaned up the mess on the laptop and everything works fine. I love him!!!

I think I will send Dell a bill for services rendered.