A reader works out a bit of frustration:<\/p>\n
To reinforce their title of Scions of Entropy<\/em>, one of the cats jumped on my laptop’s keyboard yesterday, jamming down the “p” key.\u00a0 This pretty much locked the whole thing up, as all the machine had CPU room for was typing a “p” every half-second or so.\u00a0 Of course I rebooted, then performed many other fruitless rituals over my computer.\u00a0 No luck.\u00a0 I even tried prying off the key and disassembling the rocker inside.\u00a0 I basically took the keypad all the way down to its printed chip, and it was still happily “p”ing all over my display, to the exclusion of all else.<\/p>\n
So, I took my laptop to Best Buy to talk to the Geek Squad:\u00a0 Lug in the machine.\u00a0 Wait in line for 20 minutes.\u00a0 (Mind you, there was no line.\u00a0 Just me waiting behind the “Wait here” sign.\u00a0 About every 5 minutes or so, someone at the merchandise return window would lean over to tell me someone would be right with me.\u00a0 That person had no line either.\u00a0 He was just hangin’ around back there not going and looking for the Geek squad staff that would be helping me any minute now.)\u00a0 Finally, a technician shows up and takes a look at my machine, which was happily “p”ing on his counter.\u00a0 Breaks off stuff that wasn\u2019t broken before.\u00a0 (The P key and the two little plastic components under it were already off, but I figured with any luck they could be snapped back into place.\u00a0 The Geeks at Best Buy ripped off the clear silicone pad that springs the key back up to a neutral position once you stop pressing it.\u00a0 That\u2019s a piece that definitely won\u2019t snap back into place.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t have the piece any more.\u00a0 They just threw it on the floor, then looked to see if I was watching.\u00a0 I was.)<\/p>\n
So, the Best Buy Geek has no idea how to fix anything.\u00a0 Says the present keyboard can\u2019t be disabled.\u00a0 Says it\u2019ll cost $200 to send the machine to Kentucky, where they\u2019ll take 6-8 weeks to look at it, then they\u2019ll call me with an estimate of how much additional cash and time it\u2019ll take to fix it, if they even can.\u00a0 Or, I can buy a new $500-$1500 laptop, and they\u2019ll ONLY charge me $110 to transfer the data from the old laptop to the new one.\u00a0 If they can figure out how to transfer the data without use of a keyboard, that is.<\/p>\n
Oh yeah, and every last one of the non-apple machines that Best Buy sells has Windows 8 on it.\u00a0 Because NO ONE still sells Windows 7, they say.\u00a0 You just can\u2019t get it anywhere, they say.\u00a0 So you have to use the much, much crappier Win 8 interface, they say.<\/p>\n
Compare that to Computer Revolution (formerly Computer Renaissance):\u00a0 I took my laptop over to them the next morning.\u00a0 In about 5 minutes, they unhooked the built-in keyboard so I can take it home and plug in a peripheral, and they ordered me a new keyboard component.\u00a0 It should arrive in 5-7 days.\u00a0 Then I\u2019ll bring the laptop back to them and they\u2019ll put it in while I wait.\u00a0 Total bill:\u00a0 $79.00.<\/p>\n
Oh, and guess what?\u00a0 They have computers for sale too, if your old one is just too far gone to salvage.\u00a0 And if you buy from Computer Revolution, they\u2019ll very happily install Windows 7 on any machine you choose, if it doesn\u2019t already have it installed, which the vast majority of theirs do.<\/p>\n
Did I mention that I\u2019m never going back to Best Buy for computer stuff ever again?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It’s impossible to know if the front line folks are poorly trained or are trained to simply deny the truths as noted here, but someone somewhere is lying in the interests of increasing revenues and (presumably) profits.\u00a0 Is this considered ethical by the Business Schools of our country?<\/p>\n
Should it be?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A reader works out a bit of frustration: To reinforce their title of Scions of Entropy, one of the cats jumped on my laptop’s keyboard yesterday, jamming down the “p” key.\u00a0 This pretty much locked the whole thing up, as all the machine had CPU room for was typing a \u2026 Continue reading