February 3, 2002

Is it really too much to expect
   by rcn

When I buy a new computer, is it really too much to expect that everything works the way it's supposed to?

No one I have spoken to in the last three days disagrees with me. So then why is it the company that built my new computer seems to think otherwise? PFFT!

Some of you may remember my previous rant about my computer about five weeks or so ago. Well I got so fed up of my old computer I decided I'd go and splash out on a nice new one. Nothing too fancy, you understand, just one that would do its job. 950 MHz, 256MB RAM, 20GB... it came to an amount of money that didn't cause my wallet too much pain (although I wouldn't have minded it being half that price).

I decided the best place to go would be to the place I got this computer from, because the guy there knows me, and he knows where I live so if anything went wrong he'd know where I was and come and fix it for me.

The whole sordid story starts last Monday the 28th when I went and placed my order. The computer was ready on Wednesday and it got delivered to my door on Thursday the 31st. I got it all set up and within about ten minutes I realised that something was amiss. The modem "could not be detected" and the sounds wouldn't play in any of my games (which I don't believe I'm too old to play but other people would disagree).

So, Thursday night I called up the computer guy and told about the problem, and one of his technicians came out on Friday (incidentally, I was sick on Friday so I wasn't exactly thinking straight) and took the computer away to be repaired, saying it should be ready within a couple of hours.

Well... 48 (funny couple, that) hours later, the computer came back to my door and I wired it all up again and sat down hoping that I might be able to use it... stupid idea I know... and was greeted with the message "General protection error. You need to restart your computer." So anyway, I did as the computer said, and was greeted with the message again. I tried one more time then became rather irate and called the computer guy who wasn't in.

The story so far... I've paid out quite a large amount of money for a brand new computer, and I've got a white box which is about as much use as the cardboard box it came in. PFFT!

Published: February 3, 2002
Editor: stacy