Yesterday Rachel and I went shopping. After receiving our kicker refund check, we decided to go out and get a new laptop....you know, to keep up with the times. Plus, we figured we needed one with a webcam so Jonah's grandparents in wisconsin could see him grow. So we did a little browsing and finally settled on a nice computer from Circuit City. That's when the real fun began.
Circuit City has this ridiculous group of tech support people called "Firedog." It's basically their answer to Best Buy's "Geek Squad." Firedog will give your computer all the latest updates and remove all the ads that come bundled with your computer for $40. Sounds like a plan to me. As luck would have it, they had just done this work on our model of computer, so we wouldn't have to wait two hours while they worked on it before taking it home. At this point, I'm thinking Firedog is awesome, and I'd like build it a doghouse in our backyard.
Then we got home.
I broke out the computer and start fiddling around with it. After I connected to the internet and set up some anti-virus software, I all of a sudden noticed that something's missing: The built in webcam is not built in. A quick examination reveals that firedog put the wrong model computer in our box. So we load the computer and Jonah back into the car and headed on up to Salem for the second time.
We got to the store and explained what happened and this Fire-puppy guy came out and said "oh I bet I know what happened, I'm just not sure how it happened. Hold on." and he went back in the back and emerged with a box that looked just like ours. "Yep," he said. "What happened was we had these two computers out that look identical out working on them on the same time and we put them in the wrong boxes. Sorry about that." He then proceeded to swap the computers out and take all of our accessories that came with the computer. Rachel's like "ummmm does our computer not come with that stuff?" The guy says "oh, ummm yeah hold on." and gives us all the stuff that was in with the other computer. I said "So you're sure that the remote (yes our laptop has a remote, it's awesome) you're giving is us is for this computer and not the other model?" He replied "oh yeah, they work with any model, so you should just need the one that you already had. I look, and he's handing me a new remote that I haven't opened yet. "This is not the remote we had. I already put the battery in that one and this one is unopened. You're sure this works with either computer?" and he said "Well, just in case, I'll give you the first one."
Just in case? You're Firedog! People come to you because we know nothing about computers! You're supposed to have the answers. Furthermore, if they "update" the computers for you, how come when I got home and connected to the internet, the first thing my computer said was "there are updates ready to install?" Bottom line, I was totally unimpressed with Firedog and Circuit City on the whole. However, I am a fan of this HP computer we ended up with. I could ramble on about how customer service is an outdated term and how people are getting stupider and american companies pay the people with the important jobs far too little for them to care about doing a good job or to even hire competent people, but that's for another blog.
Happy holidays!
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