In Which I Overshare Inappropriately

Okay, I'm so pissed off, I could spit!

I took my fucking laptop to this local computer repair place nearly a month ago, hoping they could do something about the fact that my computer screen was just cutting out and going blank.  I assumed it was some sort of loose connection (or at least I hoped that was the case).

Well, I've had the worst experience of customer service I've ever had in my life, and if I'm honest, at least a little part (the tiniest, tiniest, tiniest part) of the blame has to go on me.

So I took it to S&S Computer Services just up the block from me - on January 18 - and explained the problem. The guy there told me they'd just had a similar problem with another laptop (an IBM), and that my problem was probably a faulty LCD Converter... that would explain why there were images on my screen, but they just weren't bright enough to see.  It's a good thing I came to them, the guy tells me, because they could find the part and replace it, but if I'd gone to an "authorized" Compaq service center, they'd have insisted that I replace the entire screen.

Well, happy that I'm going to save a little money, I leave the laptop with these guys and go on my way, reassured by the guy's assertion that he's gonna track down the part and let me know how much it'll cost.

A week goes by, and I don't hear from them.  I'm busy with work, I'm going to my exercise classes at night, I get caught up in planning and getting ready for vacation, so I try not to think about it.  Here's where some (the tiniest part) of the blame falls on me.  I let most of a second week go by before I skip out of work early and troop over to the place so I can get there before closing and ask for a progress report.  The guy there tells me they've opened it up and tried just reattaching the LCD Converter in the hope that it had just been jarred loose, but that hasn't worked, and they're going to have to order it and install a new one.

Fine, I say, when will this be done?  The guy pulls out his pen and says, I'll track down the part on Monday and call you no later than Tuesday.  This, mind you, will be the Tuesday after I leave for vacation.  Grand.

So off I go on vacation.  I'm having fun, I'm road-tripping, when suddenly I realize that it's Thursday and not only have I not heard from these schmucks, but the phone number I copied down from the awning over their shop is out of service!  So now I've got to wait 'til I get back to New York before I can find out what the fuck's going on!

I get back and, of course, have to work all week, so I can't get to them during business hours.  It's not until today that I finally march over there and ask what's going on.  The guy who runs the place happens to be there - a guy who seems nice enough, but is clearly some sort of salesman (read: operator), and he tells me that they were wrong; the LCD Converter's not going to do the trick, 'cuz they're just too hard to get, so I'm going to have to spend $600-$700 on a new screen!

I nearly went postal, especially when I asked why no one had called me to tell me that and he shrugged and looked pretty damn unconcerned.  At that point I asked him how much I owed him for the labor of looking at the thing, and ponied up the $75 for that labor ($75 an hour for labor!!!!).  He told me he'd check on the price of the screen and either e-mail me or call me on Tuesday.  I laughed out loud.  I told him I'd be taking my computer with me so I could do some catching up on the things I'd been letting go for a month.  When he brought the computer out, it had a months worth of dust on it.  The mother fuckers may have opened it up to look at it on January 19 or so, but it had been sitting on a shelf since then, untouched.

I told the guy not to bother and came home.  Now it's a month later, and I'm no closer to having a working screen.  Now I've got it hooked up to an old monitor that belongs to the guys from whom I'm subletting my apartment, and it looks like I might just as well find a Compaq Service Center and let them do the work.  It'll probably cost me an arm and a leg, but it'll at least be done speedily and by people who won't let the freaking thing collect dust on a shelf!

AAAARRRRGH!