What doctors and computer techs have in common September 28, 2011
Posted by mareserinitatis in computers.Tags: computer, hard drive
5 comments
I don’t particularly care to deal with either doctors or computer techs. Occasionally, you’ll find an awesome one…but a lot of them can be a pain.
When I was an undergrad, I was trying to get a poster printed at the computer center on campus. Tried most of the day, and nothing seemed to be working. Finally, I asked them if they had any NT computers that could print to the plotter. Yeah…but they claimed it would make no difference. I didn’t care. I went to the computer running NT (which is what I’d been using on the lab computer), and was able to print it off without a hitch. On the way out the door, the guy was still insisting that it shouldn’t have made a difference.
The problem seems to be that some computer techs think that they are always dealing with computer illiterates. Maybe relative to them, I am, but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid, either. When my computer started giving me problems, the first thing I did was to back it up and then start running the disk repair utilities. When they crashed, I ran a hardware check. Sure enough, there’s an error, so I wrote down the code and looked it up.
I tried to get things fixed through the warranty program I purchased (non-apple), and they said it could be 3-4 weeks before I get my computer back…and I would have to mail it out of state. Sorry, but there’s no way I can go without it for a month.
Instead, I opted to call the two companies in town that do apple repairs. The first person was not terribly helpful. I told him it was a hard-drive error, and he said he would still have to run the diagnostic to see if it was. Hello?! If I can give you the number, it’s pretty obvious you’re just trying to gouge me.
The other person, however, took the number, talked to me on the phone about what I wanted for a replacement and said he could order and have it in by Thursday. He asked if I was okay with restoring my data to the new hard drive, and since I was, he said it would probably take 1/2 hour to swap hard drives, so he could do it while I waited.
Guess which person I’m going to take my business to?
On a slightly related note, I feel naked not having my computer bag with me all the time.
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