"Now Don't Quote Me on This..."

Here I am.

K, so here's what's up lately. My computer is being held hostage by Gateway. Last week my computer went all whack job on me and when I called to find out about having it fixed they told me I had over a year left on my warranty. Cool. I sent it in last Saturday and called yesterday to find out if it was fixed yet. Only problem is, they haven't even started fixing it and there's a hold on it because they claim the damage was "customer induced". Customer induced my ass. I'm nice to my computer, I don't throw it around or leave it on a radiator or let my cat pee on it. So this is annoying, partly 'cause I want my computer back and partly 'cause I don't want to have to pay to get my computer back. Plus there's double aggravation over the fact that no one contacted me to tell me my computer was on a hold, so if I hadn't called in to check, who knows how long it would be sitting there having nothing done to repair it.

Anyway, after many a phone call to both customer service and tech support, I found out some more details. My computer has a cracked base and cover, a cracked LCD bezel (not sure what that is, but it's requiring them to replace the entire screen), a broken latch, a damaged motherboard (which is desperately important as it's pretty much the whole system), a broken power connector, and damaged hinges. Pretty. And to repair all of this they're trying to charge me upwards of $600. Whaaat?! I told them I had a warranty (which I keep wanting to spell "warantee" for some reason?) and that wtf, why is nothing covered by the warranty. Here's how the conversation went:

Customer Service Lady: The warranty doesn't cover the motherboard.
Robin: But...the computer won't work without the motherboard...
Customer Service Lady: It also doesn't cover the LCD screen.
Robin: The motherboard AND the screen aren't covered? But that's practically the entire computer! What good is the warranty if it doesn't cover anything I actually need?!
Customer Service Lady: The warranty covers "parts".
Robin: Parts?! Well what exactly do you mean by parts because isn't the motherboard a part?

After this she told me to check the Gateway website for all the things the warranty includes. Now c'mon lady, I'm lucky that my parents have a computer they let me use, but if you guys have my very dead computer all the way in Texas why are you assuming I have any means of getting to the damn website.

But today, I finally had a small victory (I hope). One of the people I talked to told me more about my warranty, including the fact that I have this nice little extra warranty thing called accidental damage protection which pretty much covers anything I could have done to it short of throw it out a window. Which I did not. So after a few more phone calls and a few more times reminding them that, yes, I have the extra warranty and, yes, I actually know about the extra warranty and you can't screw me out of my money by hoping I'm completely ignorant....I'll be hearing from them within the next three business days. Grr. But better than nothing, hopefully this time they'll go "Oh, wait, we're fuckers, let us fix your computer for free like we're supposed to".

Other than that, I'm tired and not looking forward to school tomorrow. I always hate going back to school after being sick, I feel so behind, and it's usually because I am. Plus I know some people will be completely in my business "Where were you? Why were you sick? What was wrong? What's your social security number and mother's maiden name?" I was sick, drop it, there is no need for a grand jury investigation. But mostly, I'm really not prepared to do a scene in directing tomorrow (haven't seen actors seeing as I've been in bed most of the week) and it's an extended class specifically so everyone CAN do their scene. Sigh. Maybe we can wing it? Heh, I said wing it...I don't know why that's funny...

Bye for now.