update

today i got a call from compusa. laptop is still not here, but it's still being worked on. i don't understand this- why am i getting updates on this thing? IT'S NOT HERE which is the only thing i care about. i am still very , very mad, compounded by the fact that when i called them up 30 minutes later (because i couldn't get to the phone until that time) i got their answering machine. customer service they are not excelling at. tomorrow, i'm going to call them and ask them directly three questions: 1. what is _really_ wrong with my computer, 2. why does it take TWO weeks to re-install an operating system, and 3. why does any laptop need to be sent to any repair center just to reinstall an operating system?

i am especially upset because this is not the compusa service center that i remember. before when i had taken my desktop in for more serious repairs, i had gotten it back within the week and it had stayed inside the jefferson county borders. and if that call that i got was in response to a 1000 charachter message that i sent to customer service of the national compusa website, that was an extremely weak make-good on their part.

also, i pretty much had not the day of hell at my job (manager of a mcdonald's) but something damn close to it. my good days are really good, my bad days put simply fucking suck. i was missing 4 people that night for a variety of reasons: one was sent home for insubordination, one was sorting out some personal issues (issues that i know about, but am not going to divulge here), one quit the day before because of some issues (issues that i really don't know about, but still wouldn't divulge here if i did) and one didn't show up. i managed to get one person to come in, but for the night i was down 3 and we had a busier than normal night both in the lobby and in drive thru. in addition to all of this, last saturday i had worked 11 hours, 6 at my store, 5 at another because that manager had to go to the hospital (i was assured that they would be back in a minute. which turned out to be 300 of them. i had gotten up at 8 to get to work by 10 and didn't stop working until 1122.
pm.) plus had to work an additional 2:30 the next day because the employee who quit mentioned above, quit as i was getting ready to head out the door.

all of this adds up to one upset, angry and frustrated manager. the good people don't stay, the bad ones stay way too long and we can't get people to care about the job at my store. at the other store, well, they had become the first ever to average into the ronald level of service at mcdonald's (a total of less than 145 seconds of the monthly average of the time it takes a car to place an order and recieve an order in drive thru plus the average of the time it takes an order to be made). that's at the other store that is a part of the same organization i work for. both stores average the same amount of sales. but one does exponentially better.

the only reason i'm still there is because i know that i am doing the best i can with what i have. but lately the people, mainly the crew people are getting me down. it's making work life that much more unbearable.
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all this...to reinstall an os?

those who know me know that i'm not much for complaining.

okay, yes i am.

backstory: two weeks ago my laptop wouldn't boot up fast enough after a
restart. a restart which was caused by microsoft vista (surprise
surprise) unable to download and install updated drivers correctly. it
for some reason could not download and install any ati drivers worth a
damn. why is this important? when the ati device program fails after
waking up from sleep or hibernation, wireless internet fails with it. one
way to fix that- restart the computer. so i restart the computer. before
now, booting had been pretty much instant. now it was suddenly taking 5
minutes. so like a dumbass, i turn off the laptop by holding power, and
turn it back on. now vista won't start it has a startup recovery program
which has worked before. now? butkiss. startup recovery doesn't work.
so you're thinking "why not install the os?". the answer is, i would
have, but the disk that came with my laptop doesn't look like an install
cd. instead it looks like a can-your-computer-run-vista cd.

so deciding to err on the side of caution, i take it to the local compusa
where i had a 2 year warranty. i explain my problem. they take it in. i
expect to get it back by tuesday (i had taken it in on sunday morning,
there was a line of machines ahead of mine, the earliest they could get to
it was monday). so no big deal. i don't have a laptop for a few days,
all is well.

i really should stop assuming things.

i take it in on 7-22. i get a call reguarding my computer nearly a WEEK
later on saturday. this call isn't about "your computer is ready". no,
no. this is a call stating that acer has approved all changes, it has
been sent to the repair center. by the way, they tell me this after i
drive to the place with my laptop bag expecting it to be there.

huh? did i miss something here? all this is is a just-reinstall-the-os
problem. i know that, and i'm not that technically inclined. ok fine,
wait some more.

today, i get another call. the woman on the other end is garbled as hell
on the answering machine so i call up there and i say point blank is my
computer up there right now. she tells me that it is at the repair
center. so i drive up there again, thinking that i finally get my
computer back after two weeks when all it needed was an os reinstall.
again, i take my laptop bag up there. guess what. again i'm told that it
isn't here, it has been sent to the repair center. but isn't this the
repair center? no it isn't.

something else you should know about me, i am about as emotional as star
trek's vulcans- outwardly stoic, interally a raging inferno. i am not
happy. so i ask when should i get my computer back. i'm told a week to
10 days. and i'm pretty upset with the on-site repair center. one, they
call with updates on my computer when all i want is it back. i don't care
where it is, just as long as its in the store when you call me. this
endless game of phone tag does me no good whatsoever. two, obviously
there is a more serious problem for them to have to send it off to an
off-site repair center and for acer to approve any changes. a problem
that i have not been made aware of. three, (acer is getting hit with
this) acer tech support is CLOSED on the weekends, and CLOSED during
non-business hours central time. plus their tech support phone number is
found nowhere on their website. i had to search other sites just to get
told i was unable to get tech support until monday on a saturday night.
plus e-mailing my problem did me no good, because i got a response back on
tuesday.

so you see, as a consumer, i am about fed up with the entire process. i
want my computer back and if i can't get it back i want to know why.
compusa could have saved this post and my bagging on them heavily if they
said well beforehand what was really wrong and when i should get it back,
information i just partially found out today.

bottom line- compusa is good for purchasing hardware for your computer and
installing it quickly. but in terms of actually _fixing_ the damn thing,
much has left to be desired. as soon as the warranty is up on the laptop
at that place, i'm not going there for any sort of repairwork on either my
desktop or laptop ever again.

edit:  this is the problem verbatim from the guy who initially took my laptop.  tell me this doesn't sound like a quick fix:

Unit comes in under warranty/TAP. The unit is Stuck in a boot cycle. unit blue-screens and restarts. Unit comes with battery and no AC adapter. No other accessories.