A Word to the Wise

If you ever have to bring your computer in for servicing, insist that the technician power up the machine in your presence to get the basic information off of it: operating system, amount of RAM, etc.

I had a technician who opened up the machine and started fiddling around with the insides, pulling out wires, etc., looking for the memory (I brought it in for an upgrade of the memory). When he put it back together and attempted to turn it on . . . guess what? It wouldn't come on. He killed the damn thing.

Of course, the staff tried to tell me that it was merely a coincidence, that the computer chose to die on the way to the store, or it must have suffered some kind of a surge, and all that bullshit. When they realized I wasn't buying those lame excuses, the negotiations began.

After nearly two weeks of volleying back and forth, we finally reached a settlement with the store. It was a pain in the neck, and I'm drained by it, but I'm glad it's over, and we're happy with the results.

So . . . the moral here is . . . don't let anyone operate on your computer without first checking the vital signs! That's what they do in the operating room before they reach for the scalpel, and if it's good enough for people it's good enough for your PC.