My daughter and I went to buy a laptop today, and despite that fact that it should have been fun and a bit exciting, it became very annoying. We went to Future Shop to pick one out, having already been on their website to check pricing, etc. The website wasn't a great indicator of what they'd have in stock, but it gave us some ideas.
We got to the store, found the section quickly enough, and zeroed in on an Asus almost immediately. My daughter asked me to go with her, because she knows I know what I'm talking about when it comes to computers. They're kind of my thing, and I do my research. There was a Lenovo there as well, but I don't quite trust IBM the way I do Asus. I like their motherboards. The real conflict comes down to Asus and Samsung from what I'm reading, and Samsung is a little newer to the laptop marketplace, so Asus pretty much hits it for me. Please don't confuse the brand with Acer. I wouldn't buy an Acer with a gun to my head. They're garbage.
So, my daughter and I were hoping they'd still have Windows 7 on some of the laptops, but she's stuck with 8 if she wants a new one. Wouldn't be my first choice, and it was something she actually had an opinion on as well. 8 might have new features, but they're largely useless for the purposes of regular users. There's a speed increase, according to the propaganda, but I don't buy it. Of course, I have a hard time trusting anything Microsoft has to say.
Well, the sales rep decided he wanted to argue with me about a couple of things, but then used the phrase, "I haven't heard that" umpteen dozen times. Well, if he hasn't heard that, he hasn't been paying attention, or doing any reading. The information is out there, available to anyone who wants to make the effort. Of course, he's a sales rep working for a big-box store and isn't required to be trained in order to make his minimum wage. So, whatever. He's also trying to get us to buy something, and I'm not real interested in his opinion to begin with because that's his main goal.
It turned out they had none left in stock, but other stores had them. He said he couldn't reserve one for us...even if we paid for it right then! He could put it on layaway, where we paid part of it, but that didn't guarantee it would still be there when we got there. HUH??!! What the hell is the point of calling it layaway then? With layaway they hold it for you. Hell, it was only going to take us an hour to go get it! No dice. What he said we COULD do is go home and reserve it online where they would hold it for 48 hours. I'm confused. Why is this a necessary step? Is there a reason we couldn't have just done it in the store then and there??
All in all, customer service just sucks these days, and that wasn't all I felt went wrong today either. We went to Wendy's afterwards, drooling over the thought of a Portabello Mushroom Melt. They were supposed to be permanent additions to the menu here. Their website said so. It's the only thing I really like at Wendy's enough that I would specifically go there to eat. You've probably already figure out that they were no longer on the menu, or I wouldn't be talking about them like this. Man was I irritated!
I told the girl I just wanted a poutine and a caramel shake, and it pissed me off just a little bit more that she didn't listen and said, "You wanted a strawberry shake you said?" No, I really didn't. I never order strawberry. Oddly, I not only don't really like strawberry, I also have an aversion to it based on bad memories. Go figure. My daughter is telling me to calm down because the girl just works there, and I'm thinking, "Yes, she does. She takes people's orders. If she doesn't want to listen to people when they give them to her, then people have the right to be irritated that she isn't doing her job." For once I kept my mouth shut, though, knowing my irritation was out of proportion to the situation. In other words, I was a cranky pants.
So far the two things we went for did not go so well, as we came out of the trip with neither of them. Then, just as the bus pulled up in front of our apartment building I realized I didn't have my purse. Like, jeez, are you freakin' kidding me?! I was already in pain, but turned around and headed right back to Wendy's. Luckily they had my purse. There wasn't much in it, just my ID. I don't normally carry money unless I'm by myself, since my daughter does 99% of the shopping. Even if I weren't having issues with my injuries, I don't really enjoy shopping, and she likes to go by herself. Still, losing my wallet would have been a serious pain in the ass.
The thing is, I'm just not the type to lose my purse. I usually check stuff like that. However, seeing as I was irritated as all get-out, I was more than a little distracted. Well, all's hell in life or usually ends up there anyway, so there's not much point in whining about it. Okay, yes, I see the irony. I'm allowed. I'm a blogger. It's what we do.
I did reserve the laptop at the other store online, and will pick it up, but I think I might actually go to the trouble of lodging a complaint. It's a stupid way of doing business. I don't care about the sales person - they're a dime a dozen and they never stay long anyway. The store policy regarding putting things on hold, and having to go home to reserve it online is what I plan to bitch to them about. They need to fix that. If the laptop had been for me, I would have walked away from the store completely, but my daughter has been waiting for months to have a computer again, (and I've been waiting for months to get her completely off of mine, even if I totally hog it).
So, it looks like I'm going out some time tomorrow to get a stupid laptop from a stupid store that won't even be mine, and all because I agreed to go shopping with her to help her pick one out. How, exactly, did I get roped into this? Oh, right, she flattered me, catering to my ego with regard to how much I know about computers. Strangely enough, the article I just put in for submission to Feminspire was about that exact thing! I really need to start reading my own articles.
Tough day, Rain.
ReplyDeleteI had an Acer for two years before I bought this Asus in December.
The Asus is better or was until last week.
Now the keyboard does a good impression of an Enigma scrambler.
The cursor bounces all over the screen scattering letters everywhere like confetti.
Do you know a fix?
It's driving me mad :-)
Owen
Hi Owen!
DeleteYou'll have to tell me specifically what it's doing. Is it trying to use a different language, perhaps? Certain key sequences will change your keyboard over to other languages. In Canada we have French and English keyboards, and if you accidentally switch them over you're in for a real treat! You actually lose your question mark!! This is a function that's completely separate from the Windows keyboard language settings, too. That's another kettle of fish.
It may not be your keyboard, it may also be a virus. That's why I need to know exactly what it's doing. It probably has absolutely nothing to do with the brand of computer. Give me as much detail as you can. Provide a screenshot if you're able - my e-mail is rainstickland@gmail.com.
As for your cursor bouncing, that could be a touchpad issue. You may need to reinstall your drivers for that. What's triggering it? Is it the movement of your mouse, is your hand hovering over the touchpad? I have to keep my touchpad on my Compaq turned off completely (luckily I actually have a manual switch that does it) or just my hand going near it causes my cursor to go elsewhere. Drives me bonkers, and this touchpad sucks anyway. I use my Logitech mouse for everything.
Without detailed information on your input device and exactly what's showing up on-screen when you type, there isn't much more I can tell you.
Rain
Hi Rain,
ReplyDeleteI don't have a problem with it using diffe installedgesrent langua as only English . The cursor puts he letters where it likes and not at the end of the line as intendedis
Like the above :-)
Owen
Hello again,
DeleteOkay, so every time your cursor moves it places the letter you have just typed into that spot. I think I understand what's going on.
First things first, do a driver update and virus scan.
Specifically, update your touchpad and mouse drivers (assuming you use a separate mouse). If you have any other pointing devices, such as a trackball or graphic tablet, make sure your drivers are updated for them as well. Basically I'm talking about anything at all that you might have connected that is controlling the movement of your cursor in any way.
There could be hardware issues with a pointing device as well. Do yourself a favour and make sure any laser lenses are clean and that a fleck of dirt isn't making your computer register a movement that isn't actually happening. If you have a hair inside a mouse and it's waving back & forth in front of a laser, it could easily be jerking your cursor around. I use isopropyl alcohol to clean my mouse laser whenever it stops responding fluidly.
Let me know if that doesn't work. I'm sure we can figure it out.
Rain
Crsnky pants? And then some! YOu ought to give your daughter a big hug just for putting up with you.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about customer service, though. The last time that I was in a Wendy's I was certain that their definition of "fast food" was no where near the same as mine.
She's crankier than me, usually! Normally I'm not mean to fast food employees. The whole thing with the laptop freaked me out. I hadn't actually said anything to the girl at Wendy's either - my daughter was just thinking I would.
DeleteI think my annoyance actually started when I saw people smoking in the hallway of my apartment building. It's completely illegal here, and I've asked the landlord (once verbally, and once in writing) to please post the signs they are legally required to post in all hallways, foyers and stairwells. I couldn't even get mad at the fellow tenant, because most people don't know the law, even though it's been like this since 2006. At this point I'll be reporting the landlord because I'm really sick of the smoke coming in my apartment and affecting my animals. Pepper has issues with his breathing already, and you know how sick Stimpy is.
So what you're saying, with respect to you daughter, that apple didn't fall far from the tree, huh?
DeleteI'm with you on the smoking in the hall. It might be beneficial to try to talk to the smokers yourself. The pets are definitely going to suffer.
I'm with Ella on taking your business elsewhere, it at all possible. That and telling everyone about your experience is the best that you can do to reciprocate. I call it the K Mart syndrome.
It's no wonder to me why K Mart lost so much market share to other discount retailers in the late eighties and nineties.
K-Mart hasn't been in Canada for a very long time. They bottomed out here when my daughter was a baby (20 years ago, at least). We just lost Zellers, which was our big discount chain in Canada (they were competitors of K-Mart, actually). We've had Wal-Mart for a long time, and now Target has taken over the leases for the Zellers stores. The only Canadian chain we really have left is The Bay (HBC or The Hudson Bay Company). We have Sears here, but I have to wonder how they stay in business. They do well with catalogue still, but the stores are a hot mess from what I see.
DeleteMy daughter is probably going to be far more crotchety as an old person than I will be. She was well-protected, had no serious trauma in her life, but she wasn't sheltered at all. She's pretty cynical, has no interest in serious relationships, and might (one day) decide to have exactly one child...lol. I guess she thought it was okay being an only child. Whether or not she gets married will be interesting to see (she's straight, but doesn't feel any need to be with a man). She saw me fail rather spectactularly 3 times - probably put her off a bit.
Hey- that was an interesting read Rain..to me anyway-
ReplyDeleteYa'll must not have very many stores to shop from there- I would have walked out immediately and gone around the corner to another store.
The way you described your Wendy's visit- that's the way I felt when L'Oreal pulled a fast one and stopped selling Translucide make-up! I'm not over that yet!
Of course that's not the first nor the last time something like that has happened to me, and everyone else- it's just the one that made me the maddest!
I like your Blog- Always Ella
Thanks Ella - had no idea you were one of my readers! Nice to see you here. Thanks for the compliment, too.
DeleteWe have Best Buy, but they're actually the same company as Future Shop. We have Tiger Direct, but they screwed over a friend of mine so I don't shop there any more than I have to. We also have The Source by Circuit City, but they're expensive. Staples didn't have anything below $600,either. There are a lot more places to go to if I want to build my own computer and just buy components. It's what I'll be doing for my next one. I just didn't want my daughter paying for a piece of garbage from Wal-Mart
If the laptop hadn't been for my daughter, I would have just walked out. She'd waited a long time, though, and this was the first laptop she's ever bought for herself. I understood her urgency...lol. I was going to go with eBay or eBid (alternative to eBay beign a pain in the butt), but then said to hell with it. Just a really stupid way of doing business, if you make it difficult for people to spend their money with you.
The only make-up company I buy from is Revlon, as they don't test on animals, but I used to buy from the other companies, and Maybelline was the absolute worst for bringing out these great products and then suddenly dropping them. They had an awesome mechanical-pencil style eyeliner - I think it was called The Skinny or something (that might have been someone else's brand name, though) and it was the best eyeliner I ever had. So much control with a perfectly-sized line! That was at least a decade ago, and I'm still cranky about it.