My laptop is the source of all my powers. It is how I write, how I connect to the internet, where all my work files live, and how I watch Rome on tropical islands during that quiet time between sunset and dinner. Without it, I can't do my job, access my email, read
Sluggy Freelance, or print copies of the script I'm workshopping on Saturday.
So you can understand how I might be vexed when it stops working right.
For some time now I'd suspected that something was amiss with my power cord. The plug bit that connects to my Lappy seemed to be bent. As such, it would often slip out of place and disconnect without actually unplugging. A petty nuisance at first, but by early this week I was actually spending as much time fiddling with the cord as I was doing anything productive.
Look, we can argue about what counts as "productive" later. I'm on a roll here.
So on the advice of the chuwero I tried looking online for a new power cord. My Lappy is a Gateway 3550, but none of the power cords I came across claimed to work with that particular model and I didn't feel like committing money and time to something that
might work. So I try the Gateway website. I find tech support, and email them to ask what power cord will work with my machine. A day later, I get a reply, directing me to their "chat with one of our upgrade people" option. I do so. I chat with the guy, give him my serial number. He finds the part in question, then asks for credit card number and address. I provide said information, at which point I am told that he can't ship the part to Canada.
Let me say here that I don't personally get that. Why is it that anything related to computers or video games can't be shipped across the border? What is walmart.com afraid I'm going to do with a cross-border Wii? Hand it to terrorists? Enjoy my non-American life for even a moment? (Note: I apologize for considering making the purchase from Wal-Mart. Every other site was failing me and I was desperate. But this is another monologue unto itself.)
Moving on. The guy gives me a 1-888 number to call for service in Canada. I call it. I am asked for my serial number. I give it. The guy states, fairly quickly, that his computer isn't showing my machine, and thus hands me a different number to call. Fine. I call it. I go through the entire procedure again, only to hit a familiar wall: "Oh, you're in Canada? I can't ship to Canada."
Why, I ask you, why, in the name of all that's logical, WHY did the Canadian service guy transfer me to the people who can't ship to Canada? All I want is to not have to buy a fresh battery every time I turn on my Lappy. Is that truly asking to very much?
At this point I abandon the Internet. It has failed me once more. Time to try that dreaded appliance, the telephone. I call a computer store: they don't sell power cords. I should try Battery World. And so I do. The guy there assures me that he's never failed with his universal adapter, and that I should come in and see if it fits my machine. I am wary, having been burned by the so-called "universal" adapter I purchased for my camera back at PAX '05. But sure. It's not like I'm getting much done at work right now. So I take my lunch hour to go try this out.
The universal adapter fails. I am sent to a computer store elsewhere in the hell-pit that is north-east Calgary. On the way there, my angry screams questioning why this seemingly simple matter is so gorram difficult cause me to forget exactly which computer store I seek. No matter. I come across Computer Shack, and opt to give it a whirl. We go through the universal adapter dance again.
It is at this point that I notice that the pin which the power cord connects to is off-center. And that it moves when poked.
I do not need a new cord, I need a new part within the Lappy itself. My simple errand is morphing into lengthy repair. They say they'll pop it open, see what the damage is, and what could be done about it. Being now without, as I opened this with, the source of all my powers, I opt to go home and await their call while watching Heroes (grim) and 24 (bleak).
The call does not, so much, come. I alert my work as to why, exactly, I've been missing for two hours longer than I said I would. And go watch Pan's Labyrinth (BLEAKBLEAKprettybutBLEAK) with some peeps. The next day comes and still no word: I hit the office (slightly late, having trekked to the store to find it didn't open until 10), explain my crisis, and run my meeting. A call to the store gets me the nature of the problem, and a parts-and-labour estimate of $93. I now fear being without my Lappy until some time next week. I depart work to buy new swords for the play, and take a pass on returning in a timely manner, instead doing a lunch meeting with the director and writer of the play (You may hear some crazy stories about the venue of said meeting: ignore them. The venue is inconsequential.) Shortly thereafter, I learn that I can pick up my Lappy first thing tomorrow. The part's installed and all's well.
Well, not quite. It turns out I wasn't wrong about the power cord. It's also broken. But they'll throw in the universal adapter (they checked, it works) at a discount. So this morning I reclaimed my powers, was late for work, but am back in business.
The moral is: Gateway sucks. And ship us some damned electronics, you Yankee Imperialist paranoid mutherfuckers.
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