Monday morning I get a call at work from my daughter. She says "Dad, the computer screen just went black...I've tried turning everything on and off and nothing works." I go home at lunch and take a look at things, and sure enough, it's futzed up. The only sign of life is a message that comes up when I push any of the control buttons that says that there is a problem with input 1. I get on the phone and call Dell.....and wait and wait. I finally get someone who of course is in another hemisphere.

I have them put the service fee ($49) on my Dell account, and I explain the problem, and after some back and forth, she tells me to take the cover off of the tower, as I need to take out the video card, as she had determined that is most likely the problem (that or the motherboard). Well I don't want to start dicking around and mess things up any worse, so I want to get someone to take care of it for me. We made arrangements for a Dell authorized service rep to come out and do the work (for $119 no less). She checks my account and asks if 757-930-**** is my number. I tell her that it isn't...that it was taken out of service months ago, and I give her my cell number and my number at work. She said that I would get a call in two to two and a half hours. So I go back to work, and by four, no call on either phone.

Later in the evening, I'm starting to go on simmer. Still no call. I call Dell and give all the ID numbers and whatever other shit they ask, and I get shuffled to two other people, with whom English is, yes...a second language. I have to explain everything again, they tell me that the field rep tried to call me at 757-930-**** and my work number. I almost broke my phone in half. I again told them that the 930 number was not good, and that the "called your work" was bullshit. So I'm given another phone number to call to have the sevice rep notified so we can set up an appointment. Once again, they ask if the 757-930-**** is a good number, once again, I say no, and that I had already explained that to the previous people I had talked to. I again give the correct phone numbers...at this time I'm on full rolling boil. Again they tell me, apologizing profusely the whole time, that I would get a call from a feld service rep Tuesday morning.

I go to work Tuesday morning, and by noon...still no call. I was so mad that I would have choked the life out of Happy the puppet. I said fuck it, and on my lunch break, I went home, got the tower and monitor, and went to Best Buy. The tech hooked the monitor up, and there was indeed, no picture. He thought a second and took out a screw driver and began to loosen the VGA cable that connects the monitor to the tower. I asked him "You're not going to tell me that it's something that simple, are you?" He said "Let's see." He hooked up a new VGA cable, and BINGO, a picture! Well fuck me running!! The cable, for whatever reason, had gone bad. He then went ahead and tested the tower and made sure all was good there, and it passed with flying colors. Problem solved. In less than ten minutes!!! The Dell people never even mentioned that the cable might be a possible problem. So now I have to call Dell back and get the in home service charge removed from my acccount.

Charge for the testing at Best Buy $0.00, new cable, $28. My blood pressure, back to normal. Two thumbs up to Best Buy.

Dell customer service and their "certified field representatives" can eat my fuckstick.

 

And oh yeah....as of tonight, I still have NOT gotten a call from the Dell field service rep. Pathetic.