My luck began a downward spiral with a simple visit to the ladies’ room, when my cell phone decided to make a direct exit from my coat pocket and perform an Olympic dive into the toilet. A mistake that I SWORE was never going to happen ever again after the first time about five years ago. And, NO, adult beverages were not involved; it was purely a result of my own dysfunctional ability to keep my phone in a safe place. Frantically attempting to dry my phone, I agreed to meet the family for a pizza dinner, following a detour to the supermarket to secure a bag of white rice in which to place my saturated cell phone.
Post pizza dinner, I headed home to research additional methods to dry out a cell phone. Phone securely encased in a zip lock bag of white rice, I booted my laptop to begin research. Seconds later, the computer displayed a black screen. What the “H”????? Not only did I have a soaking wet non-working cell phone, but add to that a black-screen-of-death laptop computer. In pure Scarlett O’Hara fashion, I decided to think about it tomorrow – one of my most beloved mantras.
The following day, I left for work with the knowledge that without question, hubby, who is totally addicted to the use of my laptop computer, would research and identify the new hard drive to be purchased. Beauty! As hubby installed the new hard drive, he disregarded my instructions read directly from the box, “….professional installation recommended.”
Hard drive installed, and recovery disks in hand, I was anxious to get all things computer back to normal. Recovery disk #1 inserted in the DVD drive….nothing. The new hard drive passed all tests. What now? What limited computer knowledge I possess told me all I needed was a new set of recovery disks, but I didn’t listen to myself and called HP customer service a/k/a I-N-D-I-A. Heavy-hearted I admitted defeat and thought, “ Welcome to the dark side.”
The INDIA experience can be summarized as follows:
- Call to India: $99.00 (due to expired warranty)
- Hours on the phone to India: Five
- Times placed on hold by customer service person who never returned: I lost count
- Frustration level: Off the scale and very appreciative that I DID NOT have a gun
- Actual assistance given: Zero
The next morning our phone rang and the caller ID read, “HP Customer Service.” OMG!! I actually spoke to an American HP customer service representative who was very apologetic regarding my dilemma and not only refunded my $99 but was planning to FedEx the recovery disks to me free of charge for my trouble. Ahhh….there is justice in the world.
However, my joy and redemption was short-lived as I informed youngest-college-daughter-on-break that she needed to be at home to accept the delivery, due to the face that I would be at work earning a living.
“OMG…” was her whiny reply, “I wanted to go to the mall then.” Fortunate for me that FedEx delivers before she even gets out of bed.
- Computer situation: back to normal, thank God for back-ups.
- Phone situation: up and running, thanks to the rice (plus days of drying out on its own…) Seems like I didn’t HAVE to rush and purchase that new cell phone. On the bright side, I have a backup for the next “wet” cell phone encounter.
