Fancy coming back to my place and doing the things I'll tell everyone we did anyway?

Yeah, I don't know what it means either. But the title is from SmartPhrase.com's "Random Phrase Generator". Hell, it beats trying to think up a title.

So, over the last year or so (maybe longer), my laptop Hard Drive has died three times. Thankfully I've never lost any data, but it's been a pain to boot up my PC those times that it has happened, find that the HD has gone berzerk, (berserk?) and then spend an entire day restoring the data from the HD, rebuilding the laptop, etc.

Anyway, as my warranty is getting towards the end, and I consistently lose sectors on the HD whenever it fails like that (the 30GB HD is now just a 27GB one... hooray), I figure I will call Dell and arrange for a replacement HD.

And so began my journey into Helpdesk hell. Made all the worse by the fact that I run a freaking helpdesk and know what makes a good one, what makes a bad one, and I know that once you're caught in the jaws of a bad helpdesk, there is no escape.

Dell: "Thank you for calling Dell. Please enter your express service tag number."

Me: BEEP-BOOP-BEEP-BAAP-BOOP (etc.)

Dell: "We are now connecting you ..."

Me: (Five minutes of holding... not bad...)

Dell: "Thank you for calling Dell. My name is Anjia. Are you Kyle?"

Me: Yes. (Impressed thus far, she obviously has my account on the screen)

Anjia: "Thank you. Is this call about your Inspiron 5100?"

Me: "Yes it is"

Anjia: "What seems to be the problem?"

Me: "Over the last several months my HD has failed, and I have lost all my data and had to rebuild the machine. I have a lot of bad sectors on the HD and would like to know how I can go about getting a replacement."

Anjia: "Ok sir so you think the problem with your machine is with the ... HARD DRIVE."

Me: "Uh, yes..."

Anjia: "Ok are you able to turn the computer on?"

Me: "Yes, and sorry just so we're clear, the problem right now is that the HD has lots of bad sectors and has failed 3 times in 12 months."

Anjia: "Please turn on your pc"

Me: "It's already on"

Anjia: "Ok sir, good. What is the error message on your screen."

Me: "There is no error. The hard drive is working right now but has bad sectors."

Anjia: (and at this point now, I know, she's scrambling through her script which she is not allowed to deviate from) "So you have lost all your data?"

Me: "Three times in the past, yes, but not right now."

Anjia: "Are you able to boot in safe mode?"

Me: "That has nothing to do with the hard drive."

Anjia: (after a long period of silence... she decides to go back to the beginning of her script!!!) "Are you able to turn on the PC..."

At this point I crawled through the phone line and killed her.

Today's random picture...


photo by me