So–last week we bought daughter Kasey a new laptop for her much-deserved December college graduation. We had a specific budget to follow in order to be fair to oldest child, Krista, who received luggage and a photo printer for her also much-deserved graduation.
Seeing an ad for a Compaq in my Sunday Staples ad, I rushed to the store so I could snatch one up. It had a bigger footprint than I would have liked, but Kasey liked it because it had a number pad on it. Even if she hated it, she’s so sweet that she would never register any discontent with such a gift.
For a 22-year-old, who is almost done with school, the most essential trait for the laptop had to be Internet capability. In addition, she and I had created a wish list, which consisted of a built-in Webcam, at least 2MB of RAM, at least 160GB in capacity, and the ability to burn CDs and DVDs. So the Compaq from Staples had all of these features.
Joining our extremely secure network should have been a no-brainer. So I was perplexed on Sunday night when we couldn’t reach the network. I calmly assured Kasey that I’d call SonicWall the next day. SonicWall remotely checked this, that, and the other thing before concluding that the problem was Compaq’s. I pleasantly called HP, and the HP guy remotely took control over the computer and said the problem was SonicWall’s. So I called SonicWall again and they said it must be an HP problem since the error messages said that the computer’s IP address was the same as another computer on the network and all of our wireless connections worked.
The Compaq was causing the network to interpret as a Spoof and to drop it from the network. The SonicWall people tried to manually set an IP address, but in IPConfig/all, the same old IP address was displayed. Through out this succession of events, Kasey apologized numerous times for something that she hadn’t caused, which made me feel all the worse for her.
During the night, some fairies came along and changed the IP address, so while I had budgeted two hours for more tech support fun, it seemed as though the problem had been resolved. I was so excited and told my daughter that all was well in our little corner of cyber-land. Uh, no it wasn’t. Kasey, who was so happy to have a graduation present that worked, was crestfallen when once again she couldn’t connect to the Internet. When I looked at IPconfig/all, the original IP address displayed—again.
I hate to be a quitter, but it was time to take the laptop back to Staples and get another one. The Staples staff couldn’t have been nicer and I had a new computer in my hands within 20 minutes. When I got it home, I noticed that the box had been opened and discretely resealed. I wasn’t surprised that when I booted up the computer, the user’s name was Jessica, and she had password protected the computer. That was it. I was done with that model of Compaq and also with Staples. Bad luck was happening, so it was time to move on.
A couple of years ago at Circuit City, I purchased an economy-modeled Acer laptop, for which I have never even had to look up the tech support number. After unloading the Compaq at Staples, I took a run up to Circuit City, which I love. My love for Circuit City is partially related to my boycott of Best Buy, which is another story altogether.
So, at Circuit City, I saw a computer that fit all of our needs and was in our price range. But it was an HP. There was no high-sell on Tommy’s part and I greatly appreciate that. I told Tommy that I had to check with Kasey since HP and Compaq are related and I didn’t want to cause more disappointment for her.
That night, I told Kasey about the new HP and she enthusiastically agreed that she’d like to try that laptop. With trepidation, I drove to Circuit City again and found Tommy. With no pressure whatsoever, he showed me all of the laptops that were on sale and the pros and cons of each. And the choice was still the HP model that I had seen the day before.
With excitement I drove home with the HP and at once got down to business, with Kasey looking up every so often from her knitting.
Damn! It wouldn’t connect to the network or the Internet. Not again! I can only take so much, so I felt like taking a shotgun up to the top of the Bicentennial Tower Two Minute Warning-style. Fortunately, I don’t have a gun. I suppose I could have thrown bits of the computer over the next-to-no tourists who might be about on a frigid December Sunday.
Doing my due-diligence instead and checking and rechecking all the settings, I discovered that I had mistyped one character in the Mac ID. Imagine! I had made a mistake. How odd. So, I repaired the address on the router and whallah! Her Internet worked and man, it’s fast.
I’m so glad that she finally has a graduation gift that actually is worth value to her.
I lost at least eight hours of my life on the phone with tech support, but for me it was a good lesson in patience, since I sometimes get a little postal with tech support personnel.
HP has left several messages on my voicemail checking up on our ticket number. Honestly, for the first two messages, I didn’t know who was calling. I just couldn’t understand him. Today, the guy from SonicWall followed up, and though I couldn’t understand him very well either, I basically got the point across to him—that it hadn’t been a SonicWall problem after all.
On a related matter, I’ve talked to many Americans who don’t want to hurt the feelings of off-shore tech- support people who aren’t easily understandable. Please, we must remember that English is not their first language and that they are not in America trying to assimilate themselves in our country. They work for pennies a day in a South American or Indian company and are being exploited by the companies from whom we buy technology. So don’t be afraid to tell them when you cannot understand them, It doesn’t hurt to show them some kindness, but you still need your issue resolved. And it might help them with their English.
But that’s a different topic.
[2026 note: I love Macs. And I love that tech isn’t quite so hard anymore. . . ]
