I'M BACK(ish) and why Best Buy Geek Squad, ASUS, and FedEx can go suck an egg.

Good news: My computer is finally back! Yes, FINALLY. We dropped it off at Best Buy on Jan. 4th. We got it back Feb. 11th! Why so long? Well, here's the story as succinctly as possible:

• Computer randomly freaks out when I try to update my anti-virus software, as I'd just gotten ANOTHER stupid fake anti-virus program bug that took me 2+ hours to fix, ugh. 
• We have the fancy protection program from Best Buy, where we bought our computer, so we take it there. It's written up, and we're told it could take 3 weeks. =(
• We get an email a week later telling us it's ready - turns out the original clerk wrote up our order wrong and the computer is still out for repairs somewhere in the Midwest. 
• We get a call from the Midwest repair center because they have a question about our order - it takes 3 days to get the ball rolling again because we keep having to play phone tag. Turns out our order was written wrong (AGAIN) and the Midwest repairs thought we hadn't paid for services that were covered by our protection plan. *sigh* 
• The computer makes it back to the main store, and we need a recovery disk. Well, stupid me didn't realize that computers don't come with recovery disks anymore and now I have to get one from the maker; the Best Buy clerk tells me that it should be free of charge to get a new one (minus shipping costs), but turns out the recovery disk is 50 FREAKING DOLLARS! 
• At this point, this is the 3rd stupid mistake Best Buy's Geek Squad has made, so I ask to talk the manager (which takes multiple phone calls and phone tag). The manager is understanding and apologetic, swears as soon as we bring in the recovery disk we'll be moved to the front as a priority, maybe some compensation in the form of a gift card (which didn't happen). When we brought in the disk this past Wednesday, it still took until this SATURDAY to get our computer - despite being told it'd take 3 days max. It took going in again on Saturday morning to get it finished Saturday night. *sigh*
• Oh, but to make it worse: ASUS, the laptop maker, is just as stupid customer-service-wise. I couldn't find the disk I needed on the website, so I called in and got help (then found out it wasn't "free" like I'd been told). So when we ordered the disk, we paid extra for faster shipping because we just want our computer back. Before our order could ship, they needed our serial #; I got an email Monday A.M. asking for it, and the email said to simply reply or call it in. I replied within 30 minutes via email with the info. FRIDAY I got another email saying they still needed my serial #! I called it in and chewed out the customer service guy, and they assured me the order would go in that evening; it did, but FedEx doesn't ship on weekend so we had to wait for it to go out Monday. 
• Here's the weird/annoying thing about FedEx: We paid for 3-day shipping. The disk had to ship from Fremont, CA (about a 2 hour drive away from us MAX). The exact course our disk took was this: Leave Fremont, ship to MEMPHIS, Ship BACK to Sacramento (where we live), but is then taken to Rocklin (a town about 30 min from Sacramento) to be delivered. So it would take exactly 3 days rather than, oh I don't know, actually come to us early. Or hell, they could've called us when it was in Sacramento for 24 hours and said, "Hey, wanna come pick up your package and save a day's wait?" It probably cost 3 times more in gas than we paid for the "expedited" shipping!

So yeah, the Ballad of My Laptop is a long, complicated, utterly cluster-eff'd story filled with UTTER RIDICULOUSNESS. Not only do I not want to buy anything from Best Buy ever again, but I also don't want to use services that use FedEx ever again ('cuz they've never worked well for me, tbh, shipping always seems to take FOREVER). Add in the fact that my life has just been crazy lately, and the whole situation has just been an unpleasant, inopportune thorn in my side. *sigh*

Of course, it's been so long since I've really blogged anything of worth on this here blog that I'm wondering what I'm going to write about now that I have my laptop back! Sheesh.

Anyway, more to come. I'm aiming for at least twice a week postings, pending schedule and inspiration.