The Case of the Foreign Laptop

Ready for another electronics rant?

Got the new Dell laptop delivered last night. Got it up and running. All was well. Until I realized that the hard drive space was wonky—it should have had 500GB but only appeared to have 300 or so. I posted in one of my tech forums about missing space, and come to find out, nope—it IS only a 300GB drive.

AND…

Apparently, it was purchased outside of the United States. Because when I tried to connect to Dell chat with my Dell service tag, it TOLD me I couldn’t chat because I didn’t purchase the laptop in the country.

Wait.

What? :??:

Yeah, I know. :##

So I called Costco Concierge Tech Support and I am sure the guy thought I was a moron because I couldn’t find the serial number. He even had me take out the battery–nothing. I told him most of the writing was Chinese characters. I even checked the shipping box—it came from a Dell Outlet in Tennessee. The guy was flummoxed.

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Well, 40 minutes later, after conferring with his manger and a three-way conference call with Costco.com, they are sending me a replacement laptop and a pre-paid sticker to return this one. They have NO idea what happened, but are confident it won’t happen again.

I. Can’t. Wait. 🙄

I mean, I only wasted about 3-4 hours already getting this one back up to speed with uninstalls, downloads, installs, backup recoveries, personalizations, etc. And now I get to DO IT ALL AGAIN in another week and a half. Oh yes, that’s right—they can’t expedite the order AT ALL since it still goes through Tennessee. They assured me my order will go in front of the new orders, though. Big whoop.

I do give credit to the Concierge support and Costco.com people, though—they were very nice and patient and they weren’t the problem at all. My rant is about the whole thing in general… First a Dell that came down with some strange condition (which we honestly haven’t yet checked out), then bought and returned a shitty HP, then ordered and waited 1.5 weeks for this Dell…and it turns out to be wonky, and now I have to wait just as long for the replacement.

I can use this one for the 3-5 days until the return label gets here, and I may stretch it out even longer so I have a working laptop…

But, really? Could I have any worse luck with electronics?

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