It’s Wednesday, the computer will be ready today. So I go about my business, do some work, do a lot of laundry, run some errands, pick up Sammi and Erica from school and take them to Hebrew School and then head to Circuit City.

I arrive at 4:00.

I walk straight to the back, to the Fire Dog people. I see the laptop sitting on the back counter. It’s not on.

Dennis walks by, “Hey, how you doin?” Dennis is sweet but totally clueless. He doesn’t know he’s about to get his head chewed off but then again, at that moment, I don’t know I’m about to chew his head off.

“I don’t know Dennis, you tell me? I’m here to …” I don’t get to finish.
“Oh, yeah, here’s what we’re going to do with your PC…” He doesn’t get to finish.
“Going to do with my PC? What do you mean your going to do? It’s supposed to be done. Angel told me it would be done. And since there’s no message on my machine telling me it’s not done. I thought it would be done and I’m here to pick it up!”

“Yeah, well, the OS install…”

“No, I don’t want to hear. Get me Jessie.”

Dennis disappears to the front of the store. I pace by the Fire Dog desk waiting.
Five minutes later, Dennis returns. “Jessie is running late but will arrive in twenty minutes. But he didn’t say you could have a new computer if it wasn’t ready only if it wasn’t resolved but we know what we’re doing.”

I’ll wait. Dennis immediately boots up my computer and starts doing … something. By the way, at this point in time, Dennis and I are chatting about what he’s doing with the computer, because being a Geek myself, and a computer science major, I am interested. This is about when he lets it slip that he doesn’t think they ever replaced the hard drive.

Eric comes over to the area, sees me, and promptly ignores me by talking to some techie groupee babe. I always wonder what types of girls these guys get (you know, the D&D crowd), now I know.

I wait. I wait some more. Finally Jessie arrives.

“I never told you, you could have a new computer if it wasn’t ready. I told you if we didn’t have a plan. But we do, we know what’s wrong, and we’re fixing it now.” Is how he starts once he introduces himself.

“I don’t agree Jessie. You knew what was wrong on Sunday when Dennis had me come down to get it because it was fixed. But it wasn’t fixed. You had a plan when Eric (at this moment I point to Eric), promised me a phone call Sunday night that never came. You had a plan Monday night when John told me he was installing a new hard drive and would be ready Tuesday. It wasn’t ready Tuesday and now Dennis tells me that was never done. You had a plan yesterday, when you told me if it wasn’t resolved last night, I’d get a new computer at 4:00 today. And last night Angel told me he only had to install drivers and it would be ready this afternoon. I arrive to get it; it’s not ready. And now Dennis tells me he has a new plan of action, that a hard drive was never installed and he wasn’t even working on it until I arrived a few minutes. To me, that means this isn’t resolved. Your plans keep changing and none of them work.”

Jessie turns to Eric and says, “This is your department, fix this.” Then goes to leave.

“Hold on there Jessie, don’t you walk away.”

“I’ll be right back,” he says.

Now Mike, another techie (actually, a semi-cute one), gets involved because he’s been overhearing this. He tells Eric, that he thinks John did put in a new hard drive because John had the computer “in the cage.” He also says that John had a problem installing the OS because the disks he were using were bad and that he left it off that a reinstall needed to be done. The problem, Dennis didn’t do it. In Dennis’s defense, I don’t believe John ever told him to do it. Do you know what Dennis was busy doing now though? Yep, re-installing the OS. It was refreshing though to have someone (aka Mike) there who actually knew what was going on.

Jessie returns with Mashi. Mashi is the store director. He overseas all the managers. He asks what’s going on. And I volunteer to give him the entire tale of woe.
He’s not budging. He says they have a resolution. They’re going to re-install the OS and therefore I do not get a new computer.

I am irate. I am loud. There is no one in that store that doesn’t know this saga now and he knows it.

Mashi keeps saying, you shouldn’t expect a computer to be repaired within two weeks. And I shouldn’t be upset at a two week wait.

Whoa Nelly!

“Mashi,” I say, forcing myself to calm down, “let’s get one thing straight. I am not upset that my computer is not fixed after two weeks. I could give a flying beep (and yes I said beep; I didn’t drop the f-bomb – so you know I’ve calmed down) that my daughter can’t play Sims (Mashi laughs), I am upset because all of this could have been avoided at any point if your guys did what they said they would do. If John had called me by March 23 with a diagnosis, if Dennis had returned my call on Friday or Sunday, if Dennis hadn’t told me to come down Sunday to pick up a broken machine, if John or Eric had called me on Sunday night, if on Monday, John or Eric called me with a diagnosis, if on Tuesday my machine was ready as John had promised, or if John had called me to tell me the machine wasn’t fixed, if today, Angel had called me to tell me the machine wasn’t ready, saving me a trip here (and with each “if” I point to any of the guilty parties present), if any or all of these things had happened we wouldn’t be here right now. I have wasted hours of my life on hold with this store because every phone call is a 15 to 20 minute wait, time driving back and forth between my house and the store, standing here watching your guys work – and I shouldn’t have to stand here watching your guys to make sure they actually work on my machine, hours gone because of the complete lack of professionalism of your staff, and now your asking me to waste more time.”

Mashi nods, and says, in his eastern European accent, “I understand but I cannot turn back the clock. We know what’s wrong and we’re going to fix it.”

“When?” I ask.

He turns to his guys, they reply, two hours.

He turns back to me, “Let’s say four hours, if it’s not done by 8:45 tonight, you will get a new machine.”

“So I’m going to have drive down here again tonight to pick up my computer, more time wasted.”

Mike, whose church is near my house, offers to deliver the machine.

“Fine but I want a phone call by 8:30, Mike, if the machine isn’t going to be delivered. I don’t want to get a call when it’s too late for me to arrive at the store before closing to get a new machine.” Mike nods. I turn to Mashi, “I want all of this in writing and signed by you.”

Mashi instructs Jessie to go write up the deal on Circuit City stationary.

At 4:45, I leave the store.