Lauren Georgeson's Insight

I Want a New Laptop!!

I guess I sound a little like a brat, but I have had my laptop since November 2002 and feel that I am due for a new one.

Let me just begin by explaining what I had to go through to get my first laptop...

You know those huge "the day after Thanksgiving sales"? Well, if you don't, they are amazing! Every store has some kind of awesome deal going on, and depending on the item, you usually have to get there super early in order to get the product you want.

One day, as my family and I were looking through the newspaper ads, we came upon a Best Buy one that was advertising a Toshiba laptop for a deal that you couldn't pass up. Of course, there was only a limited amount available, and first come, first serve. My dad looked at me and told me that if I wanted a laptop for college, he would pay for it, but I would have to go at 6am when Best Buy opened the day after Thanksgiving to get the Toshiba laptop. I was very much against getting up so early, but then I had the idea of just staying up all night and going there. BIG MISTAKE!!

Thanksgiving Day started off with the usual fighting with my sisters about who is going to help mom do what. The family came over, we ate, and I went into the usual food coma and took a long nap. For some reason, I always end up going out after I wake up. Well, I ended up going out with my boyfriend (my ex-boyfriend now) and a couple of his friends and my friends. I figured I could convince someone to come with me and wait in that horrible line, which I knew awaited me outside of Best Buy. Boy was I wrong!

After going out, we went back to my boyfriend's friend's house and hung out awhile in his hot tub. Everyone was getting real tired around 4am and wanted to go home. I knew I had to be at Best Buy by at least 5am to get a good spot in line, so I could get my hands on one of those laptops. I could not persuade anyone into going with me, so I had to go alone.

Not surprisingly, it had to start raining. That is just my luck! So now I had to stand in the freezing rain by myself. Well, I got there around 4:45am, and to my amazement, there were already people there camping out. It is astonishing what people will do for a good deal. They had lawn chairs and blankets; they had lunches packed. It was crazy! Needless to say, I obviously did not come prepared!

The workers finally began to go down the line around 6:30am and start shouting out their special offers. I was the third in line, and by this time there was a line wrapped around the building, all the way through the parking lot, which ended at the street! I could not believe my eyes. I asked one worker how many laptops were available, and he told me twenty. I was so excited because I knew one would belong to me!

Sure enough, I received a piece of paper stating that I would get my laptop when the doors opened. When the doors finally opened around 7:30am or so, I rushed in only to find out I had to wait in front of customer service in another crowd of people for my number to be called. Well about two hours later, my number was finally called, and I had to fill out all this paperwork and wait for them to program all these things into my laptop.

I finally got out of there around 11am and headed straight home. My dad and step mom were in the kitchen waiting, and they were so excited and all I wanted to do was go to sleep. I just gave my dad his credit card, said thanks, gave him the rebates to fill out, placed the laptop and all the accessories on the kitchen table, and ran upstairs to go to sleep. I slept all day long, and my sleeping schedule was out-of-whack for a couple of days. I may sound a little dramatic, but that had to be the worst day of my life!!

Getting to the point...as mentioned in one of my earlier blogs, my laptop was recently in the shop for about three and a half weeks right at the beginning of the school year because it refused to turn on. Good thing I purchased the four year warranty plan for my laptop. The "Geek Squad” (that's such a funny name) at Best Buy fixed it for free (they had to install a new motherboard). However, I was hoping to get a brand new one.

The reason why I thought I would get a new one is because my boyfriend bought me a digital camera for Christmas last year, and it would pick and choose when it wanted to power on. Thank God for the four year warranty plan! I guess they discontinued the camera I had, so I got a credit for $400 that I could use on any camera I wanted. I was ecstatic! I got to replace my camera with a brand new one that was even better.

Therefore, I thought maybe since my laptop is so old that they would just give me a credit for a new one, but to my dismay they didn't. They told me in order to get a new one, the laptop had to be in the shop for the same thing three times or for something, which they could not fix. Well, I asked this guy I know from school, who is quite experienced with computers, how I would go about breaking something inside my laptop that they would be unable to fix. After a little bit of thinking, he told me to leave my laptop on, close it, and walk around campus with it. Soon, the little disks that keep the laptop running will get off track from all the bumping, and the laptop will be destroyed.

I told him I didn't know if I could do that and came up with a better idea...I recently noticed a little pigment problem; there are little specks of discoloration on my screen. I decided I am going to bring it in to the "Geek Squad" for those to be looked at and fixed. Then, I would keep finding little things wrong and bring it in before my warranty expires (November 2006). I figure eventually they will get sick of me and want to give me a new laptop to prevent me from coming in all the time! We will see if my plan works!?!?!