As It Happened

It was nearly a month ago that the hard drive crashed on this laptop. Just one more thing to happen in a long list of bad events in my online life. Before the crash, the place I was pirating wifi from had ceased transmission. So I was pretty much limited in my internetting already. On top of all that, I had hit the wall, as it were, with blogging, having been blogging for over 6 years now. It had become old, tiresome, and I felt uninspired. I was due for a break from it all anyway. Still, it was not easy. My laptop was (is) my life. Without it, I didn't know what to do with myself.

I lamented my loss via a library computer, and in short while a donation came to me from a very kind person, and I was able to order a new hard drive.

My life has been a continuous series of catastrophes. I've learned to accept this fact. It is my only trusted expectation. Nothing goes right the first time, and rarely the last time. Success under my own efforts is an anomaly.

I have a Dell Vostro 1700 laptop. I purchased it from the Dell.com website. The laptop is thus registered with Dell. I can go to that website, sign into my account there, and see a detailed listing of my computer system. And so too can Dell.

While signed into my account, I searched for hard drives compatible with my system. I found three hard drives listed with exactly the same description, except that each had a different part number. There was no information about the significance of these different part numbers. At this point it would have been good to call the Dell 800 number. But, my only phone is a Skype service which I can only access on my own computer over the internet. No laptop, no phone. So, I picked one, the one with the highest part number, and placed the order. Dell.com accepts payments from Paypal.com.

The original listing for the hard drive stated that it usually shipped out in 24 hours. But when the ordering was completed, I was told that I should expect the hard drive to be delivered in approximately 4 weeks. So, I wasn't home when UPS first came by to drop off my package, less than a week after I ordered it. When I got home there was a postit note on my door stating they would try to deliver again the next day between 10am and 2pm. Well, no doubt I was going to stay home this time, so to not miss the delivery. And with no food in the house, and yet not wanting to miss the UPS, the day became another unplanned exercise in fasting.

The day dragged on in my excitement and anticipation. Every sound of a car going by had me looking out the window for Brown. 2pm came and went without a package...3pm...4pm...5...I was seriously considering leaving my place to find some food when the truck finally showed up. When the driver handed over the box, all was forgiven.

Many warnings were given in the packaging about the danger of static electricity, so as I prepared to replace the hard drive I did all I could to make sure nothing shocking happened. Without a proper screw driver, I used a metal nail file to loosen the screws, being careful to not strip out the screw head slots. Out came the old broken hard drive, in went the new replacement hard drive....almost.

As similar as it appeared, the new hard drive just did not fit, physically, into the slot where the hard drive goes. Great! (sarcasm amping up) Now, just how was I to remedy this predicament? Obviously, I needed to return this hard drive and order the correct one. My biggest concern was over ordering the correct one. How was I to know which of the three listed on the website as the one that would work with my laptop?

To the library I went. Signed into Dell.com and reported a problem with my order. Since I was doing this on library computers, where I only get an hour of computer time, I wasn't able to check for the return email until the next day. The email I received was disappointing. Dell is outsourcing their internet customer service. I know full well that with every link in the chain of communication comes a layer of disconnect and confusion, and likely hood that policy would override common sense, becoming detrimental to good customer service.

Looking for a more direct way to talk to Dell I found an 800 number for customer service. I then recalled that sometimes churches involved in the Room In The Inn homeless winter shelter program would hand out phone cards. So, I went digging through my things and found an ATT phone card with 75 minutes, that I never used. I rarely use a phone anyway. So, the next day, with receipts in hand, I walked up to the library again to use the payphone there. I called the number, didn't have to wait long for a rep, and yet my heart sank when I heard the rep speaking with an accent. Great! Dell is outsourcing their customer service to India.

My prejudice caused me to be unduly skeptical. The rep handled my call well. (not all calls made via India have gone so well in past circumstances) But still I was not so happy with the outcome. First I was notified that I would have to forfeit the original shipping charges. Then I was told that it would take weeks to be credited the amount I paid for the hard drive. This meant that I would have to wait until I got the credit before I could order the correct hard drive. It would be another month before, hopefully, having the right hard drive. And I would have to find another 8 bucks or so for additional shipping charges.

Uber frustrated with all of this, I blogged about it.

Hello Kevin:
I read the following post on your website:
http://thehomelessguy.blogspot.com/2009/05/dell-computer-customer-service-sucks.html I’m sorry to hear that you have been having problems with Dell.

...is how the email began. It was from someone with a @Dell.com email address. This person had a peculiar moniker - Digital Life Evangelist - part of the Dell Social Media Team. 28 replies back and forth and we finally solved my hard drive problem. Knowledgeable, with a professional demeanor, and patient with my ignorance of technical issues, this was the help I needed. I was on the verge of just tossing the laptop into a dumpster and calling it quits. Now, I'm back up and running again. I'm very grateful for his assistance. I help was not covered by any warranty. Of course Dell would have gladly charged me for additional help. It's one of the services they offer on their website. But this was just one other thing I cannot afford.

During this ordeal, I kept thinking how this situation would have been resolved in just one visit to an actual brick and mortar store front. Dell has no such thing. And as we began fixing the problem in earnest, I wondered what would have happened had I not blogged about my frustration. Obviously, Dell has it's feelers out, watching the internets for any comments made about its products and services. I've recently heard from other people who have had similar experiences with other companies. Big Brother is watching. And he is not a government entity, he's corporate.

The whole email conversation lasted 6 days. It was discovered that the casing for the new hard drive was the issue. It was necessary for me to do some surgery on it. I had to change out the casings between the old and new drives. I didn't have a proper screw driver for the job, but I do have some street skills of improvising. What I did have was a metal fingernail file, the end of which was small enough to fit into the slots of the screw heads. Once the new hard drive was properly installed, I then needed to download the software drives to make it work. Back to the library and the computers there I went. I used the memory card from my camera and the adapter for downloading photos to copy the drives from the Dell website, and transferring that data into my laptop that way. The only issue I had with this was the driver for audio. The one listed for my computer was not correct. So I searched the site for an older version of the driver, and that worked.

I feel I've learned a lot about computers and how they work, because of this experience, though I'm still a bit disappointed that so much was required of me. I'm sure that if McDonalds could save payroll costs by making customers cook their own burgers and fries, they'd do it. And I think that's a fairly accurate metaphor to what happened in this case. Sure I'm very grateful for the assistance I received. The help I received was top notch. But something still feels amiss.