Grrrrrr

So, hm. My laptop has been acting up (purple screen, fuzziness, etc.) and I've been going back and forth with Gateway via e-mail on what to do. It's my first incident with Gateway support and I'm not that happy with it.

A) the rep can barely type English. I have no idea how she sounds, but she sure can't use correct grammar, B) her first response was basically: "Oh, you let your laptop get too cold, so your warranty is voided" (I had e-mailed asking if cold from a window could affect it -- we went back and forth over this until I got her to understand that I wasn't using the laptop IN a window, but near one -- in fact, over a foot and a half away. I even had to take a picture and send it to her to prove that I hadn't "willfully damaged the computer" -- just as a customer service thing, I don't think that the first response to any question should be "you've voided your warranty", not if they ever want me to buy another Gateway) and C) half the time, she can't seem to answer the actual question that I ask, but instead produces some garbled half-answer that doesn't make sense. It's very annoying.

And then, to make it even more annoying, I have to shell out $44 to buy a box from them to ship the computer back to them in, even though it is all under warranty (I've only had the thing for 6 months). Shouldn't they have to pay for that?

And then....to really frost the cake...today, it's acting just fine. No fuzziness. No purple. After I've spent an entire morning moving all e-mail and backing up everything to my old desktop computer.

Grrrrrr. Sometimes, I think computers are sentient and they are out to get us. They aren't to Terminator levels yet, but they're trying, damn the little buggers.

In good news, Tony is home from Toronto and L.A., none the worse for wear, though a bit tired. And I sent off two additional agent queries (Rebecca S. and Nadia C.). Wish me luck. Or heck, e-mail them and tell them how awesome I am (Kidding. Really.)