I think this is the closest I've ever come to wearing a straightjacket. The pincer movement attack carried out by PC World and Lurch nearly did for me, it really really did. I've been out of blogosphere action for some time now, unable to read, laugh or cry over my favourite blogs, except for a few snatched moments in other people's offices.
It started off with a welcome request from one company to do as much work as I possibly could, from home. 'Yes, yes!' I cried, as any freelance marketer worried about not selling their house and the drying up of work during the credit crunch would. This should cover Danny Boy's birthday and a bit more, I hoped. I arrived home from taking the Terminator to Scouts to find Lurch on my work laptop. 'I've downloaded the latest Microsoft anti-virus for you' he explained. 'What? Why did you do that? I've got anti-virus protection'. Yes the well-meaning fool (and I've called him much, much worse than that lately) had taken it upon himself to download a trojan virus that paralysed my computer totally.
I took it to PC World and waited in the queue. The man in front of me dumped his printer on the desk and said 'You can have this heap of junk, it doesn't work I want my money back. 'What's wrong with it?' squeaked the poor stumpy, pale, greasy-haired creature that was halfway between man and boy. 'It doesn't work! I just told you!' barked the man. He got his money back, during which time a certain camaraderie had built up in the queue. I gave them my lap top and told them I was self-employed and really needed the lap top replacement in my business cover agreement. The whey-faced youth nodded 'yes, you're entitled to it, but I'm afraid that doesn't mean you can have one. We haven't got a spare. Sorry'. 'Sorry, sorry! is that all you've got to say' I yelled.
Suffice to say I have been on the phone to various call centres going through a pointless sequence of number choices and have ended up boiling over with rage. Lurch bore the brunt of it and I must confess my final eruption covered everything; from moving to this house in the country with no supporting infrastructure and how anybody can manage to live rurally unless they work on the land is completely beyond me to presenting him with a bill for the damage.
It hasn't been pretty and it's cost a fortune in child care and computer bills but I'm back on-line and working. Nobody, but nobody is allowed to touch this computer again...
18 comments:
mama. welcome back, baby. You will have the sympathy of everybody who's ever been there, and that includes me. We've missed you, so just settle back in and pick up the reins again. luv, x
You are quite entitled to break the fingers of any numpty who dares interfere with your laptop. Tell Lurch he is lucky to be alive and to never ever gravitate towards your hardware and software ever again. Bon chance, good to have you online again.
Put a padlock on it!!! (The husband, I mean!!)
how did u put the black boxes on your blog?
good grief! i can understand your frustration, my lap top is off limits to everyone, husband included!
it is good to see you back...
xx
Why do men do that? When everything's going fine do they have to try to improve it?
Take a deep breath now ... breathe ...
Liked your story about eating raw spring rolls. Nice one.
Welcome back, now that K is getting older I have banned her from my laptop too!
How can it be that every husband thinks they know about computers? I nearly had a seizure the other night when Hamish wanted to "see if something worked on THE laptop". You mean MY laptop? (Uh huh.) I need it. () Don't touch that.() I'll do it.() ARE YOU FINISHED NOW? Simmering rage... Why? WHY?
I wondered what had happened to you. What a pain! I don't know a great deal about viruses, but it seems that the trojan virus got past your anti virus protection, then? The people who instigate these viruses should have their fingers chopped off!
I found out from bitter experience that it's best to hide anything that you don't want the rest of the family to fiddle with. ;0)
Glad you're back!
Pleased to see you posting again. My husband works with computers but still manages to download programmes, viruses etc that upset our computers. He just can not leave things alone.
Hi, I cyber-wandered across here from Expatmum and I can completely relate to your predicament. Only it's my 6 year old who downloads things when I'm not looking. I got him a Nintendo DS to keep him off here... do you think I've been manipulated? My hubby *knows* I am more computer savvy than me, and uses me as his own personal IT support from the office. Charming.
Good to have found you, I'll be back! x
Great to have you back! I think I'd expire without the use of my pc!
How frustrating for you.
And thank you for your comment :)
V glad you're back. And I am totally with you on rubbish custoemr service - what is the point in having a service agreement if they fail to stock any replacements?? Muppets! I do feel sorry for the whey faced youths on the frontline, but that is rarely enough to stop the RAGE boiling over!
How vastly annoying. Both Lurch and PC World. Glad you can forgive - it's one of the secrets to being happy, apparently, along with having a laptop that nobody else can touch!
can't live with it can't live without it...
if it was not for dig bringing me into the world of technology i would probably be scrawling notes on the walls of caves.
Glad you are back!
You have learned the hard way - husbands are not to download anything onto computers without asking permission and being monitored throughout the operation. (I've had to deal with husband's attempts before, he knows better now!)
BTM - do NOT get me started on PC World! The conards persuaded us to lease a computer for our business - upgrade it any time/if it breaks down we just give you another/at the end of the loan period they'll sell it to you for a quid, etc. Two years into the rental agreement the monitor broke. Took it back for a replacement. Sorry it's out of warranty you have to buy a new one BUT still pay the rental on the old one. Makes perfect sense. The 4 year rental/scam period is up, and of the original rented computer on the CPU remains and that has a fried ethernet card and the graphics card has packed up. They want 100 quid for it! Over my corps mort! Told them I didn't want it and they could pick it up from our office in France. Haven't heard another word. See, you got me started! VLiF
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