We had some exasperating and frustrating moments last week. Tuesday morning we headed out to Best Buy to buy John a new computer. He is writing his family history and his own life story and our two old (very) laptops just weren't up to heavy use anymore.
We picked an HP Envy with plenty of storage and without serious graphic capability, since he doesn't do gaming. We also purchased the new 2016 Microsoft Office, which we would download once we set up the computer. At home, John did the set-up then attempted to log in to the site to download the software. Somehow, he ended up with a page containing a phone number and a message saying he had encountered a problem. I called the number, then had them go into our computer remotely to see what was wrong. They tried to convince me we had a trojan and a virus that could not be eliminated by the Geek Squad. BUT, they said, just sign up for service from their company, for $100+, $200+ or $300+ and they would take care of it. I hung up and off we went, again, to Best Buy. Obviously, it is very, very important to enter the Microsoft website name accurately. A slight error sent us to the bad guys, instead of getting us 404 error that the url wasn't valid. BE VERY CAREFUL!
We have always been happy with the service we received from the Geek Squad out of Best Buy. We have had to take computers to them several times. And we had a great crew from there install the TV in our winter house.
But this week, things are a mess. The squad members are friendly and doing their job well. BUT, the new corporate policy of requiring appointments at the Geek Squad desk is a pain. And you would think that Geeks would have a reliable web site for checking the status of repairs. NOT. We had two automatic phone calls telling us the work was done on our computer and we could pick it up. Twice we have gone in to pick it up and it wasn't ready. "Don't pay attention to the automatic calls, wait till an agent calls in person," we were told. What? The Geek Squad automatic phone notice is to be ignored?
When we checked the web site for the status of the repair, it too said the computer is ready for pickup. Geeks don't have a reliable web site? Can you believe that?
When we went in to pick up our computer, we were told we could schedule an appointment for 1:30 in the afternoon, or sign in and wait. They had appointments up until 1:30, so if all those folks showed up, we would have to wait that long, at least. We had been in a store next door when we received the second call saying the computer was ready. . We were supposed call or come in, make an appointment, drive 13 miles home, then come back 13 miles to pick it up? Plus, it wasn't ready. They were still doing updates.
It isn't the fault of the squad members for this appointment system. But it seems they should both provide appointments and have enough staff to handle walk-ins. Even auto service shops provide that.
We complained and asked to talk to a supervisor. Andrew really came through. He couldn't give us the computer, it wasn't ready. But he did give us a nice $150 off the cost of the computer and helped us make an appointment for the next morning. When we came in the next morning it was done. When we asked the Geek Squad member to install our Microsoft Office software on their wifi, she agreed. Apparently all the Geeks were aware of the problems we had had and so this Geek said to give them about an hour. And, she wouldn't make us set up another appointment. She would help us the minute it was ready.
We wandered the shopping center for an hour, spending some money, of course. Then we went back to wait. The minute the work was done, she waved us up, explained everything they had done for us, and sent us on our way. (They had completely wiped the computer since we didn't know what the other company had done. Then reinstalled everything.
Final thought: if anyone should have a reliable online presence, it should be the Geek Squad. They need a new computer system. Even the in-store computers were very slow. And they need to schedule more Geeks.
However, the work they did was good and everyone we talked to was nice and helpful. After all the frustrations, it ended well.
Showing posts with label computers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label computers. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Not-so-Good Life on the Road
Most of the time, our life as full-time RVers has gone smoothly. But not always. Recently, we have faced a number of problems. Last month, I blogged about our refrigerator door lock failing. We have to clamp and tape the doors closed when we travel.
The next issue was a broken light fixture above the kitchen counter. The attachment at the ceiling broke and we have had to remove the glass shade to prevent it from breaking. Since the one light swings freely when the RV is moving, we put it up on top of the dining room table slide when we are on the road.
These are inconvenient issues. But recently, as we headed north out of Hurricane, Utah, we discovered that the curb-side front hydraulic landing gear was slowly descending as we drove down the road. We learned about it when I heard a new metallic noise as we drove down the road. That time, it had come down all the way and was bouncing on the highway. Not good. Below are pictures of it when we first found the problem and another time when it had come only part way down all the way.
A week ago, we drove 80 miles from Golden to Wellington, Colorado, and John had to pull off the road every 10 minutes so I could get out and retract the leg. This was on very busy I-70 and I-25. Obviously, we can't live with this.
We did a lot of calling before we could even get a mobile RV tech to come out. Every repair facility we talked to was booked for over a month. We don't want to be here another month before they diagnose the problem and then fix it.
Finally, this week, the RV Doctor came to our RV site.
Scott called Lippert Components, who manufactured the hydraulic system, to guide him through a pressure test to find out if the seal had failed. Some RVers would probably tackle this task themselves. But look at what is inside. It wasn't anything John wanted to try.
Scott ran the test and Lippert said we need a new leg.
The good news is, he is having the part sent overnight (or almost, it will be here Tuesday.) And he can install it right here in the RV park! Maybe we really can move the RV in a week.
In addition to these problems, my computer started acting up and freezing. Thankfully, there is a Best Buy store and the Geek Squad in Fort Collins. I took it in Thursday and was able to pick it up yesterday. Since this is the computer's third visit to the Geeks since I bought it in August last year, I am really glad I paid for Geek support.
I am writing this blog on the repaired computer and everything seems to be working fine. Hopefully, we are now headed uphill after this valley of problems. As soon as the funeral is completed in a week, we look forward to smooth roads and travel back to Arizona.
The next issue was a broken light fixture above the kitchen counter. The attachment at the ceiling broke and we have had to remove the glass shade to prevent it from breaking. Since the one light swings freely when the RV is moving, we put it up on top of the dining room table slide when we are on the road.
These are inconvenient issues. But recently, as we headed north out of Hurricane, Utah, we discovered that the curb-side front hydraulic landing gear was slowly descending as we drove down the road. We learned about it when I heard a new metallic noise as we drove down the road. That time, it had come down all the way and was bouncing on the highway. Not good. Below are pictures of it when we first found the problem and another time when it had come only part way down all the way.
A week ago, we drove 80 miles from Golden to Wellington, Colorado, and John had to pull off the road every 10 minutes so I could get out and retract the leg. This was on very busy I-70 and I-25. Obviously, we can't live with this.
We did a lot of calling before we could even get a mobile RV tech to come out. Every repair facility we talked to was booked for over a month. We don't want to be here another month before they diagnose the problem and then fix it.
Finally, this week, the RV Doctor came to our RV site.
Scott called Lippert Components, who manufactured the hydraulic system, to guide him through a pressure test to find out if the seal had failed. Some RVers would probably tackle this task themselves. But look at what is inside. It wasn't anything John wanted to try.
Scott ran the test and Lippert said we need a new leg.
The good news is, he is having the part sent overnight (or almost, it will be here Tuesday.) And he can install it right here in the RV park! Maybe we really can move the RV in a week.
In addition to these problems, my computer started acting up and freezing. Thankfully, there is a Best Buy store and the Geek Squad in Fort Collins. I took it in Thursday and was able to pick it up yesterday. Since this is the computer's third visit to the Geeks since I bought it in August last year, I am really glad I paid for Geek support.
I am writing this blog on the repaired computer and everything seems to be working fine. Hopefully, we are now headed uphill after this valley of problems. As soon as the funeral is completed in a week, we look forward to smooth roads and travel back to Arizona.
Monday, November 10, 2014
Product Review
In August, we decided we needed a new laptop computer. The old one John had been using was having serious problems--not starting, not shutting down, etc. My laptop was still working well. Since John spend most of his online time using his iPad and I am usually on a computer, we decided I would get the new computer and John would use my old one when he needed to write in Word. We decided on a touch screen computer, since both of us have become accustomed to that. Then the saga began.
We were in Minnesota and went to the Walmart in Albert Lea, where we bought an HP laptop with a touch screen. Our last four or more computers have been HPs, so we expected another good experience. It worked fine for a week, but then quit. So, we returned it to the Rapid City, SD, Walmart, then bought a Dell touch screen model at Best Buy. Before returning the computer, I had done some online research and Dell had very good reviews. The day we bought it, as I was doing the initial setup, the touch screen stopped responding. So, back we went to Rapid City and Best Buy. This time, we bought a Lenovo Ultrabook. I had to ask, who makes the Lenovo? It is an IBM product, I was told.
This computer is small. It starts up extremely fast--no waiting for everything to load. On the whole, I am very pleased.
I do have a few issues, in case you are looking at an Ultrabook. You will notice the scotch tape on the left part of the touch pad. When I am in low light, I can't see the line that separates the left and right buttons so the tape helps me do it by touch. Also, one reason the computer is so small and light is because it doesn't have a CD drive and the hard drive isn't really large enough for all my photos. So, I have an external CD drive and an external hard drive.
The Ultrabook is a cross between a tablet and a computer, so I can fold the screen 180 degrees and use it like I do the iPad, or I can put it in the tent shape and have it stand up on the counter when I am following a recipe saved on the device. I think I have the best of both worlds.
A couple of other bits and pieces of our last few days.
There was a beautiful full moon the other evening.
We bought a couple of bookcases for the bedroom, as well as some baskets for storage on what is called a plant shelf above the closet. Look how well the painted twigs on the sides of the bookcases pick up the colors of our new bedspread.
Saturday we attended a CPR/first aid certification class at our church, taught by members of the Chandler Fire Department. Scott and Nate were the instructors. When you spend most of your life around people of our age, you never know when someone might stop breathing!
We were in Minnesota and went to the Walmart in Albert Lea, where we bought an HP laptop with a touch screen. Our last four or more computers have been HPs, so we expected another good experience. It worked fine for a week, but then quit. So, we returned it to the Rapid City, SD, Walmart, then bought a Dell touch screen model at Best Buy. Before returning the computer, I had done some online research and Dell had very good reviews. The day we bought it, as I was doing the initial setup, the touch screen stopped responding. So, back we went to Rapid City and Best Buy. This time, we bought a Lenovo Ultrabook. I had to ask, who makes the Lenovo? It is an IBM product, I was told.
This computer is small. It starts up extremely fast--no waiting for everything to load. On the whole, I am very pleased.
I do have a few issues, in case you are looking at an Ultrabook. You will notice the scotch tape on the left part of the touch pad. When I am in low light, I can't see the line that separates the left and right buttons so the tape helps me do it by touch. Also, one reason the computer is so small and light is because it doesn't have a CD drive and the hard drive isn't really large enough for all my photos. So, I have an external CD drive and an external hard drive.
The Ultrabook is a cross between a tablet and a computer, so I can fold the screen 180 degrees and use it like I do the iPad, or I can put it in the tent shape and have it stand up on the counter when I am following a recipe saved on the device. I think I have the best of both worlds.
A couple of other bits and pieces of our last few days.
There was a beautiful full moon the other evening.
We bought a couple of bookcases for the bedroom, as well as some baskets for storage on what is called a plant shelf above the closet. Look how well the painted twigs on the sides of the bookcases pick up the colors of our new bedspread.
Saturday we attended a CPR/first aid certification class at our church, taught by members of the Chandler Fire Department. Scott and Nate were the instructors. When you spend most of your life around people of our age, you never know when someone might stop breathing!
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Alaska -- Day 45
Who goes to Alaska and spends a day cleaning and working on the computer? That's what we did today. This is our home and sometimes we need to take care of it. When we were recreational RVers, we would start a trip like this with a newly cleaned trailer, inside and out. We were getting away for a while, so we didn't want to do ordinary, every day activities if we didn't have to.
Today we live in our RV and we didn't start the trip with everything cleaned up. Because we drove through lots of dust the past couple of days, we needed to vacuum and mop the floor. Then John started cleaning the ceiling fan and tops of some cupboards. We are in much better shape, now. And you know what? It feels good to do normal, every-day tasks.
Because of the cost of using our broadband internet card in Canada, we have been depending on free wi-fi in RV parks. Since we haven't had a secure connection, I haven't been monitoring or updating our finances. I keep all our financial accounts in Quicken and update them online. Almost all of our bills are paid automatically, on line. Since we are now back on US territory, we can use the broadband card again, and I have had lots of work to catch up on.
It started raining sometime during the night and kept it up till about noon. When it stopped, we walked around the campground for a while, then drove into town (all of 3 or 4 blocks) for fuel and to do some shopping.
Since leaving Santa Ana NWR in Alamo, TX, on May 1, we had driven 6,203 miles when we crossed into Alaska. I wonder how many more miles we will put on before we get back to Colorado, and then Arizona, in September and October. We plan to take the Alaska Marine Ferry from Haines, AK, to Bellingham, WA, in August, so we won't drive nearly as many miles on our return trip.
Today we live in our RV and we didn't start the trip with everything cleaned up. Because we drove through lots of dust the past couple of days, we needed to vacuum and mop the floor. Then John started cleaning the ceiling fan and tops of some cupboards. We are in much better shape, now. And you know what? It feels good to do normal, every-day tasks.
Because of the cost of using our broadband internet card in Canada, we have been depending on free wi-fi in RV parks. Since we haven't had a secure connection, I haven't been monitoring or updating our finances. I keep all our financial accounts in Quicken and update them online. Almost all of our bills are paid automatically, on line. Since we are now back on US territory, we can use the broadband card again, and I have had lots of work to catch up on.
It started raining sometime during the night and kept it up till about noon. When it stopped, we walked around the campground for a while, then drove into town (all of 3 or 4 blocks) for fuel and to do some shopping.
Since leaving Santa Ana NWR in Alamo, TX, on May 1, we had driven 6,203 miles when we crossed into Alaska. I wonder how many more miles we will put on before we get back to Colorado, and then Arizona, in September and October. We plan to take the Alaska Marine Ferry from Haines, AK, to Bellingham, WA, in August, so we won't drive nearly as many miles on our return trip.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Three's a Charm
I hope three times really is the charm. Because that would mean we are done with problems for a while. At the first of the month one of our two air conditioners died. With a 36-foot RV you need two and that week in Richmond, VA, was very hot. Last week our Dish Network DVR died. Tuesday John’s computer looked like it was on its death bed.
After getting a new adapter cord for the computer, when we returned to the RV, Windows wouldn’t open. So first thing Tuesday morning we took it back to Staples in Glen Falls. The tech, Keith, thought it just needed to go back to a previous restore point. That didn’t work, so we left it with him to do diagnostics. He called later and said the hard drive was kaput and we needed a new one. Go ahead, we told him. To make a long story less long, about 7:30 pm we told him we would run down to the store at 9 am the next day to pick up the computer before we drove out of town at 10. He said he would come in early the next morning to finish the job. When we arrived at 9, he had been working since 6:30 am and, finally, it was working.
Then we drove to Syracuse to Camping World, where our air conditioner was waiting. After the new one hadn’t arrived in Richmond after 11 days, we had moved on. Dometic first said they had to get the first one they sent returned before they would ship one to another location. I finally talked to a supervisor and they agreed to send a new one to a Keystone dealer, Camping World RV Sales, in Syracuse, NY. We camped out in their parking lot over night Wednesday and they installed it Thursday morning. When I say camped out, I mean it.
They offer electric hookups, but the electricity voltage was so low we didn’t dare use it. So we got out our two Honda generators to provide electricity to run the air conditioner.
The water hookup didn’t produce water, so we drove to Walmart to buy jugs of water. But it is a free overnight spot! And I didn’t have to cook dinner—we stopped at KFC and picked up a meal.
Thursday morning we planned to spend the time sitting in our truck with the cats. However, they didn’t want to unhitch our truck and trailer, so we sat in the waiting room with the two cats for three hours. Thank heavens the cats are old enough to sleep all that time.
The new Dish DVR was delivered to the RV park in Waterloo, where we are spending two days, and we installed it this evening. Tomorrow we will set up the satellite dish and hope everything works.
Now we are whole again—if it works. We certainly hope we stay that way for a while.
After getting a new adapter cord for the computer, when we returned to the RV, Windows wouldn’t open. So first thing Tuesday morning we took it back to Staples in Glen Falls. The tech, Keith, thought it just needed to go back to a previous restore point. That didn’t work, so we left it with him to do diagnostics. He called later and said the hard drive was kaput and we needed a new one. Go ahead, we told him. To make a long story less long, about 7:30 pm we told him we would run down to the store at 9 am the next day to pick up the computer before we drove out of town at 10. He said he would come in early the next morning to finish the job. When we arrived at 9, he had been working since 6:30 am and, finally, it was working.
Then we drove to Syracuse to Camping World, where our air conditioner was waiting. After the new one hadn’t arrived in Richmond after 11 days, we had moved on. Dometic first said they had to get the first one they sent returned before they would ship one to another location. I finally talked to a supervisor and they agreed to send a new one to a Keystone dealer, Camping World RV Sales, in Syracuse, NY. We camped out in their parking lot over night Wednesday and they installed it Thursday morning. When I say camped out, I mean it.
They offer electric hookups, but the electricity voltage was so low we didn’t dare use it. So we got out our two Honda generators to provide electricity to run the air conditioner.
The water hookup didn’t produce water, so we drove to Walmart to buy jugs of water. But it is a free overnight spot! And I didn’t have to cook dinner—we stopped at KFC and picked up a meal.
Thursday morning we planned to spend the time sitting in our truck with the cats. However, they didn’t want to unhitch our truck and trailer, so we sat in the waiting room with the two cats for three hours. Thank heavens the cats are old enough to sleep all that time.
The new Dish DVR was delivered to the RV park in Waterloo, where we are spending two days, and we installed it this evening. Tomorrow we will set up the satellite dish and hope everything works.
Now we are whole again—if it works. We certainly hope we stay that way for a while.
Friday, February 26, 2010
High-tech Gadgets
This was a day for high-tech gadgets. After a breakfast/staff meeting at 9 am (it is our day off, but I cooked an egg dish and we attended, anyway), we took off on our bikes to do some geocaching. In case you don’t know what that is, let me explain. People all over the world hide small containers—from hide-a-key boxes up to ammo cans—and post the coordinates for the hide on the www.geocaching.com web site. Then people who have a GPS (Global Positioning Satellite device) hunt for the hidden item, sign the log they find there, then go to the web site and log the fact they found it. Many hidden containers have numerous small items for people to take or trade.
Last night John wrote down the coordinates for several caches near
We also responded to a virtual cache. That is when you find the cache by answering questions about the site or sending in a photo of something. National Park facilities don’t like people hiding things there because of possible damage to the property when cachers come hunting. But virtual caches encourage people to visit historic and natural sites and learn about them.
We enjoy geocaching because it takes us into places in the area we are visiting that we might not have seen otherwise. Over the years we have logged 89 caches found. That is nothing compared to some people, who have found thousands.
We have had our GPS since about 2004, before our trip to
And are we impressed! It has maps and many other bells and whistles. It will take us a while to learn how to use it. We can even download waypoints for geocaches, if we wish.
In addition to ordering the GPS yesterday, I ordered a 1-terabyte external hard drive to back up our photos and my computer, which is now nearly five years old. It is only a matter of time before we need to replace that. What would we do without our high-tech gadgets and on-line shopping?
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