Expletive Deleted

Last week my husband and I decided to spend our savings and buy a new computer.

Bad idea.

We bought a brand new Gateway GM5426 for a great price and were so excited. We brought it home and started it up, configured it to our satisfaction and began playing the demo games and having fun. The next day I bought a wireless adapter for it so that we could increase the speed of our Internet connection, brought it home and had some trouble installing it, but our computer savvy friend came over and touched it with his magic finger and voila! It worked.

Then it happened.

At some point that evening, the computer turned itself off and never turned back on.

So, hubby and I took it back up to Best Buy for a quick look-over and found out that it had a faulty power supply. So we were offered an exchange. The catch: they didn't have anymore of that model in stock and were so backordered that they didn't know when they'd get more in. They said they could see if another store would hold one and we could go pick it up. Problem: the stores that had them in stock were in Federal Way and Tukwila--at least a 100 mile drive from where we live. The customer service guy tried to convince me that the Federal Way store would hold one for me and allow me to exchange the computer we had for a new one when I was going to be in the area many days later, even though my name wasn't attached to the line of credit it was bought on. To top that off, he wouldn't get a name of a person that I could ask for to ensure that it wouldn't be a waste of my time. My faith in that transaction was nil. I decided to try and talk to someone else.

I was able to catch another guy to talk to and he offered much more assistance. Apparently he was present when they trained for customer service. He offered us a $150 upgrade to an even better computer for $50 and we took it. Great deal.

Fast forward to today.

We've been using this new computer for four days. It's been running like a dream and we just love it.

Today, the sound quit working. I got home around noon after running errands with the kids and sat down to use the computer to find out that there was no sound and nothing in my repetoir of computer knowledge could fix it. I called Best Buy to try and speak with someone in the "Geek Squad," what a name, but I guess if they don't care (the "Geeks"), then I don't. I was told they were busy and could I leave a name and number where they would get in touch with me in about fifteen minutes or so. Knowing it would be much longer than fifteen minutes, I left my name and set out to get the problem dealt with. I went to the Gateway website to chat online with a tech support person.

I spent about an hour and a half chatting with this person whom I allowed remote access to control my mouse and keyboard, and never really getting the issue resolved. I can't even begin to tell you about the computer organs I played with today. I feel like I should marry the stupid thing, I got so intimate with it.

Then I called Best Buy again, approximately three hours after I originally left a message. I was talking with this lady who was helping me, but then she decided to transfer me to a cordless phone and I got disconnected. I tried calling back but was left on hold for about twenty minutes and hung up to call back.

I went straight for the jugular. My conversation began with, "Yes, hello, may I please speak with a manager?"

The supervisor finally got me in contact with the Geek Squad supervisor, and she and I spent another twenty minutes trying to work it all out. To no avail.

The sound still doesn't work.

So tomorrow, I will make my eighth trip to Best Buy in the last week and a half to return yet another computer. I'm so glad we got our fixed laptop back today.

Wish me luck, friends. Or, maybe you should wish Best Buy some luck, cuz I'm gonna rip them a new one if something good doesn't come out of this trip tomorrow.

Did I mention that the new computer is running Windows Vista, which totally blows?