Laptop Flop, Part 17

(My mom has recently come back to school, and while I’ve allowed her my computer, she needs one of her own. We stop by a certain discount retailer, hoping for a good deal. We find a laptop, but we can only get the floor model. Mom doesn’t mind.)

Employee: “All right, so this will be it. Just wanted to show you how to take out the battery!”

(He proceeds to attempt to take out the battery, but it refuses to come out.)

Employee: “Don’t worry, it’ll work just fine!”

(Mom and I get home, and go to plug in the computer. They didn’t give us the plug in. I call the store.)

Employee #2: “Oh, yeah! I can’t believe he forgot to give it to you!”

(We return to the store to pick it up. With all this running around, I’m not feeling particularly hopeful about our choice. When we get home, the computer is locked with an admin account, and we can’t get in. I call the store again.)

Me: “I’ve run back and forth to your store, and now we don’t have access to the computer at all.”

Employee #3: “Well, you’re going to have to come back in. There’s not much we can do over the phone.”

(I give my mom a look. We decide to return the laptop completely, as it is more trouble than it was worth. Once we get back for a return, the manager isn’t happy.)

Manager: “I’m sorry about the inconvenience, but the worker who could remove the password isn’t in today. You could wait a few more days, and he’ll be here.”

Mom: “Well—”

Me: “No, thanks. We’ve wasted a lot of time we were supposed to be using for homework. We’ll be going somewhere else for a computer.”

(All told, we spent six hours going back and forth! We found a good deal with a competing retailer.)