My laptop is a disgrace (and I am talking about its physical condition, not what I have stored on it!) The battery is knackered and only stores sufficient charge for 20 minutes use, the screen freezes almost daily and I need to use it by an open window as the cooling fan has been broken for 2 years and if it gets too hot it closes itself down losing whatever I happen to be working on. And the socket where I plug in the power supply is hanging out and affixed to the machine by an elastic band.
My phone is marginally better, though it too has a knackered battery which only gives me an hours active use, and freezes at least once a day, resulting in me having to remove the battery and Sim card and reboot it.
After much (deserved) nagging I was dragged to Bluewater today as apparently 'everything you need is under one roof'. For Steve, this is a joy; he can shop for six hours and not actually buy anything, but will have enjoyed the experience. For me, shopping is akin to water torture. If the world consisted of three shops, Waitrose, John Lewis and M&S I would be happy.
Then we had lunch. This was the highlight - Loch Fyne for lobster and Champagne, guaranteed to cheer me up.
Then onto another of Dante's Circles of Hell; PC World. This place is staffed by people who longed to have the personality to work in Phones4U who seem to enjoy working in an environment where rave and house music drowns out any hope of intelligent conversation.
We wandered around looking at laptop specs which I couldn't even start to comprehend. I'm still remember upgrading our Silverjay election computer from a 386 chip to a 486. After careful research I settled on a Hewlett Packard machine as I liked its colour (maroon). It also had a tetra bite of RAM, which Steve said was good.
After much waiting Darryl come to serve us. No, I didn't want half price Norton as I still have ten month left on my present Norton license. No, I didn't wish to subscribe to a ten year contract for £79 per year for all the latest Microsoft Office upgrades. Two year extended parts and labour warranty for £117? Why is the machine likely to break-down in the next 2 years? No ? Well, in that case I don't need it, do I. By this point steam was starting to rise. Off Darren went to collect my new machine, which (surprise surprise) wasn't in stock (I recall this is exactly what happened last time). What's more, they couldn't even order me one as there was so much demand..... But would I like to see similar models which are just a little bit more....
At this point I just walked out - 45 minutes of my life gone waiting in a shop to buy a computer they didn't have and were unable to order. This does beg the question why they had it on display bin the first place.
Is it any wonder so many High Street retailers are going to the wall?
If more people did what you did and walk out instead of being pushed in buying what they didn't want, none of us would have to put up with that cr*p.
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