There aren’t enough (&&#&#&%#@#^^&%#(!&#^&&@&@&@ words to describe how I feel about my computer. It’s an IBM x41 tablet lap-top. I used to love this computer. It’s light weight and works great for delivering lectures.
However, it has now had the system board replaced three times in 12 months and it’s broken again. The system board was last replaced on Dec. 26th. It lasted until Jan. 2. IBM support personel are always (almost) polite but something always seems to go wrong in the communication department. And every time something goes wrong we have to start over from scratch.
The last time it broke I was on vacation, but still needed the computer to do work. The first tech (and the only one who was not pleasant) I talked to on Dec. 21 said he couldn’t order parts or schedule a tech to come out and fix my computer because of the holidays. I would have to call back on Dec. 26th. I asked why someone could do something on the 26th that couldn’t be done on the 21st and he sighed and agreed that he could actually schedule the repair. He then hung up on me. I immediately called back and a more pleasant tech ordered and scheduled everything and said I should expect a call from a local company on the 24th to set up the repair. No one called on the 24th. I figured it was the holidays, no harm not foul. By noon on the 26th no one called. I called IBM support again and even though I had the case number no record of the case could be found. We had to start over.
An hour later a local repair rep called me. He said he got the info on the problem on the 24th but the parts didn’t come in until the 26th. He then tried to call me and set up a time to repair the computer. However, the contact number he had didn’t work. IBM gave him my home phone number with the vacation local area code!!! I had given IBM my cell phone #, my husband’s cell # and the phone number of the hotel we were staying at. The local tech eventually looked at the repair order and saw numbers that had the right number of diggits to be phone numbers and called one. Yay, for the local tech.
So now I’m back home, having the same problems and more. I call IBM again and set up a repair. The “local” repair tech calls me to set up a specific repair time. Unfortunately the tech is located in “vacation” town over 5000 miles away!!! I call IBM back, the telephone tech looks at the case and says well the location is wrong so we have to start over again and do a new case. ARRRRRHHHHGHHHHH. It took over two hours to do the original one. We went over and over where I was located during the original phone call. I DON"T WANT TO START OVER. Luckily I got the manager’s name during the first call and mentioned it. Supposedly a “local” tech will call me on Monday.
Wish me luck.