My laptop woes!!

So I have a tale.. a tale of a laptop that has cursed me since before I purchased it.

Back in August 2005, while I was on tour with Ashton Allen in Philadelphia, PA, this old dell laptop I had purchased from someone else died.. Which resulted in picking up an HP laptop from Best Buy.. as I needed one to keep up with my work on tour.

So I pick up this laptop and continue on the road… not 4-5 weeks later.. the screen dies… another trip to Best Buy and the laptop was sent away… fixed and chased me on the road until I picked it up in Arizona or New Mexico (I forget which).

A few months go by.. now in upstate New York… now the laptop will charge sometimes, others not.. and doesn’t stay on.

Late May of 2006… it now wont charge at all and is totally dead for this reason… A trip to Best Buy in Brighton, MI… they detirmine that the pin for the power supply has disconnected from the motherboard… It is sent in just before I go on tour again.  I fly out to Philly the next day and end up in the hospital that night.. My gall bladder needs to come out and I have to fly home on an emergency.

I have my gall bladder removed back in Michigan in Early June… The day of the operation, my laptop comes back..  They replaced the motherboard.  And ALSO decide to REPLACE MY HARD DRIVE.  Never notified or anything… So I have the laptop back and everything is GONE… every picture from the road, audio file, document… EVERYTHING!

I finally get over it… but the lap top continues to run slower by the week.. until April 2007 where It  freezes at least 10 times a day and wont shut down.  By now.. I HATE this laptop and will never purchase an HP again.  I decided to reformat my computer.. as I’m trying to do so, the laptop shuts down… and the same happens again and again..  So now I can’t boot the laptop at all and there is NO operating system and I can’t install one.

That brings us to yesterday… about 12 hours ago actually.  It’s April 10th, 2007 (Thanks to Jenny and to Mark Pollock for the correction!) and I’m once again at Best Buy in Brighton, MI.  Expecting it to be fixed and returned to me as per usual… I’m just over it and don’t care at this point.  The folks at Best Buy take one look at my laptop (trying to boot, ect) and also one quick look at my service history.  They quickly hand me a copy of my receipt and tell me.. “Take this back to home office and someone will help you pick out a new laptop.”  I replied “huh?” as I didn’t expect them to say it.. Sure enough I head to the back and begin to pick out a laptop.. they want to give me ‘technology equivalent” which was another HP.. I told them my story and refused the HP.  I saw a Gateway that I wanted… It was double the specs of the HP and close in price… They finally offer to give me the Gateway at ORIGINAL PRICE $1,099 (sale price was $899) and I have to pay the difference… I thought very quickly.. and took the offer.

I type now on my brand new Gateway laptop.  And including the 2 year ($175) service plan only shelled out about $280 for this great new laptop… SO worth it.  and the best thing is.. that stupid HORRIBLE POS Hewlitt Packard is forever out of my life!

So that’s the tale of my laptop woes… By far my worst purchase and product experience ever.. but that is all over now!