Computer Woes

I am still alive, but posting has been at an all time low since my laptop has been out of commission.

My 1 year old laptop wouldn't turn on - so after having spent 5 hours on hold with Toshiba customer service (Note to self: NEVER buy from Toshiba again.), I was referred to a computer repair shop in Burbank to get the power adapter repaired.

When I finally got my laptop home I was thrilled that it turned on, but soon realized that anytime I typed, I'd get a pop up. I took it to a hacker friend of mine (who now does corporate anti-piracy work as an Executive) and he told me I had a virus. He recommended backing up the docs that I needed (making sure the virus wasn't hiding out in each one), and then reinstalling everything. Ouch. And also to let Toshiba know that the repair shop had infected my computer with a virus.

U. questioned whether Toshiba's customer service was as bad as I had described (I cannot count the number of times they "transferred" me only to have no one pick up on the other end), so he tried calling himself and spent 2 hours being transferred over and over again. A "See I told you" was justifiably doled out. Rather than helping like a good customer service should do, they basically told him that he would need to reinstall everything himself. Thanks for wasting 2 hours of my time. Oh wait, 7 hours if you count the first time I called. Yes, I'm bitter. I have never experienced such bad customer service from a computer company. (When I had a laptop by Gateway, their customer service was excellent. They shipped out a box to my house for my computer and paid for the shipping, which was so convenient for me. When it was fixed it was delivered to my house. I spoke to 1 person and didn't have to drive anywhere.)

So now we're in the process of transferring the docs I need to a hard drive, and wiping out all the programs and reinstalling. It's taking awhile, so I have limited computer access when I'm at home.