Look – no computer!

Yes, this is shaping up to be a week to forget.

You may recall that in February and March we spent a lot of time and energy (not to mention money – around £100) putting some of our possessions in storage and then taking them out again. The reason we did this was because we had been told there was to be an electrical inspection of our flat and we did our best to clear the way to all power-points etc. Then not only did no one turn upon the appointment date but the firm even denied ever having made an appointment!

A new appointment was scheduled for Monday this week and I made sure to get it in writing. We didn’t have recourse to storage this time but did manage to clear the way to the power-points. The electrician turned up this time, worked away assiduously for an hour and a half and then departed, giving us a clean bill of (electrical) health.

Next up were two dental appointments. The first was supposed to be root canal treatment, followed by installing a crown. After a lot of drilling, the dentist announced that the tooth was cracked and would have to come out. An appointment was made for this.

Next came the second dental appointment, this time for a filling. I thought it would be quick and easy but it wasn’t… While I was there, I discussed the extraction with the dentist and as this worries me (my teeth have unusually long roots) it was suggested (by me) that it might be better for it to be done by St Thomas’s Dental Hospital. I took a couple of days to think about it and today asked the dentist to refer me to St Thomas’s.

Another thing you may remember is that I bought a new laptop PC, a Dell Inspiron, last December from Curry’s. I have come cordially to hate the damn thing. The trackpad pointer kept going mad, making the PC impossible to use. It took me two visits and a phone call get Curry’s to take it in for repair. That was in May.

Curry’s, Tottenham Court Road

The trackpad pointer behaved itself (more or less) until recently but then went back to its old tricks, jumping around like a mad thing. So today I took it in to Curry’s and made a fuss. After a lot of fuss and a raised voice, I secured the attention of a manager. I wanted to swap this dreadful computer for a better one (by part exchange if necessary – I am nothing if not reasonable) but, of course, there was no chance of that. The retailer has the rules all sewn up to their advantage, not to the customer’s.

We resorted to a compromise: I bought one month’s worth of extended warranty for £10.50 and they took the computer for repair. Under terms of the extended warranty, either they return the PC properly repaired by August 7th or they give me a voucher for a new PC. I’m betting they will “repair” the computer and I will have wasted £10.50. I can see myself enduring episodes of mad pointer and bringing the PC in for “repair” until I can finally convince myself to buy another computer. When I do, I will not be buying it from Curry’s, you can be sure of that. Nor will I be buying Dell.

When it came to paying the £10.50 (doing so made me feel slightly as though I was being mugged), for some reason they couldn’t cope with Apple Pay and I had to use an actual credit card. I managed to type in the wrong PIN, yes, three times, thus locking my card. Fortunately, I used my bank debit card and got the PIN right that time.

This necessitated a visit to an ATM to unlock my locked credit card. In the meantime, I checked the PIN and so my card is now back in action – a necessity in these days of contactless payments.

If you have followed my boring tale of woe, even just skimmed through it, I apologise and I thank you. I hope to have more cheerful stories to tell soon.