Tech Support

Went with my sister in law, Liz, to help her pick out furniture last night. Turns out she and Al selected a couch over the weekend, but she had other pieces she wanted to purchase. She bought a pretty entertainment center and a big overstuffed recliner that I am sure Al will totally enjoy. She special ordered everything, so it will be a couple of months before they come in, but it will be fun to see them once they arrive!

I have had a very productive morning! My former coworker, Melanie, had asked me to balance the classroom checkbook and get it prepared for the yearly audit. I was happy to do it, but just hadn't had the desire to tackle it until today. So, I have everything balanced and pretty much accounted for. Now all I need to do is an excel sheet to show the ebb and flow of the monies (now mind you - our little account rarely sees $300 in it, so this isn't high finance). Anyway, my new laptop doesn't have Microsoft Word - just Works, so many people's computers aren't compatible with it. This just drives me nuts whenever I want to share something - or even open old files from my old computer. I went online to look into purchasing the Word software and found out it has a $30.00 rebate right now - AND - I found out that Best Buy does in store rebates so I can purchase it for $30.00 off today and not have to wait for 15 weeks for the refund to come!!!!!! I think that is FANTASTIC! So, once I have this installed I can finish up my audit report for Melanie.

I managed to eek out enough energy to scrub the masterbath - it always feels good to get at least one major cleaning project done a day.

I also went online with HP tech support to have them fix a problem I have been having with my printer. I will install it, then a week or so later it has disappeared and won't work. I reinstall - and again - is gone in short order. VERY irritating. I did not want to call their tech support as I have found it beyond irritating (you get some person in India or some such place with poor English who doesn't understand your problem and keeps calling you 'mam' over and over and over.... ) So, I go online - and guess what? From the speech pattern I observed in their responses - I was back in India. It took over an hour to get the problem resolved and not without a little impatience on my part. The following is an excerpt from my second session I had online with a tech.

Myra: Welcome to HP Total Care for All-in-One Products. My name is Myra. How may I assist you today?
Jacque Nielsen: I have reinstalled my printer. I think there is a next step - all the info disappeared before I could make sure. (I provided her with my session number)
Myra: Could you please provide me couple of minutes to go through your previous chat session.
Jacque Nielsen: Yes
Myra: Thank you. (Seven minutes went by)
Myra: Jacque, thank you for being online.
Jacque Nielsen: Ok
Jacque Nielsen: Do I need to do anything else?
Myra: Have you resintalled the software after restarting the computer?
Jacque Nielsen: As I stated above - yes (can you hear me getting a bit pissy?)
Myra: Are you able to view the printer icon?
Jacque Nielsen: Yes
Myra: Good.
Jacque Nielsen: But I always can once i have installed it. Then in a week or two it is gone
Jacque Nielsen: I am hoping to avoid this.
Myra: I will help you in fixing this for ever.
Jacque Nielsen: Good - I have already done the initial fix. Is there anything else I need to do?
Myra: Please, follow the steps that i am providing you now.
Myra: 1) Click on the "Start Menu" icon on the bottom left corner of the screen , type .....
Nielsen: I HAVE ALREADY DONE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jacque Nielsen: You were suppose to have been reviewing my last session. You would have known this. What were you doing for the seven minutes I sat and waited for you?
Myra, of course, totally ignored my crabbiness and told me what to do next - nicely of course. Hopefully the problem has been fixed - I will see in a week or two if my printer remains installed. I can't wait for my survey of services to come on my email - it won't be pretty.