March 10, 2010

Tim is My New Favorite Geek

Posted in community, Fun, Life, Personal, Portland, story tagged Best Buy, computer problems, Geek Squad, Geeks, updates at 9:18 pm by pdxfirefly

    A few months ago, I bought it….  A little netbook computer just so I could write while on vacations and while having Chemo.   It is really cool and I love it. 

   And two days ago while enjoying writing on it, a  message from the netbook manufacturer came on the screen.  The message said that it wanted to do an update.  Since it came from the computer manufacturer, I figured it had to be safe.  Right?!!   Wrong!!!

   After several minutes a message came on the screen that said basically “whatever you do, don’t touch any key on the computer!”   You better believe that I didn’t!

  The next screen that came up was very confusing to me because it gave me several options from F 6, to Alt F something or other to F 2, to F 8.  All of it was confusing to me and totally unlike any Microsoft update I’ve ever seen.  Since I didn’t know what to do, I called the company and they put me on hold and then transferred me again to someone else.

   This someone else was a young woman with a “difficult to understand” accent.  She assured me that she was in Fremont, California and that English was her first language.  I was not convinced.  She was almost impossible to understand clearly.  I called back a few minutes later and got another young woman who was minimally easier to understand.  It was clear to me that she was reading the instructions to me and not really ‘hearing’ the problem that I was explaining to her.  In exasperation, I requested to speak to a supervisor.

    I had been on the phone now for over 26 minutes but I agreed to “wait  while a supervisor came on the line.”    At least 10 minutes later, a supervisor came on the line.  After explaining (again) the situation, she had me retry something called the ‘hard reset’.  It didn’t work the first two times and it didn’t work this time either!

   She informed me that the next step would most probably cause me to lose all of my documents and files.   But of course, it would be alright because I “had ‘backed up’ my files before I started the update.”  I told her that ”NO.  My files were not backed up.  There was no message to that effect  before the company initiated update came up on the screen.”

  What do I do now?  She informed that I need to take my computer to a ‘professional” to have them “remove the hard drive —-carefully— and then back up all of my files.” 

   By this time I was really upset.  I informed her that I am a writer and there was no indication that my files were in jeopardy when the update message appeared on my screen.  I finally gave up and hung up the phone… but Portland Firefly was not a happy camper.

   Today, I stopped by the ‘professionals’  at Geek Squad.  Tim was my Geek.  

  After I unpacked and turned on my lovely little netbook, he turned the computer toward himself to see what the screen said.  He touched two keys and magically….there was the welcome screen that I was wanting to see!!!  He showed me a few little keyboard shortcuts while making sure that my documents were safe.  Then we ‘backed them up’ on my little flash drive.

   I was amazed.  It was so easy for someone who knows what they are doing.  He was very kind and said that he enjoyed showing people the things that he showed me.   With great sincerity and a genuine smile  I thanked him, and then I told him “you are my new favorite Geek.”

  Portland Firefly sincerely thanks you, Tim.  I wish you lots of luck and great success in your life!  You deserve it!  

 And I am so happy to be able to write on my little computer once more!! Now maybe I ‘ll be able to write some of my ‘cruise stories’ for you.

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