In a tense call with customer service last Thursday, sophomore Kelly Wither tried to get her computer replaced. The situation began when she noticed as soon as the desktop was loaded, her laptop would crash, displaying an error message related to faulty RAM. Quickly determining this problem would only be solved by getting the entire machine replaced by the manufacturer, she called customer service and the altercation began.
After explaining the problem, and clearly stating the issue was related to the RAM, the customer service representative still asked her to “turn the machine off and back on again,” as if that wasn’t the first thing she tried when this happened. Not wanting to waste any more time than she had already spent, Wither waited 15 seconds or so before telling the other end of the line that “yes, in fact, the problem still is fucking there.”
It would have still been somewhat acceptable if the representative agreed to a return at that point, but nooooo, there were more useless steps to take. Next, she was told to “go to settings, then system, and should be a button labeled ‘Reset to Factory Settings.’ Go ahead and do that.” Despite repeated attempts to indicate that the system crashed before she could get to that button, the representative still insisted she tried. Eventually, desperate to get this process over with, Wither indicated that she did, in fact, reset the computer, and yes, in fact, the problem was still there.
Finally, the representative asked for her serial number, which she, of course, had ready, and then put her on hold. The hold lasted nine whole minutes! I mean, how hard can it be to enter a 16-digit serial number, this reporter asks. Anyway, after an excruciatingly long delay, the hold ended and she could resume her conversation.
At press time, Wither is still on the phone the representative, growing increasingly worried that the conversation still will not be finished when she needs to leave for class in 15 minutes.
