Laptop Love

I love laptops in the way someone who never had a desktop would.  I just can’t imagine life without one.  I like the way it sits just perfect on my lap when I am in bed doing work and I can adjust it to the perfect degree for optimum view of the screen and the least amount of stress on my neck.

My First Laptop was an IBM (used) & then a Toshiba (used)

I got my first laptop when I was a senior in high school.  The black IBM was a used one that was bought for around $700-$800.  But, overheating and other complications lead me to buy a used widescreen Toshiba from my friend for around $600.  The Toshiba was a beauty because it had that dark blue glossy color.  But it was a heavy laptop and I felt as if I was chugging it everywhere with me instead of the more delicate act of merely carrying.   

Toshiba Died Due to a Paper Cut

Once upon a time, I was a frantic first year law student.  I had dreams of using my Toshiba all three years of law school before buying a shiny new laptop when I graduated from law school.  But, mere months into law school I was sitting in contract class when I had a sheet of paper on my keyboard area and I shut my laptop to rush out of class.  Later when I opened it and restarted it, a whole section of the laptop screen was just black and nothing could be seen.  Oh no!  My laptop had a major paper cut that was beyond repair!  Frantic first year student started to think about all the class notes she would miss and all the case briefing and reading notes she wouldn’t have the chance to type up when reading.  Time was of the essence.  Frantic first year law student sprung into action.  There was no time to go through the hunt of finding a decent used laptop. It was time to go for a new laptop.  And now. 

New Laptop – Enter Sexy Lil’ Sony Vaio

So, I dashed off to the Sony store and told the clerk in my characteristic first year law student franticness that I didn’t have a lot of time but I need a good laptop that doesn’t weigh a whole lot.  I was really tired of chugging the Toshiba plus 50lbs of books.  My eye soon came upon a tiny little laptop.  I was bedazzled by the little tiny Sony Viao and off I went to the register to buy my first new laptop.  (Really, it took like 30 minutes. No research.  Nothing.) 

The young cashier asked me if I wanted to get a service plan.  My initial reaction is to say no to any kind of warranties and service since I see them as wasteful and never really used them.  But it was the first time I bought a new laptop and it was so costly.  But, aaah I wouldn’t really need it.  So, a quick shake of the head and a no.  But, the cashier wasn’t having it.  He said that if you buy any two accessories the one year service plan instead of paying $100 or $150 would be free.  And you already have one accessory, he pointed out.  Hmmm…I picked up a laptop cover for the tiny laptop and that means if I had one more accessory this plan would be free.  I went and looked around and saw an external storage device for under $15 that I would use and added that to the purchase.  I was out the door in less than an hour with my Sony Viao after having spent around $1,800.

Sony Viao = Piece of You Know What

My Sony Viao was a huge disappointment.  At first it was okay.  The operating system was so slow I would have to wait for it to do some of the most basic things.  I didn’t get the extra storage that would have cost me $250 more.  I wondered if that would have made a huge different.  I reached out to the one other person that I knew at the school with a Sony Viao and they did have the extra storage and she too complained about how the laptop was slow as hell.  I felt slightly better for not getting the extra storage.  Next, the screen was absolutely terrible.  There were white pixels on the screen that magically appeared for some reason.  Also, the keys left little square imprints on the screen.  And the white letters on the keys were starting to fade for the some of the letters. 

Sony Attempts to Fix My Laptop with Scotch Tape  

I naturally called Sony to complain very loudly about my issues and generally what a terrible laptop I had.  They said they would look at it.  No, I can’t sent it to you I said.  I am a law student.  I need my laptop with me every waking second.  But, when a small mishap broke the corner of the laptop I was ready to send it in.  I placed a tape over the broken area and packed it well and I shipped it off to Sony.  I really wanted them to look at the laptop and tell me that it was a bad apple and just give me a new laptop.  So, I went and borrowed an old lap top a friend had and sent in my Viao.  I felt stuck.  I didn’t have time or energy to go shopping for yet another laptop. 

I early anticipated the return of my laptop and when it came I was sorely disappointed to learn that my laptop looked in exactly the same condition as when I sent it in.  In fact, Sony took the time to put a new piece of tap to hold together the broken corner!  Yes, Sony simply removed my tape and put some Scotch tape on it instead.  I was enraged.  I couldn’t believe I lived without my laptop for a week and a half because Sony wanted to put some tape on my laptop.  I called up Sony again asking why they simply sent the laptop back to me with some tape on it.  The customer service representative was quite confused by this tape maneuver as well and looked up my records to find that they actually changed my hard-drive.  “What?”  I asked.  “You mean to tell me they changed the hard-drive—something I didn’t even request them to change!?”  The customer service lady wanted me to send in my laptop again.  I said there was absolutely no way I am sending in my laptop for the second time because Sony wasn’t able to fix the problems I asked them to fix the first time around.  I told her I am a law student.  I use my laptop for at least 15 hours a day, every single day.  I was quite angry and quite set against sending in my laptop again.  It was at this time the customer service lady mentioned the possibility of buying out the service contract.  Hmm…What say you?  Buy out the service contract? 

Option to Buy Out the Service Contract

The customer service lady explained the Sony outsources their service agreements to another company.  When you buy your laptop with a service plan you are given a service balance equal to the amount of the purchase.  So, since my laptop cost around $1,800 my service balance was that same figure minus the cost of the new hard drive that was installed for some mysterious reason.  So, now my service balance is around $1,450.  Instead of keeping the service contract, I can buy it out.  So, since I was so sick and tired of the inept Sony service, I can just go ahead and cancel the service which means I can’t go to Sony for any further service requests but I can get a nice check for $1,450 and keep my lousy laptop.   This sounded too good to be true.  This was really what I wanted.  I was kicking myself for buying such an expensive piece of you know what.  Even if they gave me a new laptop to replace this it would still be slow and generally suck.  Under this option, I get to keep the laptop so that will avoid a new shopping trip for a laptop.  And I don’t have to sent in my laptop again to the inept service people thus further personally inconvenience me.  And I get most of my money back.  Perfect solution.  I signed the paperwork the very next day and faxed it in.  And my beautiful check came a few weeks afterward.    

And that is how right now I am blogging from my $350 Sony Viao laptop. 

Yes, there are dead white pixels, and even a permanent blue and black line on the left hand side of the screen.  And sure, the letters S, C, V, N, M, and O have faded so much that I can’t even see the letters.  And one day while I was casually closing my laptop the lower portion of my screen decided to go and slightly break on me.  Yes, break.  So, I have tape all around the outskirts of my screen just holding it together.  Hey, what do you expect?  I only paid $350 for this laptop!

So, the next time you are stuck with a sucky computer like mine ask them if you have the opportunity to buy out the service contract.  I have never heard about this before so, I don’t know how likely they are to let people do this.  Maybe it is only reserved for customer service nightmares in the form of frantic first year law students.