...May the Great Scoutmaster in the sky.....

[Eamonn]

Just thought I'd share this.

I am or I like to think that I am a very normal sort of chap.

I have my failings and I have my good points. Most are known to people who know me. As what you see is what you get!!

I don't think that I'm especially religious just an ordinary everyday practicing Roman Catholic. I sometimes wonder when I stop practicing and get it right!!

I'm not very High Tech. The computer that I using to post this is six years old and other then enlarging the memory it is about the way it was when it came out of the box. About 3 years ago I made up my mind that I needed a Lap top (I didn't need one - I wanted one.) At that time everything I looked at was over $1,000.00. So I went to a used computer store and bought a Lap top for a little over $600.00. It was very basic but I really liked it.

I liked it so much and I got so fed up with OJ hogging this machine (At that time the only one hooked up to the net.) That I bought him a brand new Lap top. It cost me a little over $800.00. Boy was it nice DVD player CD burner. I was a Little bit jealous!!

The Christmas before last I seen a offer that was just too good to pass up. A laptop with all the bells and whistles which after all the rebates was under $700.00. I "Needed" this one for the up and coming Wood Badge course and the screen on the one that I had bought used was bad.

So I bought it. What a great machine, I loved it. I went and bought a new digital camera and everything was right with the world. It worked it's way through Wood Badge. We set up a wireless network at home and at work.

I had never seen the movie Follow Me Boys,so I pre-ordered the DVD, thinking that I would show it at a District Camporee. Then it happened my toy broke. The DVD refused to work, no disk would do anything.

I go to the Best Buy store. They say that it has to be sent away and it's going to cost $24.95 just to give me an estimate for the repair. The very nice young chap in the store seen my pain and tried to console me by telling me that it would probably cost about another $100.00 to fix.Of course the idea of spending another $100.00 didn't thrill me, but this was my baby.

The store said that they would call me within two weeks. When three weeks had past I called them. The man who answered the phone said that I had declined the repair. I explained that no one had called me and asked how much the repair was. He explained that he didn't know how much the repair would cost as his records only showed that I had declined the repair, he would however send it back. Three weeks later without word I called the store. This time he knew the cost and informed me that it was $498.00. I now did decline the repair. Even if it was my toy $498.00 was just too much when I could buy a new one for an extra couple of hundred.

I wasn't in any rush to pick it up. Then today I got a bug in my ear. I thought that I would pick it up and take it and the one with the bad screen to the used computer store where they do repairs.

I didn't tell the guy that I'd already had an estimate. I just told him what wasn't working. He put a DVD in and it worked!! He tested the CD ROM and burner and it worked!! He did clean it for me. I showed him the one with the bad screen he told me to give him a couple of hours. I returned and it was good as new. I asked him how much do I owe you? He said that he had noticed all the Boy Scout stuff on it and that he was a Eagle Scout and refused to take any of my money.

Yes Sir, the Great Scoutmaster in the sky was / is watching over me.

I just wish that I was more worthy.

Eamonn

[scoutldr]

I refuse to shop at Best Buy. They are all idiots.

 

Great story!

[Fat Old Guy]

I don't think that god intervened. I have a buddy who works as a tech at Compu*USA and he's told me that the techs will often fix things while trying to diagnose them. If the customer declines the repairs, they often don't bother to back out the repairs. It could have been any of a dozen things that were wrong with your machine from a bad driver to dirty contacts.

 

I've also benefitted from people who don't want their old parts back when they upgrade. I have a 20 GB (it came with 3 GB) harddrive in my notebook because someone put in a new one and didn't want the old one.

 

 

[hops_scout]

You guys are lucky:)

 

Right now, I'm going through all kinds of computer problems:( We actually have 3 computers in our house, but right now only the one I'm sitting at is hooked up to the net. We have a router to connect more than one, but the other computers are messed up. My sister's computer (Emachine from Best Buy) was just upgraded from 98 to 2000 and then to XP. The IE didnt install properly (or at all something like that) so I've been waiting on my friend to get me that. Well, he emails me that today, but I couldnt get the file to send to the other computer so that I could install. I'm going to have to burn it to a CD in order to do so. My mom told us a couple of weeks ago that she wasnt buying anymore CDs because "they went too fast". So, I'm going to have to go buy a few CDs so I can do this. Hopefully, it will work because my sister has been a little angry over this because she's been w/o her computer for almost a month now. Almost there I hope. And she needs it for school right now.

 

My laptop is actually my other sister's, but I took it from her when the internet adaptor quite working right. It doesnt connect to the internet w/o buying something. My parents wont spend the money on it and either will I because I know that as soon as I do, she will take it back (which really doesnt sound too bad, but if I'm spending money on it, I'm keeping it). It has 98 installed on it and I'm thinking about upgrading to XP so that I can install FrontPage 2003 onto so that I can work on my sites from there. That orignally was the whole point of me taking it. Oh well.

 

I do have my own digital camera though that I bought with my birthday money. 75 bucks for a 3.1 megapixel camera- sweet deal:)

 

Anyway, enough of my complaining:(

[Fuzzy Bear]

I know this computer guy that charges $80.00 per hour during regular hours and $140.00 per hour for weekends and after hours.

 

Let's see, if that is the case, either we buys a new computer or we goes to school again.

 

oooh my precious!