Another Good Reason Not to Spend Money

I’ve got to be honest here–this wasn’t the most relaxing afternoon. My weekly features are due on Thursday night, yet from 2 – 9 pm today, I found myself once again dealing with a computer that just couldn’t wait to fail on me.

What’s a responsible consumer to do? Head to various retail outlets and find a person to hand money to in order to have the problem solved. So, that’s what I did. I went to the Apple store (where I normally have a pretty easy time) and saddled up to the Genius Bar. I’ve cut them a lot of slack on that “Genius Bar” title in the past, but those days are gone. The “genius” at the bar didn’t have any, um, creative solutions to the problem of my failing hard drive. He suggested I pay $150 for the chance to see whether or not they could fix it. By the time I left the store, my computer had been entirely erased, and my external drive unable to be accessed.

Bear with me for one more anecdote, and then I’ll be done with the nerdspeak. I headed to the much-lauded NYC “Apple specialist” Tekserve. Same result, perhaps worse. After doing a diagnostic of my machinery, I was told there was “bad news.” So much for customer service.

What was the final, successful solution? Asking my smart, calm, savvy friend for his help. This, my friends, is the lesson of the day: when in doubt, ask your friends! You trust them, right? The age-old tendency to farm out tricky work and decisions to strangers has once again proven itself to be terrible. I thought I could get off easy, but I ended up back where I started: beer in one hand, fingers crossed on the other, praying that my computer would get friendly with my other future machines. Seeing my friend not only relaxed me, but he also reminded me that there were other ways of dealing with the damn problem.

The other thing to remember: computers are not made of fairy dust and magic, but instead a set of impossibly small pieces of machinery that are bound to fail on you. The one place I learned you should spend money is on an external hard drive that won’t die on you. So, while I do endorse cutting corners in all kinds of ways financially, I don’t here. So DO NOT buy the WD Passport. I’m saying. Spend a little more up front and you’ll save more in the long run.