Due to events in my recent life, I have become inspired to start a new series here on my blog called "nothing is as easy as it seems". This is a rule of Murphy's Laws, and lately it has been popping in my head a lot as it seems to be a rule of my life. Some may call these situations "misadventures", whatever you call them the jist of it is these things were supposed to be easy, and weren't. So here is the first installment... let me know what you think!
So about a week and a half ago, I came home from work and of course went straight to the couch, and propped open my laptop. Noticing it was dieing, I plugged it in only to discover it wouldn't charge. Fantastic. So right away a few days later, I made an appointment at the genius bar at the Apple Store and was all like "uhh.. my charger is broken. Can I have a new one?" Easy enough, right? Go in, get a charger, go home and go back to my blissful life with my laptop using my laptop. Of course not! Because nothing is as easy it seems, remember?!
So, the Apple store genius guy looks at my laptop, looks at my charger. "Is it damaged?" he asked about my charger. "Uhh no? It just won't work..." So he plugs it in, and what do you know, it doesn't work. Could've told you that... Then he plugs in another charger to my laptop and that one works. Awesome. So my computer's not broken. Just my charger... like I said. Now can I have a new charger? So he says "let me see if we have any in stock," and goes off into Apple-Employee-Only-land. He comes back and is all "uhh, yeah, we don't have any in stock right now, so we'll have to call you when some come in. It should only take 1 or 2 days." Alright, whatever. It's just one more day of suffering without a charger or functioning laptop (since its dead since, you know, I don't have a charger). So he's all sign here saying I helped you, blah blah, we'll call you when one comes in, blah blah. So I leave. Empty handed. Feeling like I wasted time. But whatever.
So flash forward to yesterday. It's been like a week and a half since my first oh so awesome experience at the Apple Store, and still no charger. So I brilliantly think "I know, I'll call the Apple Store, ask them if they have a charger, and if they do, I'll go get it." Again, easy right? Wrong again. I call up Apple and get this automated voice lady whose all like press 1 for this, press 2 for this, blah blah, press 5 if you're a business customer. So I press 5. "Thank you for holding," the automated voice lady tells me. "Your call is important to us." Gee, thanks. Then she says "You have 6 calls ahead of you..." What? At 8 at night? So I keep holding, and at first I'm excited because they are playing non-elevator, cool hold music. Except that wears off after about 10 minutes. Maybe 5. So I'm holding, and holding, and holding. Seriously, I figure, how long can 6 calls take? I mean they have to have a lot of people answering the phone. Apparently not.
30 minutes later, I'm still on hold when the automated voice lady tells me "you are the next caller to be helped." Finally. So after a whole 2 minute conversation and holding for 30, I find out that yes, they do have some chargers in stock, sorry I never got a call. They close in 30 minutes if I want to come get one. Awesome. So after 30+ minutes, I find out what I could have done by simply going to the store which would have taken the same amount of time, there and back. Great.
So I'm like you know what, I have waited a week and a half for this charger and I want it NOW. So, I get in the car and drive to the Apple Store because I haven't had enough of them and their fun and by golly, I want my charger! So I walk in, and even 15 minutes before closing it is still fairly crowded. Finally I track down a sales guy who is by far the oldest Apple employee. I mean this dude was rocking the gray hair and seriously had to be at least 60. And I'm all uhh how did he get hired considering every other Apple employee is like mid 20's- early 30's ish.What? I don't discriminate...
Anyway, I tell him what I need, give him my receipt, and all that. "So," he asks me, "do you have the other charger so we can swap them out?" "Um no. I gave it to the genius bar dude who helped me a week and a half ago." So he looks all confused, scratches his head a little, and says "ok well let me go figure out what to do with this..." Seriously? You work here. You should know. Once again, who hired this dude? So I stand there waiting for like10 minutes*, he comes back and again asks me if I brought the other charger. The answer is still no, dude. So he says again "let me go figure out to do with this, I'll be right back." What have you been doing for the past 10 minutes? I try to be patient and wait some more.
Then 10 minutes* later some butch chick comes out carrying my receipt and the charger, walks over to the genius bar, asks them some questions, grabs my old charger that was in a drawer or something at the genius bar, and walks back to me. "Are you here for a new power charger?" Yup, that's me. "Ok, let me get a manager and we can swap them out." Fine, great, whatever. Then old guy comes back and says "ok, honey, follow me." I'm thinking "look here, buddy, don't honey me just because you're old and especially after you have left me waiting here for forever." But I follow him, he opens my new charger, gives me the part I need, mumbles something about how he is giving me some part that is really important not to lose because if I lose it I have buy it again or something and he makes it sound like he should be my hero. Yeah, ok, thanks.
So total time I spent on this charger now is about an hour, maybe even more. So I get home, go to plug it in, and what do you know? It doesn't freaking work on my crappy older version of the MacBook. Awesome. So I'm thinking I'm gonna have to go back tomorrow (today) and kick some ass for sure. Except wait, my sister has the better newer version of the MacBook. So I plug it in to her computer, and voila, it works! So I talk her into trading with me (don't know why I had to talk her into it, what's the big deal but whatever), and finally after a week and a half of waiting, 35 minutes on the phone, 30 minutes at the store, and lots of frustration I finally have a charger and a laptop that isn't dead.
Just like Murphy said, nothing is easy it seems. It seemed a small, minute task to get a new charger. No big deal. Yeah, not so much. But hey, at least I got a blog post out of it, right?
*The actual amount of time that passed is unknown, 10 minutes may or may not be an exaggeration.
