Last night the video card connector on my less than three month old computer died. Not the video card itself, at least I think not, but the stupid little plug. I partially blame myself for this one because until two weeks ago I had a nine year old monitor that worked if you plugged it in and braced it against the wall. Or jiggled the cord just right. And then it died, and no amount of pushing or jiggling would get it to work again, so we bought a new monitor. Unfortunately, I think all that jiggling and bracing damaged the pinholes that you plug the video cable in with, and last night, it just up and died too.
So I took the computer in to Best Buy this morning to see if they could replace the connector. They run ads about their stupid Geek Squad all the time, and this seemed like the perfect instance in which to use them. First I had to waste a bunch of time standing around while about five of the Geek Squad guys ignored me completely, pulling out their Treos and making notes or getting involved in intense conversations with each other. Then I got one guy’s attention, only to have him explain that they would only work on my computer if I had a service contract. I say Best Buy is missing a HUGE opportunity here. I would have paid for them to fix the damn thing because it was convenient, but apparently they are too good for my money. At least he was nice enough to confirm my theory that I could just buy a new video card (the old one was kind of crappy anyway) and install it in one of the open slots and that would take care of the problem. I wasn’t sure if that would work because I couldn’t pull out the old video card – it is an integrated chip and it is connected to a bunch of other stuff I didn’t want to mess with.
Anyway, I managed to pick out the right video card and get home and successfully install it, earning myself super genius status for just a little while.
And then the weirdest coincidence happened. I was looking out my front window, and who should I see leaving my next door neighbor’s house but two of the Geek Squad losers who so studiously pretended they couldn’t see me earlier in the day. I was tempted to run out and do some bizarre victory dance as they got in their Geekmobile,but I restrained myself. We super geniuses have to behave with some decorum after all.
Damn geek squad dummies. They should call them the asshat squad.
I HATE Best Buy with the white hot hatred of a thousand fiery suns. I do all my electronic shopping at Circuit City online.
I have the (pricey) service plan on my laptop and the Geek Squad will STILL do anything they can to get you to fix it yourself.