I spent most of the day on the road today. I had taken it off to use up a vacatin day without any idea of what I would do. Then I ended up having to have a medical appointment, so I left this morning at 8:30 for that. I accomplished that, stopped at WallyWorld and Where the Pets Go, to pick up a few things. I also had to pick up my dead laptop along with the backup hard drive that the contents had been transferred to. The old laptop was in Concord, I was in Amherst and right across the street from Staplers.
So, I stopped in and looked at laptops. I really miss being able to listen to the news while doing computer related work, so thought maybe I could find a deal. I did. I found an HP Pavillion (that is what the old laptop was) with a big discount. I also needed Office and Antivirus, so I got to dickering with the sales guy. Office, I got on discount because I got it with a computer, I also got a discount on a triple pack of Antivirus for the same thing. However, I didn't need for multiples (I had renewed my subscription on the other computers recently) and told him that although it was only a $10 difference, I didn't like it. Then, he said I also could get a $40 discount because I have a Stapler's reward card.
SOLD. He had issues getting the system to take in the multiple discounts for the Antivirus, but finally got it to 5 cents less than he had quoted me. SCORE! I also saved by installing the software myself. So I was really happy with what I got.
I then headed to Concord to pick up the old laptop and the backup. When I got there, I discovered that the salesman at Staplers had not given me my credit card back. Fortunately the charges for retrieving the info off the HD wasn't too much so I just used my debit card. Once that was taken care of, I called up Staplers and explained how I lived miles away and it was a huge inconvenience to spend another hours on the road to go back and get the credit card.
Whining works - they gave me a $20 certificate for my troubles.
Yeah, I spent a lot of extra time on the road that I could have used doing other things (mowing, stacking wood - neither which have been done in 2 weeks), but the extra credit doesn't hurt as a soother in that regard. Plus, since I was in Concord when I discovered the issue, and not at home, I spent less time than I could have (not to mention mileage and gas).
I finally got home about 4:30, took care of animals and household chores, then settled down to set up the laptop. I immediately took it out of Windows 8 mode and set up the wireless network. Then loaded software, transferred some files off my zip drive, and set up for wireless printer use. Guess what I computer I am typing this post on?
All in all, I would call it a lucky, and good day!
It sounds like you had a really productive day - just not stacking wood or mowing. What a negotiator!
Posted by: Cop Car | October 12, 2013 at 10:05 AM
Very nice! I assume that you are not using WIndows 8, right?
Posted by: buffy | October 21, 2013 at 09:47 PM
My old laptop was Vista (which I liked - really, never gave me any trouble), and my desktop is Win7. The new laptop wis Win8 - which is a pain. I am slowly learning how to deal with it, but tend to switch it to the old-type of display. However, that still has its challenges. I'll adapt, I've been at this since the DOS age, so am sure I will eventually get comfy with 8.
Posted by: bogie | October 22, 2013 at 08:44 PM