Technology Good Grief!

This particular post is not about the Morden clan, but about the technology saga that is my life. In the past month I have fried one printer, had 3 iPhone 4s, tore apart my work laptop to replace a part, (Notice I didn't say put back together yet.), and had an internet card that didn't work (Thankfully now it does.) The saga began almost 6 months ago when Alltel was bought out by AT&T.  I was excited at first because I had wanted an iPhone for a long time, but without boring you with the details, it took from November until February (when they charged me for the phone) to even receive the phone and then they wouldn't activate it until mid April.  This is after several promises and delays of shipment.  Once I received it, we went form getting great service to one bar.  I was already fed up with AT&T and Verizon now had the iPhone 4, so we made the decision to switch.  However AT&T said if I switched before the phone was activated I would face the cancellation fee.  So once the phones were activated I went to Verizon, switched everything over, and went to AT&T to return our equipment.  They said no problem, but they would have to charge me a 10% restocking fee! After arguing (and getting nowhere) I consented and left.  Once home with my new Verizon iPhone, I discovered it had several problems and was defective.  I called the Verizon store and they said to bring it in and they would set me up with a new one.  I asked if I could go to there store that was slightly closer (30 instead of 35 miles) and was told that would be fine.  When I arrived, however, they ended up sending me to the other store anyways because they were out of iPhone 4s. Immediately they said they could help me and I would be out the door in just a few minutes.  Though, when the salesman began looking up my information and processing the return he said that Apple would not allow Verizon to return defective phones and immediately activate a new one.  The phone had to be sent in.  "What?!?" I would have to wait for my phone to return from repairs.  At this point I was livid! After explaining the obvious to this salesman that this was ridiculous, he relented to call the Apple help line. He handed me the phone and after explaining the situation, the Apple guy said the Verizon guy should just give me phone.  (Duh! Tell that to the Verizon salesman!) I agreed with him and handed the phone back to the Verizon guy.  After a couple minutes of debate I was handed back the phone and the Apple guy said that the Verizon guy wasn’t going to give me the phone. (Of course he said it wasn’t his fault, but Verizon’s) He said I had 3 options:
1. Ship the phone to Apple and have them fix it. (Taking up to 2 weeks)
2. Have Apple ship me a new phone, but I would have to pay $30 shipping and they would put a $600 hold on my credit card until they received the defective phone back.
3. Drive to Grand Rapids to the Apple store and they would give me a new phone. (This option would be 3 hours of driving round trip at $4 a gallon. Yeah right!)

At this point I decided the Technology gods were just out to get me.  Did I mention Apple had also disconnected my call while I was on hold 3 times? After arguing with the Apple guy that these choices were ludicrous and becoming slightly irate, he finally agreed to wave the $30 shipping charge, but wouldn’t relent on the $600 hold.  I agreed, but when he ran my credit card, the card company thought it was a fraudulent charge and wouldn’t allow it to go through. I then had to call the card company tell them it was ok, and call the guy back.  He ran the card and I was on my way 2 hours later.  The new iPhone arrived the very next day (today) and I followed the activation instructions, but they didn’t work. (Come on did you expect them to? At this point, I didn’t.) I had already wiped my old phone clean (because the directions said to, so that phone was out of commission). Luckily, our babysitter was still here so I borrowed her phone.  Verizon told me that I had to connect my new iPhone to the computer and the internet before it could be activated.  I advised the woman on the phone that this was not in the directions, but I would try it. (I had a new internet connection card from Verizon I could use.  What could go wrong right?) As I went through the setup directions for the internet card, it too did not work.  AAAAGGGGGHHHH!! I called Verizon back again and they said I needed a wireless capable computer to activate it.  Now I had asked the lady at the Verizon store if I could use this with a desktop computer and she assured me I could so this just added to my pile of complaints! The Verizon rep on the phone said that I would need to get to a different computer and download the software to activate the device.  I said, “Don’t you think that it should have come with the device?” She said, “I agree, but it doesn’t”. (Thanks, that helps.)  So, our babysitter agreed to stay a bit longer so I could drive to the church to download the software to come home and install it (hoping it works) and then connect to the internet so that I could connect my phone so that I could activate it. (Yes, I realize that is a run-on sentence, but hey it fits with the saga that never ends.) The installation worked, and the phone was connected and successfully activated, but again it took 2.5 hours.

Oh, but while you may wish the story to end there, it doesn’t.  (Remember there is a printer and a laptop in this story too. Don’t worry, I’ll make it quick.) My printer, about a month ago, had a paper jam.  When I pulled it out there was a static shock and poof the printer stopped working. Now the good part about this is that it was still under warranty and Brother Inc. was very good (and quick) about getting me a replacement.  On to the laptop (bet you didn’t think that story was going to be so short.) My laptop was having touch pad issues, after 3 calls to HP they finally decided the touch pad needed to be replaced.  Again 3 choices:

1. Ship it to them to repair. (taking up to 3 weeks)
2. Take it to a HP rep to fix. (30 miles away)

3. They could ship me the part to replace. (I chose this option.  I have installed a modem and memory before.  I could handle this right?)

Well, I received the parts today.  When I left work, the computer was still in parts.  I got to the part of removing the switch cover and then got stuck.  Well, at least it was stuck and would not budge.  So while my technology saga is to be continued (on Monday), I will leave you with one question.

Do any of you know how to remove a switch cover on a 6730b HP Notebook?