Digital Analogue

I called Apple on Tuesday

I called Apple on Tuesday morning to report the dead AC adaptor, and they said they'd overnight me a new one. Wednesday... nothing. Thursday afternoon, I get a call from a secretary that my package has been delivered to the first floor instead of the fourth---to the computer repair center instead of to the CS department. I go downstairs, and the receptionist there apologises to me, saying that it was weird that the name didn't match anything they were expecting, but they opened it before realising that it wasn't for them.

I wonder if it occurred to them that the label saying "4th floor" might have indicated this?

So anyway, I took the (opened) package upstairs. And you know what? It was missing a part, the part that plugs the AC adaptor directly into a socket (as opposed to via a cord). The corded one was in there, so it's usable, but it's missing a part! I went down there today and delicately asked if it "might have fallen out", "accidentally", when they opened my package. They got very defensive and said they had already apologised. Fine fine, but I thought maybe---it's a little piece---it had rolled out when they opened it or something. Without even looking around at all, the two guys there said that this piece doesn't actually come with the charger, it has to be ordered separately from Apple. Which is patently false, as my friend Rob (among others) just got one less than a week ago, and it included the extra piece. Whatever. These are the same people who claimed I'd dropped my computer and Apple wouldn't fix it. Now I'm calling Apple, we'll see what they say.

Anyway, there's a really interesting essay about being Christian and scientific/technological at the same time, by Larry Wall (creator of Perl), on slashdot today---scroll down to answer #7.

"I always got the impression that Jude was, like, a fixer saint. A Winston Wolf type. He makes your very bad problems go away, but you don't call on him if your problems aren't very bad. He accepts payment in the form of little acknowlegements in the classified section of the Chicago Reader." --Casey Westerman Posted by blahedo at 2:49pm on 6 Sep 2002