5C's Que Pasa

The computer issues continue.  Sometimes life just doesn’t seem fair.  Of course all these computer complaints pale in comparison to what is happening in the world what with hurricanes, earthquakes and international issues.  Is this going to be our new normal?  I certainly hope not.  Meanwhile our hearts go out to all those affected in so many areas.  Their lives are forever changed.

This is what a $750.00 hard drive looks like for a 2015 MacBook Air.

In my last post, oh so very long ago, I mentioned how long it was taking to get the laptop back.  I had to bring in my desktop iMac for them to migrate the data from one computer to the other. I had no computer to work with.  Colin’s desktop has none of my passwords plus he uses Chrome while I use Firefox. He doesn’t use iPhoto which I do so it was not possible for me to post. I finally got both computers back on Saturday the 16th, a full five days later.  My joy lasted about 20 minutes.  We use both Gmail and Telus and the latter would not connect o the laptop.  So I called the computer store and they told me to call Telus.  Telus told me to contact the computer so store and that was just the beginning.

The first Telus agent I spoke with was in Guatemala, the second was in the Philippines, the third was in India.  Next I was insisting on speaking with a supervisor.  He refused to tell me where he was located other than overseas.  He was very rude and raised his voice to me.  It mattered not that we had been clients for over 30 years.  He did finally transfer me to some elite Telus Plus tech support and made it seem like he was doing me a favor.  I spoke with two different agents.  The last one told me he could not help me.  The supervisor promised to send me his email contact and to follow up with me the next day.  He did not.

At one point I was speaking to two people in different locations on different phones.  I was on the phone that night for five solid hours.  The issue was still not resolved.  I took the computer in on the following Monday and it was resolved.  I also had discovered that the data transfer had only transferred blank folders and none of my stored files 😥

Meanwhile late Sunday night/early Monday morning we had a neighbor / friend pass unexpectedly.  She did get into the ambulance but never made it to the hospital.  That is yet another issue that we are dealing with.  The family came over Monday afternoon to ask for photos as they had none.  That is when we discovered that my iMac desktop would not bring up iPhoto, it kept crashing.  Fortunately we were able to go back over the last five years through my blog ( great search feature ) and bring up about six photos.

So Tuesday morning we brought in the desktop to the same place that we had just got the laptop back from.  I was dealing with the manager and it went on and on and it was suggested that the hard drive was likely slowly failing  I had been planning to get a new desktop next spring and could not see us without a computer in Mexico in the event that it failed, so on the spur of the moment I purchased a new 21.5 inch, they no longer carry the 24 inch which I had been using.

Of course this meant that the data would have to be transferred from the original desktop.  I had been told on the phone that they needed the actual computer to do the migration.  I later found out that that was not true and they could have done it from my time machine which is my hard drive backup.  So once again I was without a computer.  Yes I had the laptop now but it did not have the master files I required to do my business work with.  Amazingly they managed the transfer in 48 hours and I got my new desktop back late on Thursday the 21st.  I wonder why it took 5 days to do the transfer to the laptop 🙄

The new one is much thinner and lighter.

It is also a tad shorter and a bit wider.

We also got a new time machine back up. It is much more compact then the old one.

I didn’t start using the new desktop until the next morning.  I played with it for a while trying to understand an entire new system.  I had been on OS X , 10.6.8 and now I was on macOS Sierra, 10.12.6.   A massive learning curve for me.  At least both the laptop and the desktop were running the same system.  So after a few hours I decided to start catching up on my invoicing and that is when I discovered that Open Office refused to work.  It only opened with Numbers or Pages.

So just this past Thursday, the 21st, I spent seven, yes seven, hours on the phone with the tech people and I was once again pushed to the upper echelon layer of support.

I had made a lovely Indian dinner for us and I was forced to eat it at my desk.  I went through four agents, one fellow was with me for four hours and then his shift ended and he passed me to someone else and when his shift ended he passed to someone else.  They all tried so many things including taking over both computers remotely.  Each time I was transferred I had to re explain the problem.  The last fellow I dealt with told me that he was on his own, has many waiting on the line and could not help me.  He did give me about 30 minutes of his time but in the end told me how could not help me.  So ended my 7 hours of non stop chatting.  I was beyond frustrated.  Over these past non stop days of computer issues Colin kept telling me how calm I was.  Of course I felt like murdering someone but it would not have solved my computer issues 😯

So we headed out bright and early this past Friday to be first in line when the store opened.  We had the laptop and both desktops and both time machines.  I forgot to mention that I had my third session on my veins just this past Wednesday.  I could not fit in three sessions before we left for Venice last June.

Amazingly Mr Geek the manager figured out within 15 minutes what the problem was.  He said that he needed the computer for a few hours to fix everything.  He wanted me to leave the laptop ( I was not going to be without a computer yet again and as it turns out it was a good decision ) and I said no and that I would bring it back later when I came to pick up the desktop.  The end of the day came and the computer was not ready.  I wasn’t surprised.  We made an appointment to pick it up Saturday morning.

The phone rang just as we were heading out yesterday morning to pick up my computer.  Mr Geek told me that the hard drive had failed overnight.  He needed to get a brand new computer and transfer the data yet again.  Heck my new computer was only 48 hours old and now was dead.  Of course he promised that I would have it by end of day yesterday.

Of course that did not happen. Not only that, they now wanted the time machine back that they had sent home with us Friday morning.  So Colin had to drive there and back just before 7PM Saturday  They promised they would call me today to come pick it up.  I figured that they were busy and so I headed out to the store about 5PM today just before closing.  They had not called me for a reason.  It turns out that they had gone through three brand new iMac desktops and none of them worked!

I am not a computer person and just barely get by.  I only want to know what I need to know and I am more than happy.  My world was falling apart and crashing on my shoulders.  It appears that the problem has something to do with the Sierra upgrade that was required. The data transferred but the update crashed the computer.  There were three Apple specialists involved today and no one knew what to do.  Meanwhile they have run out of computers and the next delivery isn’t until Tuesday.  Tomorrow there is supposed to be a Sierra update that may or may not help the situation.  I suggested just downgrading me a few systems.  Nope, not going to happen.  Last year Apple started building computers that only worked with the latest OS system Sierra so there was no way I could go backward.  I am stuck at the moment.  The plan is to call the Apple experts tomorrow, etc.  They are all confident that it will work out.  Me, not so much.  I mean who has to buy a new hard drive for a two year old laptop and then purchases a new desktop that keeps crashing and killing itself, four times, in less than two weeks.

It was a massive step to get an iPhone which I am still very much struggling with and then a new OS system in both computers.  My brain is pretty much fried.  So now you know why I have been so silent.  At least now I have a laptop to blog with.  It doesn’t work for my business needs but what else can I do.  My last thirteen days have been total chaos surrounding computers.  I am so very far behind in my business work.

Colin is doing the best he can.  Now that the smoke season is over we are back to the rain season with occasional cloudy days.  If our clients want their photography done they have to go with clouds in the sky.  We have decided to delay our departure to Mexico until November 6th.  Hopefully we will be able to complete most of the jobs by then.

I leave you with this, taken a few evenings ago.