DIAL ‘1’ FOR DELETE
January 14th 2007 04:51
I recently purchased an external hard drive to back up the whatever comes after ‘giga’ bytes of data that HA! Magazine has generated over the last 9 months. Shaped like a metallic brick, this ‘vital part of any new business’ would also help me sleep at night despite the constant buzzing noise it emits.
For a while there it performed its duties admirably even prompting me to keep feeding it data whenever it felt hungry. Somehow I managed to back up 200GB of data in 2 months including the accompanying software needed to run on the PC. Not a bad feat given the hard disk I was backing up was only 100GB.
But as is common during the festive season, it ate something it didn’t agree with and a few days into the New Year it stopped giving me access to my files. ‘No need to worry.’ I thought as the PC promptly ran a diagnostic test, unsurprisingly detecting a problem and issuing me with a 9 digit ‘Diagnostic Code’ and a web address to submit it to for a speedy resolution to my problem.
A great idea on paper but a hard one to execute, especially when the manufacturer is bought out by a larger multi-national whose process for dealing with faults involves an 8 digit ‘Repair Identification Code’ instead. I still wasn’t worrying as there was also an 1800 number to call if the website that had everything couldn’t help you.
After 25 minutes of the most convoluted series of dial prompts ever known to man which started with which language I spoke and ended with the exact dimensions of the underwear I wore when I installed the unit, a pre recorded message informed me that the office was closed due to the festive season. Perhaps that’s what had happened to the external drive too?
So yesterday I finally found 25 minutes to spare and rang the magic 1800 number again eventually reaching a ‘Technical Support Deflector’ in the US. Unfortunately the Deflector didn’t have to work too hard as he hadn’t even heard of the manufacturer of the hard drive let alone the merger. So he consulted his procedure manual after everything I had to say to him including; ‘hello’, ‘how are you?’, ‘warranty’, ‘what do you mean you have no record?’ and ‘f@#k off!’. But I did manage to land yet another 1800 number, this time closer to home somewhere in the Asia Pacific region with its own set of dial prompts and procedure manual.
‘Not a problem!’ assured me this perky Deflector from Singapore. All I had to do was to locate their sales office in Sydney as her manual didn’t cover it and they would exchange it for a new one.
‘What about my data?’ I asked hesitantly.
‘Umm…we don’t cover that…’ she answered impersonating the faulty drive and suggested I look up a data recovery service who would try and recover the data for a fee.
‘That’s like a car manufacturer instructing to take a new car to a mechanic as its not their problem!’ I explained to her, an analogy which failed to get the message across judging from her ‘we don’t cover cars’ response. Doesn’t your manual have anything to say about this?’ I finally succumbed to sarcasm.
To both our amazement it did. All I have to do is purchase an identical unit, locate the Sydney office and take both units to them. If possible they will transfer the data to the new one and exchange the faulty one as they don’t give refunds, leaving me with 2 units and potentially no data to populate them with. Next time I’ll just use Delete!
For a while there it performed its duties admirably even prompting me to keep feeding it data whenever it felt hungry. Somehow I managed to back up 200GB of data in 2 months including the accompanying software needed to run on the PC. Not a bad feat given the hard disk I was backing up was only 100GB.
But as is common during the festive season, it ate something it didn’t agree with and a few days into the New Year it stopped giving me access to my files. ‘No need to worry.’ I thought as the PC promptly ran a diagnostic test, unsurprisingly detecting a problem and issuing me with a 9 digit ‘Diagnostic Code’ and a web address to submit it to for a speedy resolution to my problem.
A great idea on paper but a hard one to execute, especially when the manufacturer is bought out by a larger multi-national whose process for dealing with faults involves an 8 digit ‘Repair Identification Code’ instead. I still wasn’t worrying as there was also an 1800 number to call if the website that had everything couldn’t help you.
After 25 minutes of the most convoluted series of dial prompts ever known to man which started with which language I spoke and ended with the exact dimensions of the underwear I wore when I installed the unit, a pre recorded message informed me that the office was closed due to the festive season. Perhaps that’s what had happened to the external drive too?
So yesterday I finally found 25 minutes to spare and rang the magic 1800 number again eventually reaching a ‘Technical Support Deflector’ in the US. Unfortunately the Deflector didn’t have to work too hard as he hadn’t even heard of the manufacturer of the hard drive let alone the merger. So he consulted his procedure manual after everything I had to say to him including; ‘hello’, ‘how are you?’, ‘warranty’, ‘what do you mean you have no record?’ and ‘f@#k off!’. But I did manage to land yet another 1800 number, this time closer to home somewhere in the Asia Pacific region with its own set of dial prompts and procedure manual.
‘Not a problem!’ assured me this perky Deflector from Singapore. All I had to do was to locate their sales office in Sydney as her manual didn’t cover it and they would exchange it for a new one.
‘What about my data?’ I asked hesitantly.
‘Umm…we don’t cover that…’ she answered impersonating the faulty drive and suggested I look up a data recovery service who would try and recover the data for a fee.
‘That’s like a car manufacturer instructing to take a new car to a mechanic as its not their problem!’ I explained to her, an analogy which failed to get the message across judging from her ‘we don’t cover cars’ response. Doesn’t your manual have anything to say about this?’ I finally succumbed to sarcasm.
To both our amazement it did. All I have to do is purchase an identical unit, locate the Sydney office and take both units to them. If possible they will transfer the data to the new one and exchange the faulty one as they don’t give refunds, leaving me with 2 units and potentially no data to populate them with. Next time I’ll just use Delete!
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