I Call 'Em As I See 'Em

My wife owns an approximately one-year old IBM ThinkPad. It's a nice notebook: 15-in. screen, on-board wireless and Ethernet cards. The ThinkPad also has a modem, interchangeable CD-ROM and 3-1/2-in. floppy drives.

She lives on the computer. Especially since we have wireless Ethernet in the house. She takes her computer to bed, to the kitchen table, to the porch and everywhere in between. She does her e-mail. She does her E-Bay. She does her IM.

The other day, right before a business trip, her monitor on the ThinkPad died. It was a horrible death. The computer writhed and squirmed as it was going though its death throes. I immediately began emergency computer treatment, but after hours of conniving, and swearing, the patient died.

Fortunately, we had an extra external monitor around and I was able to hook it up to the external monitor port. The day, or should I say the weekend was saved. She was able to use her computer.

On my return from the trip I called IBM Technical Support. After the obligatory voice menus, I was happy to speak to a human. I told him my tale of woe, provided him with the model and serial number and he said that a pre-paid box would be ship the next day, and I should get it the day after.So, on Sunday night, they told me a box would ship Monday, and I would get it Tuesday. And if this is Wednesday, it must be Belguim! Well, guess what, it actually came!

Tuesday, Airborne Express was at my door, delivering a box to fit the ThinkPad. Just a few pieces of tape, some adjustment of the packing material, and a removal of one layer of the label, and Wednesday morning the computer was ready to be shipped back to the IBM Depot.

Now, if you're like me, you're saying, "This will take a week or two!" Well, we're wrong!

This is Friday. The computer is back. The monitor was replaced and they updated the bios.

I am way, way, way impressed. Good show, IBM!0