Ripoffs!

*103rd thing you may not know about me: I have blue eyes, rather light blue eyes, yet I still on occasion wear, blue contacts! Bah.*

I bought the boy a computer for his birthday in Oct. I bought it in Sept on sale, under 500$. A nice one, Compaq Presario. Almost nicer than my own HP. While down in Az visiting with Dad, he had it on the edge of the table (as he says) and the cats were running around wild and one of them knocked it over. It cracked the screen and so it no longer works. It turns on, the screen is white with some black spots on it and you can see the crack in it..

I finally got around to calling HP (I didn't know till today, that is who makes Compaq)and figured it was still under manufacturers warranty. I told them it was cracked and lied, saying I didn't know how it happened. (I can't remember where I bought it at, Circuit City or Best Buy, but I might have gotten an accidental warranty for it, so I have to call them tomorrow) at any rate... I asked how much it would cost to be fixed...

Are you sitting down? Yeah, you better sit down. Sitting now?

440$.

Ahem.

Yeah, really. FOR A FREAKING NEW SCREEN!!!!!!! Oh but wait, there's the cost of sending a box to the house and the cost of shipping the computer to them and back to me which could cost maybe what? 40$? I offered to get the box and ship it myself and they can send it to me back, COD... How much now will it cost..

440$

I could go and buy a new laptop for less than that right now. What the hell are they thinking?

So, I called the first computer repair guy that came up on my google search and he said he'd come get the computer, the screen would be 200$ (though if they charged him less he would certainly give me a better deal than that) and labor was 100$. Ok, so far I've saved 140$. Tomorrow, I call Circuit City and Best Buy to see if I bought the warranty thingie. Then, at Peters suggestion (Peter is the computer guy I spoke to) I will call a few other computer repair places before I commit to him. He seemed nice enough, said it was a family business and blah blah blah...

I could spit nails right now. This boy of mine is so careless, so hard on everything. He got an ipod shuffle for Christmas and he claims the kitten ran off with it! For days now I've been telling him to search the living room and find it and he's done nothing. I finally found it under the couch.

The girls not high on my list of being very happy either... she refuses to study for her driving test, has failed it 4 times now. She has a car sitting in the driveway, for almost a year now and won't make the effort. She keeps talking about turning 18 and seems to think she won't have to take the test then, that she'll just get a license.. I swear these kids have lost some brain cells somewhere along the way. I guess she'll have to find out the hard way, rather than listen to her mother who knows these things...