Whoa....Blogger just went through a serious redesign, but that doesn't matter to you guys, so on to buisness...
I'd like to tie up a few loose ends before I leave on the next leg of my trip, since I am heading to florida, which, as far as I know, does not have internet access.
First, I now know that the trip will take us through Knoxville, a must-stop vacation spot for any Simsons fan. I don't know if there's a sunsphere or wig outlet there, but there is a world's fair park, and you better believe that I going to point and "haw-haw" at something there.
Second, the Best Buy Story II: it starts out approximately 1.5 years ago when I bought an XBox shortly after they were first released, back when they were $300 bucks a pop. I also bought an extended warranty for something like 40 dollars more, and gave me two years coverage. It was a good thing I bought the warranty, because my machine, like most of those sold in the early days, had mechanical flaws. Specifically, the box would sometimes hang as it booted; the hard drive periodically emitting clicks that could only be described as "not-good-sounding". This problem at first occured infrquently, but got worse and was compounded by the fact that the only way to get the machine working correctly was to unplug everything and let it sit for a day or so.
Now, Microsoft is deathly afraid of people trying to fix XBoxes (is that the right plural? XBoxi?) themselves - cracking the case instantly voids every warranty on earth - and I have only limited experience as a build-your-own-computer guy despite my status as master of science, so I decided not to risk fixing it myself, and let the warranty cover it. Luckily the warranty was not with Microsoft, which has a habit of taking months to replace anything, but Best Buy, who would theoretically just let me pick up a new one from the store without any hassle. So, I go to Best Buy return desk, and not only do they give me an new Xbox, but, because the XBox now costs $200, I get $100 of store credit. Take off the 40 dollars for the warranty and and another 20 for a memory card I bought to save my games on, and I'm still ahead fourty dollars. Plus, I get a machine with upgraded hardware and software.
So what is the lesson that we have learned? There is never any reason to wait for prices to go down at Best Buy if you buy a warranty, because you can always just break yours and get a new one at the new price. Pretty cool, eh? It almost offsets the incredible incompetence of their hardware installation department.
I'd like to tie up a few loose ends before I leave on the next leg of my trip, since I am heading to florida, which, as far as I know, does not have internet access.
First, I now know that the trip will take us through Knoxville, a must-stop vacation spot for any Simsons fan. I don't know if there's a sunsphere or wig outlet there, but there is a world's fair park, and you better believe that I going to point and "haw-haw" at something there.
Second, the Best Buy Story II: it starts out approximately 1.5 years ago when I bought an XBox shortly after they were first released, back when they were $300 bucks a pop. I also bought an extended warranty for something like 40 dollars more, and gave me two years coverage. It was a good thing I bought the warranty, because my machine, like most of those sold in the early days, had mechanical flaws. Specifically, the box would sometimes hang as it booted; the hard drive periodically emitting clicks that could only be described as "not-good-sounding". This problem at first occured infrquently, but got worse and was compounded by the fact that the only way to get the machine working correctly was to unplug everything and let it sit for a day or so.
Now, Microsoft is deathly afraid of people trying to fix XBoxes (is that the right plural? XBoxi?) themselves - cracking the case instantly voids every warranty on earth - and I have only limited experience as a build-your-own-computer guy despite my status as master of science, so I decided not to risk fixing it myself, and let the warranty cover it. Luckily the warranty was not with Microsoft, which has a habit of taking months to replace anything, but Best Buy, who would theoretically just let me pick up a new one from the store without any hassle. So, I go to Best Buy return desk, and not only do they give me an new Xbox, but, because the XBox now costs $200, I get $100 of store credit. Take off the 40 dollars for the warranty and and another 20 for a memory card I bought to save my games on, and I'm still ahead fourty dollars. Plus, I get a machine with upgraded hardware and software.
So what is the lesson that we have learned? There is never any reason to wait for prices to go down at Best Buy if you buy a warranty, because you can always just break yours and get a new one at the new price. Pretty cool, eh? It almost offsets the incredible incompetence of their hardware installation department.
