I have no faith in help desks. They suck. There are no exceptions. Even the best suck. Dell’s sucks.

Especially when the company laptop you’re supposed to have a 3 year warranty on only has a 1 year warranty that expired 33 days ago.

Dammit.

The laptop’s keyboard is acting up. Specifically, the 8, i, k, and , keys stop working about 15 times a day, and the only way to get them going again is by literally whacking them about a dozen times. It’s quite a show, I’m told. It’s also frustrating as hell.

So, I (read: the company) has to shell out for a replacement keyboard instead of getting one free via RMA. Whatever. This way is faster, at any rate, since I don’t have to send my whole notebook back to them.

- Downside: I just became my own tech support — the Dell helpdesk wouldn’t even tell me the addresses of local, certified servicers, since the warranty is gone, so I’ll be reassembling the laptop on my own.
- Upside: B.F.D. — I’m the best tech support I know anyway.

A family member (not a close one) told me once that “your attitude” would never get me very far in the workplace. Too cocky, too sure I was right. But I work in tech support, baby — it’s all attitude — if you can’t convince the yutz you’re talking to that you’re the smartest carbon based lifeform on the planet, they won’t listen to you. Ever.

I just hope the keyboard gets here before I take off on the trip.