UPDATED

Ever since I bought my Macbook last spring, there has been one task I have been putting off for a few reasons:

1. It involves returning to Best Buy.
2. It means I am without my computer for a few days.
3. It involves returning to Best Buy.

Long-time readers may remember the war I waged on Best Buy or "Best Lie" and their merry band of badged misfits known as the Geek Squad. In preparing to tell you this tale/deal with them all over again, I went back and reread some of the posts I wrote about that saga and I forgot how entertaining it was (or wasn't, depending on who you ask). Several wrong numbers, multiple fits pitched over the phone to the Geeks, gift cards sent in the mail to compensate, etc.

At some point along the way I paid for a data backup of my PC. Everything was to be saved onto a disc. A few months after receiving it, I realized that disc was incomplete, meaning said disc, the PC and I would all have to go back to the store. The sting was still too fresh. I couldn't do it. I saved my receipts and paperwork because I just knew that one rainy day, I would summon the courage to go back in there and pick up this song and dance right where we left off.

That day was last Saturday. I highly recommend doing a chore or errand you have been dreading before you go on a week-long vacation, it really starts your trip off on a good note. The longer you've been dreading it, the better. Armed with my receipt, paperwork, PC and now Macbook, I head into Best Buy and ask to speak with a manager first thing.

I laid all my cards out for him. I told I had zero expectations that my request would be done correctly the first time, and the only reason I was returning to his store was because I paid for a service I did not fully receive. I gave him a brief outline of the horrible experience I had in 2008, capping it off with the flawed data backup which brought it full circle. I told him his mission was to get everything off the PC and onto the Mac. Oh, and he was going to do it 100% free of charge, of course.

He didn't miss a beat. Great guy. I was out the door in ten minutes and off to Atlanta. We were about to head into the Dome when I got the call that the service was complete. Really? That soon? Interesting, but doubtful.

A week goes by and I finally return to Nashville. Unfortunately for Best Buy, I was already in a sour mood when I went to pick up the computer on Saturday morning because Comcast had majorly dropped the ball on adding ESPN to my cable package so I could watch the Auburn game that day. I needed the computer if I had any hope of watching the game at my house, so I was relieved to go get it but skeptical that I would actually be able to leave with it. I turn it on while I am in the store and check to see if the job was done correctly, which it WAS NOT. ANGER RAGE FURY! The agent that caught the brunt of my frustration vowed to work on it himself and call me when it was done.

Fast forward through the rest of Saturday... big loss, car trouble, etc. Autozone was just finishing up the installation of my new battery when Best Buy called to tell me the computer was ready. Lo and behold they finally got it right. They even gave me the hard drive from the old computer and offered to recycle the rest.

It's been so weird going back through pictures from college and the first few years after. We have all come a long way.

I also found this picture of me tap dancing at my friend Allison's house in July 2008 and it sums things up. This is how I feel now that I don't have to deal with Best Buy anymore!