The Three-Year Anniversary Explosion

The computer that I've been using over the past month turned three years old on the second week of January. On this special occasion, its warranty also expired. You can guess what comes next.

I was minding my own business yesterday evening. I was casually surfing when a bubble popped up on the taskbar which read, "A network cable has been unplugged."

I hadn't done anything unusual, but suddenly the computer lost its conenction to the internet. I fiddled around for a few minutes, but couldn't see any real reason why this had happened. I was going to keep messing around with it when it was suggested that we call Dell. A very wise decision, since I shouldn't be messing around with other people's computers with my very limited knowledge.

Surprisingly, we weren't on hold very long, and an agent was taking us through a few solutions. Nothing helped and we were told that we needed a new motherboard. The next sentence was, "Your warranty expired three weeks ago."

The agent was nice about it, and put us on hold while he went to check if there was anything that could be done. He returned and agreed to repair the motherboard free of charge.

It doesn't take a genius to deduce that Dell has been having some difficulties with their ethernet adapters creating motherboard problems. I find it hard to believe that a telephone tech support agent can conclude that the motherboard needs to be replaced as quickly as ours did. I find it especially hard to believe that Dell would replace the motherboard for free considering that the warranty is expired.

So now we have to go through the ordeal of sending this laptop from Iqaluit to wherever Dell repairs its motherboards. Not a big deal from any major city in the country, but quite a big deal from the Arctic where mail service is frequently suspect. Mail is delivered, but it does take time. It will be very interesting to see how long it will take to sort this whole thing out.

Our disposable society strikes again. It's as though technology is secretly implanted with a timer that is set to three years and when time runs out, "Pop," technology breaks down and we magically have to buy the latest model at the highest prices.

The whole thing makes me very sad. Sad that companies don't seem to care to make quality products, sad that children make the crummy products we have now, sad that there aren't better options for consumers, sad that the cycle of consumption continues, sad that landfills are full of the plastic skeletons of expensive poorly-made technology, but most especially sad that we as consumers as powerless to do much (if anything) about it.