When it’s not your day…it’s not your day!
For a variety of reasons, I decided that I should get a new Mac laptop this afternoon. The most compelling of which is that my wife and I are moving in a couple of days, and I would rather not be without a computer for a week. Don’t get me wrong, the iPhone does a LOT, and I could live without a computer if I really needed to. At the heart of it, I’m a gadget guy and a new laptop is a gadget of the finest order.
After several hours of packing and throwing a little more stuff in the dumpster, I headed out on a few errands. Off to drop off a couple of things and then a visit with my Dad. There’s a Best Buy store close to home and right on the way back from Dad’s. I stopped there because they always treat me well and I’m a member of their rewards program. Little makes me happier than rewards :). I was not sure if I wanted a 13” MacBook or a 15” MacBook. The staff at BestBuy immediately told me that the 13” was the one to get. The 15” is too big and heavy and it costs more. Why would you want that he said? OK, I was convinced, it was to be a 13” MacBook Pro with 4GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive. I could feel the inner geek in me bubbling to the surface. I’ll take it! A few minutes later he came back and said “Sir, it looks like we’re out of the laptop that you want, we can get it for you in a week.” Oy vey – now what? I headed back home to pack some more and think of another plan. Off to the Apple Store at Westfarms for me. When I got there, I was still having doubts about the 13” screen. I asked someone there for help with my decision and he emphatically stated that by far the 13” was the one to get. DONE! I proclaimed, pack it up. He came back shortly empty handed and told me that they too were sold out. Back-to-school traffic was depleting inventory all over the country. He could see the disappointment on my face and offered to call the Apple Store in Holyoke, MA to check their inventory. While I was not excited for a 40 mile drive (one way) to another store, it was getting late and I was getting frustrated. “OK, Holyoke has them, and they are holding one for you. If you hurry, you can get there by 7:00pm.”
What the hell, I’ve come this far – Holyoke or bust. I hurried up north to get to the Holyoke Mall and arrived at the Apple Store at 7:00 on the nose. Spoke to a nice kid there who promptly brought out the MacBook Pro I had been craving. Twenty minutes or so and I was out the door on my way home. I got home about 8:15 after logging 100 miles on my quest (remember that all of this began around 4:00) and immediately opened the beautiful Apple package and carefully disrobed my new computer. I plugged it in and pressed the power button expecting that familiar Mac “gong” sound. Nothing – zip – zilch – nada – silence. FUCK, you’ve got to be kidding me. I took it all into another room and plugged it in there, hoping that it was a bad outlet. Still nothing. I called the store and spoke to the nice kid that sold it to me. After a few minutes on the phone, my hunch was correct; I had a dead computer. “We’re happy to replace it” he said. So tomorrow morning at 10:00am, I’ll be back in Holyoke, MA once again to swap it out.
Like I said, when it’s not your day – it’s not your day!
As a happy ending to this story, I’m completing this blog post on my new MacBook Pro. It’s an awesome computer and in the end was worth all the trouble I went through to get it. I’m really glad that I did not take the easy way out and get a 15″ laptop. It would have been too big and Apple charges 10% restocking to return it within 14 days. I’m still fairly certain that I won’t have Internet in the new house for a week or so. I’m not yet sure how I’ll deal with that 
Written by: Bob Margolis
Email the author: margolis.bob@me.com
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