I appear to have the worst luck with electronic goods; or as my friend puts it, I just work them too hard. But they were made to be used, so I use them!

My first laptop’s video card gets fried three months in. My second laptop has a hinge problem that is their fault. Both problems are (or will be) replaced for free. But why can’t I have a laptop that only has problems caused by me?

I just put in my work order for my Alienware M11x R2 to get the broken hinge problem dealt with. The M11x R1 and M11x R2 both have a problem with “faulty” hinges. At one point, I read it was because Dell tightened the fasteners too much *shrugs*. Whatever it is, your hinge will crack over time. Dell will replace it for free, even if your warranty ran out. My box arrives on Monday. Walk to Purolator, latest by Tuesday. Wait for Dell to receive it in 2 weeks (“approximately 10 business days”). They’ll take “5 business days” to replace the display. And an unknown amount of time to ship it back to me.

Last September, Dell finally published an official article outlining the procedures for getting it replaced. Call 1-800-ALIENWARE for support when you start to see it happen to yours. They won’t replace it if it hasn’t started to crack yet.

Edit (2012-01-18): Since the post just 5 days ago, they have changed the official article. It used to say that they will replace it out of warranty and gives you the support knowledge ID to reference to when speaking with a representative. My prediction is that they will fix my laptop and charge me and tell me they never said they would do it out of warranty. I’ll tell you in 4+ weeks. 

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I was cleaning up a pile of old mail last night and I came across an old government cheque that I forgot to cash in. It’s from 2006. What can I say? It was a hectic year at university? I know the general rule is that a bank will not cash a cheque that is older than six months. But I searched it anyways. Enter the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC). The FCAC makes sure that financial institutions respect the laws that protect us. Continue reading

The stats monkey helpers at WordPress.com emailed me a personalized report detailing how my blog did in 2011. The Annual Report. I knew I wasn’t blogging much as of late, but I only posted 4 blogs in 2011! That’s a waste of space. But then again, there’s Twitter and multiple blogs, so I’m kind of off the hook. But as of late, 140 characters doesn’t seem to cut it. I keep typing as if I was still using AznAve2save space. I think it might be back to blogging this year. That’s not a new-year resolution but more of a prediction of how things are moving.