On August 20th, my laptop was KIA. On the 21st, its broken and damaged body was transported to Geek Squad at my local Best Buy for repair or replacement.

Here’s the update:

• 08/21/09 5:38pm Checked In Product has been checked in and is awaiting shipment
• 08/22/09 10:59pm Shipped Product has been shipped from the store to the repair location. Depending on the type of product, shipping may take between two and seven days
• 08/27/09 7:29am Received Product has been received at the repair location and is being assigned to a Geek Squad Agent or a certified technician for repair
• 08/27/09 7:31am In Repair Product has been assigned to a Geek Squad Agent or a certified technician for repair or upgrade
• 09/02/09 9:23am Parts Received Parts have been received and product is being repaired
• 09/02/09 5:43pm Parts Ordered Awaiting arrival of parts ordered from the manufacturer or approved parts supplier for repair. Depending on the supplier, parts arrival may take between three and ten days

I only have a couple things to point out. First, this is taking more than the average of 10 days that the Geek Squad guy told me. Although he did say it could take 14-21 days. Second, if you buy a plan from Geek Squad…get the replacement plan!! I have hardly had any good access to the internet since my laptop passed away. Look at all this time that I haven’t been able to update my site!

I love my HP laptop. It’s quiet, performs great and the specs have satisfied me since 2007 when I bought it. However, Thursday night, shortly after interviewing the blog mastermind – Yaro Starak, my laptop took a deep breath and died. Did it die because it was overwhelmed by the awesomness of interviewing Yaro? Hard to say.

But, I won’t place the blame on him. Yaro’s a cool guy. I’m very grateful for his time and the fact that he even responded to my email! Lucky for me, I had saved the audio file to my external hard drive before the last hurrah.

I don’t know what exactly happened to my laptop.

In any case, I am now at the mercy of the Geek Squad, the orange and black computer repairmen (and women) who occupy a little section of my local Best Buy. Will the money I shelled out for a 3-year extended warranty pay off? Or will they come up short?

I’ll be sure to provide updates as the process carries on and review everything once I have my HP laptop back on my desk. I was quoted 14-21 days but the guy that helped me said their normal turn-around is about 10 days. Here’s hoping! Until then…my computer access is relatively limited.

Image by kmevans.