As I reported previously, I had a little trouble with Best Buy’s Geek Squad getting a computer fixed. I’d like to report that shortly after the post, I went back to get the result of the diagnosis and they found the error and agreed to do an exchange for a brand new one.

Ka-ching – or so I thought… The computer we (it’s my fiancee’s computer, but I’m the software engineer) originally got was $829 after a bunch of rebates. After paying the $199 extended warranty, we are talking $1000+ dollars. They only gave us $600 towards the replacement computer due to depreciation. While I can somewhat understand that, we had to pay another $199 for another warranty on the new computer. They said that the exchange fulfilled the agreement. So in reality, we ended up getting something like $400 worth from the exchange ($600-$200 warranty) to get back to where we were.

In the end, we did get an upgrade to the computer we had before, but I felt like we really paid for it in time and cost of the new warranty. I’m not so sure the warranty is the best deal, but it’s hard to turn it down after it saves you from buying a new one entirely.

Back when I bought my Treo 700P, I had a feeling that somehow I’d be forced to give up my grandfathered $10 all-you-can-use data plan. Word was, that with the increased high-speed data network, a new phone would make you get a new plan. I didn’t believe that to be the case. My rationale was that if I buy a new TV (even an HDTV), I don’t have to pay the cable company more per month.

It appears that Sprint’s computers might disagree even though the customer service representative told me that I’d be able to keep the plan I’ve had for 6 years. The computers have conveniently gotten rid of that plan and left me with nothing. So I have about $70+ dollars in data plan charges.

I might be fighting this one for some time.

P.S. By the way, Sprint rebates suck.