Dilemma

My brother looked at my laptop and all of its stuff. He makes some calls. He figures out that the problem with my hard drive is covered under my one-year warranty. I bought it on December 16, 2007.

While on the phone with the manufacturer, Toshiba, he is told that the warranty expired yesterday. Their records show the purchase as having been made on December 12, 2007.

I get online to my Best Buy account. I made the purchase December 16. I called Toshiba back. They said they have conflicting information, so I should call their Warranty Department on Monday morning. I have two choices:

1. Make the call on Monday. If Toshiba behaves properly, they will make a correction and give me the name of a local authorized repair person. Monday after work would be the earliest that I could drop it off. If Toshiba stonewalls, I am waiting 7-10 days to receive the bill copy I requested from Best Buy and taking Toshiba to Round 2.

2. Drive the 10 minutes to Best Buy, spend $85 for a new hard drive and fix it right now.

My sister-in-law, Becky, tells me that $85 is worth fighting for, with the underlying implication being that these companies get away with behaving badly because people won't fight for what they are due.

Yeah. I know. And what do you think I did?

I spent the money.

As my nice brother is downloading or configuring or something, I called my mother and gave her the two options. Here's what I got:

"GO to BEST BUY."

Thank you, Ma'am, for the validation.