The concept behind these plans is great.  You pay a little extra, your product breaks, it gets fixed or replaced.  Wow… how pleasant.  The truth of the matter, which you can clearly see in the Best Buy complaint post, is that when you go to actually use your extended warranty, they will try to make the process as hard as possible for you.  In my own experiences with Future Shop, I had a DVD player with the product service plan, however when that DVD player broke it took them two weeks to repair it for me.  Not only was I out of my DVD player for two weeks, when they gave it back to me, it still had the SAME PROBLEM! They didn’t fix anything at all! So I brought it back again and said, please fix the problem.  They again had the DVD player for two weeks. When I got it back, it worked to play one movie and then started back up with the same problems again.  At this point, I needed a DVD player (we were having friends over), so I just went out and bought a new one.  My time is much more valuable than a DVD player and therefore Future Shop got exactly what they wanted, I gave up.  The part they seem to be missing however, is that I will never buy their product service plan again, and I will tell everyone I know the experience I had with their product service plan.

I’m not sure why Best Buy and Future Shop seem to forget that they are losing customers daily by allowing this kind of poor customer service to continue.

The underlying problem here is that the big software companies (you know who) have tried to make the computer a friendly device which acts more like a co-worker than a typewriter.  People treat the computer like another person because it asks them questions and cute little paper-clips talk to them.  The function of asking questions and talking to them is simply a method of extracting information from people who can’t tell the computer what they want.  But from the user’s point of view, the computer is talking to them and therefore is doing things for them.  This is where things break down.

You see, so the user ends up thinking the computer is doing something for them when really they are using the computer to do something for themselves.  So when something goes wrong, it’s the computer’s fault, because the computer was doing it.

Now there are some cases where software or hardware is defective and in those cases, yes, the computer is to blame.  But when someone is using a program that is known to crash often, and they still continue to use it… can they really blame it when they lose their file?

“Remember two months ago when you were fixing my printer? Well, now my Internet Explorer doesn’t work.”

This is a common example of a user with “related blame” syndrome.  What the user doesn’t quite understand is that they are creating a correlation based on the fact that both of these things are in the “technology” category and that there was a problem with each of them.  If we look at example which is not in the technology realm, it helps to demonstrate the depth of this issue.

“Remember how last week at lunch your soup was cold? Well now my fridge doesn’t work.”

This statement is almost exactly equivalent.  Soup is related to food, fridge is related to food, there was a problem with both of them, so the cold soup must be related to the broken fridge.

Now, I understand this is because technology is difficult to understand for some and that they don’t understand the underlying systems involved, but this does not explain why they need to create any correlation at all.  If you don’t know anything about the subject at hand, why would you attempt to make a correlation? If I get the flu the day after I had a salad containing cucumber, I don’t draw a correlation between cucumbers and the flu.  I don’t know anything about the flu or how a cucumber might be related to it and therefore making that correlation doesn’t even enter my mind.

This problem affects the mental well-being of computer professionals around the world and therefore must be stopped.  Please help fight related blame syndrome in the technology industry by allowing those afflicted with this problem to read this article and understand exactly what they are saying.

Many people in the tech industry are fans of one company or another, but I’m a fan of one product over another.  For example, I’m a big fan of Google’s recent move into the office productivity arena because it gives Microsoft, who is currently dominating that market, some healthy competition.  This forces Microsoft to make a better Office suite and maybe even lower their prices.

Unlike a lot of tech people however, I’m not all about sticking it to Microsoft.  I like the fact that Microsoft is trying to improve their search engine to compete with Google.  This forces Google to step up to the plate and deliver a top quality search engine.  I also like the fact that Microsoft is releasing a portable media player named Zune which forces Apple to make sure the iPod is always moving forward and improving.

So when people ask me why I like Linux so much, I tell them that it’s because Linux is one of the only operating systems that has a serious shot and competing with Windows…. and competition is a good thing.

The problem is that these people honestly believe they are computer experts. Why? I’m not too sure.  At what point do these people or their relatives award them the “computer expert” designation?

I just wonder what makes computers so different that experts are so easy to come by?  It doesn’t seem to apply to other professions, so why does it apply to this one?

I guess in the end, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. So I here by declare myself the following:

• Plumber – I can use a plunger
• Doctor – I’ve applied one or more band-aids
• Lawyer – One time I got in an argument
• Stunt driver – I hit a curb once
• Accountant - I pay my bills
• Clown – Sometimes I dress funny

I hope that everyone from all of those professions accepts me into their field with open arms the same way I have accepted all of the “computer experts” into my field.  Hey wait, now that I think of it, I think I fit into one more category… Gynecologist!