A frustrating day
It’s very tough for us oldies who have gone from total ignorance to Word for Windows overnight. Like many I suspect I use 10% of the capacity and potential of my mobile, iPad and laptop all Apple-made projects. My logic is that at least there would be a synchronised system between the three.
When I came back from the cricket with Ivan on Tuesday, slightly the worse for wear, I discovered the screen of my iPad was broken. I suspected the hand – or rather the paw – of my cat as there seemed no other explanation. On the Wednesday I dropped it into a repair shop. It’s the sort of shop combined with an Internet cafe that I detest: the service was sloppy, bordering on rude. I was told it would cost first £75 then £150 as it was a new iPad, but it would be ready later that evening. I heard nothing but called yesterday. The cost was now £200 and it would be repaired in a week. I explained this was unacceptable. I would collect it. When I did so, the cover had disappeared. No-one knew anything about this, said the assistant, no-one was in charge and “Don’t have a go at me, it’s not my fault”. Informing him that the trading standards officer would be notified, if not the police so you can explain to them, I beat a hasty retreat to the Apple shop.
There I saw the assistant with a sock on his head that had sold me the iPad. All business had to be conducted via an iPad, but I was given an appointment in a hour or so’s time. On my return I was dealt with by a slip of a Scottish lassie with a safety pin in her lower lip who did at least understand the rudiments of service. She said I could get a new one for £299. I believe I could make an insurance claim but my gut told me there was bound to be some reason why this would fail. Unbelievably, as I had made no conscious effort to save it, everything was backed up on iCloud.
My conclusion was that we become so dependent on our mobile and iPad that, when things go wrong, we will pay whatever is necessary to restore swiftly. However the whole consumer experience was baffling. I wondered , for example, if a techie dressed in a Savile Row suit with a posh accent would be refused employment in the brave new computer world as it seemed to be a requirement to dress as scruffily as possible and use a strange patois where every second word was “cool”?
