cant sleep ..

Its 4 am and I cant sleep . Ive tried all my usual tactics . Light on and read for ten minutes and that's usually enough .
Sometimes I need another burst of reading . Im reading two books at the minute one an Anne Tyler Morgan's Something or other ( I'm never good with titles ) and the other Rose Tremain short stories " The Darkness of Wallis Simpson " but that's too gloomy and indeed dark for the middle of the night . In fact it is quite gloomy here .

D is away for the night , staying at J's to help with babysitting as J and D are celebrating their 4th anniversary an d have left him in sole charge. I had some lovely texts about playing on the magic carpet and the kitten and cat fighting etc but its not the same as having him here . I woke and its very cold in the house , or maybe its me . I have a cold . And though the Vicks First Defence seemed to be working well its given me some alarming nosebleeds , including one streaming pouring fountain in the Tandoori Plaza earlier when Nat and I had our night out . There s nothing quite like blood to get catch folks on the hop . Me included . Nat was very calm , she always is . Good with these things having seen my migraines going overboard .


Anyway , my laptop . John Lewis . I'm weary of the tale so may just copy you my letter of complaint .

To whom it may concern

I am writing to complain about the inadequacies of the repair service offered in respect of my laptop which was left with you for repair under guarantee on 16th Sept. 07

I was advised that the item may be away for one or possibly two weeks and when I had heard nothing after some three weeks I began calling the service desk .
On several occasions I was told a member of the service desk staff would call me back and indeed on one or two occasions this did happen . However on several occasions I was only able to be updated thanks to my repeat calling .

On Monday 8th I was informed that the laptop had been repaired and was undergoing " final checks " at Hewlett Packard and was likely to be available to myself sometime later that week .

The following Monday when I had still heard nothing despite having contacted the store and been advised that the service desk was busy and would call me back (15th ) I contacted the service desk again . On this occasion I was told again I would receive a call back . I was not contacted so rang again on Wednesday 17th . Again no call back .

As almost five weeks had by now elapsed I decided to visit the store today , Thursday 18th October having lost faith that I would either receive an explanatory call or that HP would be contacted again unless I was there in person to request this .

I was attended by L who rang HP and discovered that the laptop had been repaired and delivered back to the store .
I had not been contacted as it had not been " booked in " . Therefore it appeared to be missing in the store .
It was subsequently located in a cupboard and was returned to me .

Upon arrival home I discovered that the battery was missing . It transpires that the battery is currently still in the store though a manager Mr H has undertaken to have it returned to me over this coming weekend .

I note also that the laptop , despite having been described as in good condition on the receipt with which I was provided , has incurred a number of scratches on the lid , the screen is covered in dust and flakes ( black specks ) and there are large white flakes of an unknown substance on the keyboard . In addition to the scratches the lid has three small gouge marks and to the right edge there is a scrape mark . The lid is also covered in fingerprints .
These latter details concern me less than the fact that the laptop was apparently in a cupboard at John Lewis for some ten days ( I understand it was delivered there on 10th October ) when I could have been using it ( I run a business from home ) , despite my frequent calls asking about it .

Latterly I have been tempted to purchase equipment such as laptops from out of town stores but so far have desisted and remained loyal to John Lewis believing your record to be exemplary .
This recent episode leaves me questioning my loyalty .

Yours etc

Of course missing from the letter is the thing Im really quite proud of . Having always been brought up to behave well around people , to be polite and courteous and in the main having found that though it usually works well, there are occasions when holding back one's true feelings in times of stress has not served one well .

On this particular occasion when the aforementioned Ms L found the laptop sitting in their cupbpard where it had been all along , or at least since Wednesday of last week , ten days ago , I did say to her " I am livid . In fact Im so livid I can hardly speak " ( and it was true ) .

So true in fact that as soon as I left the Service Desk ( which is situated in a little room off the main Audio and Tv Dept ) , I stopped in my tracks and let out a really loud scream . A really loud I am so frustrated that if I dont scream really loudly I am going to implode ( possibly ) scream . I then looked around at all the Men in Suits , who for some reason all looked very short and unimposing , and at the other shoppers , staring hard into space , and at all the TV s showing the afternoon tv for purposes of demonstration , smiled , gave myself a little shake , and walked on .

You can have no idea ( or maybe you can ) of just how wonderful that felt .

And maybe Mr H , the manager who rang me back twice this afternoon after I rang to let him know that when I arrived home the laptop was without battery and that I was less than amused , maybe he put two and two together and realised I was the Nutter in the store earlier and had best be taken care of lest I returned .

Who knows ?

He tells me my battery will either be delivered by Special Delivery Royal mail ( the normal is no good as they are on strike ) and failing that , he will personally deliver it himself , by metro , as a taxi is not permitted .

Oh here we go . Another nosebleed .







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