Assessing This Monday: One Drunk Ninja
Some days are more exhausting then they have a right to be, staggering about like a drunk ninja, knocking one about before taking a breather on a stool for a moment before resuming the dreaded beating.
Today was like that for me. It started out sunny, maybe even a bit auspicious? This false hope did not last. The computer was sluggish and MS had updates which could be put off no more. As they trickled slowly down like a thawing molasses waterfall, I got a bit restless.
I’ve learned in the past not to do too much else on this particular computer when updates were in process. It was bad form, like snoring at the opera or singing jodies at the top of your lungs at a tennis match. It might seem like the right thing to do, but the scars of time have taught us better. So I sat. And I sat. I read a few things on the web. I did a bit of practicing on the new Kinesis keyboard, and then I saw it, the key puller.
That’s right, this fancy, new keyboard comes with a device where you can pull out keys to clean the keyboard or to swap in new keys. I didn’t really need to mess with it right then, but I thought I’d give it a go, and selected the Page Down key. (In the back of my head, I likely knew this was not a good idea, but I didn’t heed my own warning.) When I pulled out the key, it came out smoothly enough (I suppose, having never pulled keys out of the keyboard before). But I couldn’t get the key back. Not for quite some time. When I did, the switch didn’t function, nor did the keycap rise and fall like it should. This created a pit in my stomach. I should add, had this worked, the key would’ve been placed back into its proper place about the time the system needed to reboot.
As it stood, I spent a good two hours trying to get it all sorted. The manufacturer was in Seattle, and I didn’t want to interrupt my practice (as I’d had, maybe six hours of practice on the new keyboard). I snapped pictures of the keyboard, the gaping hole where the Page Down key had once been, and various glamour shots of the Page Down key, showing the cherry red switch from various angles.
I promptly got an email from the tech department who stated the key came apart and it must’ve either been seated too tightly or was weak and, since I had only just gotten it, that they’d get a replacement out TODAY and would send a shipping label so I could return the defective unit. This exceeded all my expectations. I expected, at the least, to be inconvenienced. As it turns out, this was the best possible news, and it’s better to find out if something is mucked up sooner than later.
I can still type on the keyboard until the replacement comes, so there’s no downtime at all. I’m quite impressed with the customer service experience, and point out how refreshing it is to see these days. They turned a new customer into a loyal one, and made a potentially disruptive event an anecdote of exemplary behavior that I’ll likely bring up in the years ahead.
Until next time, I bid you, dear reader, adieu!
