Buying a Netbook Part IV - Small Victories

Another day, another update in the on-going Battery Quest saga...

When last we left our intrepid hero, he had been eagerly waiting for an HP rep to contact him directly, never daring to believe that they would actually do so. But, lo and behold! One did! The nice fellow from Best Buy, J. called in the early evening (I was having supper, and so missed the call) and left a message that a technical person named M. at a nearby Staples would be able to order the elusive battery for me... however, the exact price was unknown, although it was expected to be on the expensive side.

I was understandably excited by this news, but I was also a little bit hesitant... I'd been a little bit singed by HP promises in the past, so it was understandable that I felt that playing things close to the vest - for now - would be the best course of action.

However, I decided to follow-up on the call as soon as possible. I had to run out for an errand anyway, and the nearby Staples wasn't far off the path, so I decided to see if this M. tech really existed and was working that night. As luck would have it, the location was right but the tech had already left for the day. Oh well... no big deal, right? I could always check tomorrow... so I browsed around a little and what do I find? The very same model of HP Mini that I had recently bought at Best Buy for exactly the same amount! $299!

Bah... the price matching in this town is enough to drive a person mad... you just start to feel cool and really good about scoring a sweet deal, when the unspoken equalization scheme that all the local tech stores are a part of, kicks in and says "Sorry, you dumb fucker... but had you waited a week, you could have gotten as good a deal - if not better - somewhere else."

The thing is, if you try to get around this scheme by waiting a week (which is what I had done in the very beginning), Fate and the Scheme will conspire to screw you over somehow: another store will price match and throw in a free widget... or you'll lose the deal because the store is all sold out and there are no rain cheques... or (and this really happened) another store offer a better unit at a comparable price, which will then be snapped up by someone who, no doubt, will have endless hours of mirth rubbing it in that you didn't score nearly as nice a deal (all in good humour, of course).

Anyway, I did go back the next day, and I did manage to track down this M. person, who did turn out to be quite helpful. First, M. did explain that although he could order the part (through HP Canada, no less), the price would be quite high - at least $150 at the retail level. I found that to be a little ridiculous - a 6-cell battery for literally half the price of the netbook? Outrageous! And it wasn't like it the battery was some nuclear cell which could also be used to run your furnace for a month in the depths of winter - no, it was just an ordinary battery which would possibly offer as much as 6 hours of life, a mere three hours more than the default battery! It was almost better to go to Costco, buy another netbook, rip out the extended battery in that unit, and sell the rest on eBay. And to make matters worse (or at least more insulting) the aforementioned good deal purchased by a friend who enjoys rubbing in the victory bought the damn unit and it came with a fucking 9-hour battery as standard equipment! No shit!

Still, things did work out. M. offered to order and sell me the battery at a reduced price, $130, a savings of $20. Not bad... better than the website (if I could have got one from the website) which wanted $120 plus taxes and shipping. I almost asked M. to order the part when I suggested that we confirm which unit it was first. We walked over to the laptop section and I pointed out the HP Mini 110-1030CA sitting on the shelf. M. blinked then became quite for a moment... he then said something magical:

"I think I have a battery out back".

What. The. Fuck. ?. !.

Seriously dude... don't fuck me around.

But he wasn't jerking my chain. Sure enough, he had a spare battery out back.

For an HP Mini. And it wasn't defective.

Holy fuck - wait here while I go buy a lottery ticket.

It turned out that the battery was only a standard 3-cell battery that had come off a defective unit. It wasn't a 6-cell, but it was better than nothing, and M. offered to sell it to me for a great price : only $60, which was a helluva lot better than the $130 + tax I had just about been ready to pay. I bought the battery post-haste, thanked M. profusely, and scurried off into the afternoon sun, feeling mostly pleased with myself.

I now had a spare battery. It wasn't perfect, but it would do the trick.

So where does this leave the tale? Is it all over? Well, not quite. I still plan to write a scathing letter to someone at HP over this whole mess... and I will probably CC the media on it as well, just to see if I can put a little extra pressure on the industry to get their act together. Ultimately, while there is no negligence or criminal incompetence involved, there are a lot of left hands out there that are completely unaware of what the right ones are doing. Perhaps I can change that a little so that the next netbook shopper that comes along and wants a spare battery doesn't have to go through the same shit I did.

Yeah, that's it... a noble gesture... that's what this whole experience is... one little contribution to the betterment of the world as a whole.

Even if it's just about buying a fucking extended life battery, it's the little things that make the world an interesting place.

Stay tuned folks... more to come!