» The Onosecond

Double-Dumped
My sister once had a boyfriend, who was madly in love with her. She didn't feel it was working out, so she finished it. The guy was a shadow of his former self.
Unfortunately, a few days later, my sister's phone malfunctioned and started re-sending text messages from a few weeks previously. It sent a few to him, explaining that she loved him, etc.
Hours later, he was round the house with chocolates and flowers. (Obviously a bit desperate, but still)
She made me go out to the poor guy and explain the situation, he burst into tears. I never felt so uncomfortable as at that moment. But I managed to persuade him to let me have the chocolates. So, every cloud..
(Sat 28th May 2005, 18:20, More)

» Little Victories

Daddy's little liar
Used to work as a "Tech Guy" at PC World. Occasionally people would roll up with PCs that looked like they'd just lost a fight with an angry mob, with Bits hanging off, smashed screens, keys missing, the works. They would try to pass this damage off as a "manufacturer's fault" and covered under a standard warranty, and I would have to argue with them until they backed down.

On one such occasion, a man and his daughter arrived at my desk and produced their laptop. He opened it up in front of me and said "My daughter turned her laptop on today, and it was like this."

It didn't take long for me to ascertain the source of their distress, the screen was absolutely obliterated. It had an obvious point of impact off to one side and massive cracks spiralling away from it with the gloop underneath clearly displaced. I knew where this was going, but decided to initially play innocent and went with the response: "Oh dear, what happened to it?"

"What do you mean what happened to it?" The man snapped back, "It just happened! One day it was fine, and the next it was like this!"

I responded coolly, this was comfortable territory for me. "Unfortunately damage like this cannot simply happen for no reason. The only way something like this could occur is due to some sort of impact or force to the screen."

I noticed the daughter shifting quietly and looking very uncomfortable throughout this exchange, but the father was incensed. "What are you suggesting? What do you propose happened then!?"

"Well, a few things can cause damage such at this." This guy was really losing his composure but I would not "If the laptop is dropped and it lands on its side, often the screen will be impacted. However," I swept my eyes down to the girl who quickly looked away from me. "Looking at the location of this damage it appears that in this case the laptop was shut firmly while something was on the keyboard, pressing it into the screen."

As I said this, the girl let out a sound that can only be described as a "blub", and tears began rolling down her cheeks. Her father turned his head to look down at her and, without looking away, gathered the laptop in his arms, said "I see. Thank you for your time." and swept out of the store with her trailing behind wailing apologies at him.
(Tue 15th Feb 2011, 10:43, More)