…Story continued from part one here.
So at this point, I left the office at 12AM with a computer in my bag that didn’t belong to me, with no idea what would happen to mine. To say that my colleagues and friends were mad would be an understatement. They were furious. I, on the other hand, was numb. I had no idea what to think or say, all I could do was wait.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll have it back, it’s all temporary.
I didn’t want to be a bother so I didn’t call them the next day, or the one after that, although they promised to give me feedback. By the third day, I was too anxious and called them.
“It’s worse than we thought, we might need more time” they said.
“More time.” For something that was meant to be 10 minutes long!!? I doubted that time was the solution here.
I filled Martin in on what was happening and he took it upon himself to follow it up. He must have rattled some cages because right the very next day, Dan who introduced me to Matrix Blackbox and who, as far as I could see, was the big boss of the whole operation, was in the office apologizing to me.
“They fried the motherboard. Did they know it was refurbished?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied.
I told him that we talked about it for a very long time with them and it was no secret that it was. He said that if he knew that, they wouldn’t have tried to mess with it. Whatever Physics was involved in it was honestly not part of my problem. They were the professionals right? Shouldn’t they know what they could and couldn’t do? This part of the conversation was of no value to me. All I wanted to know was how I would get my computer back.
He said that they would have to find me a replacement, a new computer. I wasn’t pleased. I still thought mine was new. I was in no way ready for a new computer. You know when your electronics start showing some signs of failure, even the slightest hiccup, there is that split second where you think you might need a new one. That never happened to me, so the idea of a new laptop to replace one that still felt new was a raw deal but I didn’t have a choice really, did I?
He assured me that they would get right into getting me a replacement with my exact configuration, nothing less. He also promised not to take too long. They would do it as fast as possible.
Forgive me for feeling hopeful but for the first time since this whole thing started, I thought that everything would be fixed. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
Just in the way life works, especially after a tragedy, time went on and life moved on. I continued working on my projects and using this new computer just as I would mine, but with a lot of caution. Like I said earlier, it wasn’t in the best of shape.
Weeks passed and there was no word.
I called them up. One of the guys, Kevin, told me that they were waiting for the shipment to arrive. I was puzzled. What shipment?
“Your exact motherboard was hard to find, especially locally. We found one online and made a purchase from the store abroad.”
So they decided to buy a new motherboard instead of computer? Okay.
“In a week’s time it should be here and your computer will be fixed!” He said.
I hung up. One more week.
They might as well have been calling me stupid. They walked all over me and I let it happen.
Of course no computer showed up a week later and on inquiry they said that the shop they ordered from actually didn’t have it. They lied so they got their money refunded and ordered from another company.
This was a mess.
By end of August, the trail had run cold. I had an event to attend, a work intensive one that this fragile computer would be a burden instead of a tool and when I brought that up, all I got was that they could move the motherboard on the replacement computer to the body of mine or move my hard disk to another computer. Honestly, none of these options were permanent. I was not amused.
It had been months and this was not a relationship I was keen on keeping. I wanted a new computer now, matter of fact, I demanded one. I was done with being patient and kind.
Throughout this whole time, they kept telling me how grateful they were that I was understanding, patient and tolerant. If they were grateful, why were they doing this to me, making no visible effort? It was outright disrespectful. They might as well have been calling me stupid. They walked all over me and I let it happen.
I was done with kindness. I demanded respect.
I called, they didn’t pick up. I emailed them, they didn’t reply. Threats of legal action were thrown to them, they didn’t even bat an eye.
THEY WENT SILENT.
Then I saw this status update from them recently, and it made me mad! They carried on like a driver who hits someone on the road and goes home to their family and smiles through supper like nothing happened. Like they didn’t destroy anything.
It is now October, it would have been two full years now since I bought my beloved machine and it’s not here with me. I am typing on someone else’s computer. I feel betrayed.
The Matrix Blackbox is an amazing product with very cool features and potential for many more innovative solutions.
The people, on the other hand, those are the ones that will make this product bad. They can single handedly make or break this. I might be the only victim, or one in many, I don’t know but for the life of me, if they do not change their process, if they do not get their affairs in order for everyone, I will never ever recommend their product.
This is taking advantage of people, many of whom do not have a voice, whose cries will go unanswered. I have one and I am going to use it to share my story.
If you consider using their tracker for your laptop, be cautious, be careful, be doubtful. Just make sure you do not end up like me.
