$800

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$800 to replace the I/O board on a Thinkpad? Did I hear them correctly? Maybe, maybe not...

You can mail order the Thinkpad T30 I/O board, 26P8238, from Impact Computers for $40. Now, an unreasonable-but-typical markup might be to $100. "ehunrudolluh" in Solectron Memphis Mushmouth might mean either eighT hundred dollars or a hundred dollars. So I said specificially to Ms. Surly-To-Customers, very slowly and clearly, "Did you say EIGHT hundred dollars?", and she said, "yuh, ehunrudolluh".

I am hard of hearing. So are about 5% of the rest of the adult population of the United States. Many of the hearing-enabled 95% are too stupid and lazy to comprehend that mouth parts must move during speech, and that vocal cords should turn on and off at word boundaries. Many of these people are in the southeast US. Asking them to confirm what they said requires that both of their neurons are paying attention to you.

So I may have misheard, or bitch-lady may have misheard, and official Solectron policy may be to soak paid warranty customers for "only" $100 rather than $800. I would have reluctantly paid $100, but that would require Solectron to spend extra money to hire people that speak English clearly, or literate enough to send email as requested.

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last revision October 8, 2005