Apple karma - I has it

On Thursday morning I took the x-rays of my knee to St Mike’s, as I had an appointment to see the orthopaedic surgeon to have him go over it and tell me what the hell’s going on with it. I spent a couple of hours in the waiting room, which was WAY longer than I had anticipated – I mean, I had an appointment, it’s not like I was a walk-in. When I finally saw him, he told me the problem was damaged cartilage and I’d need physiotherapy again. Well, at least it’s not surgery.

This week is our firm’s United Way campaign, during which we have silent auctions and book & media sales, Wii game tournaments – and a daily raffle, which is usually something I have absolutely no interest in. Thursday’s raffle item, however, was a 16GB WiFi iPad. And I wanted it. After the runaround Rogers had been giving me since July about the iPhone they promised me, I figured I was owed an Apple product by the universe.

Problem was, the raffle tickets were on sale while I was at the stupid hospital. My work wife Jennskoot knew I wanted tickets, but didn’t have any cash on her so she couldn’t buy them – but she begged the girl with the tickets to let me buy some when I came back. When I came back I immediately went to her desk and bought six tickets, and I just got a feeling that I had the winning ticket in my hand. “I hope I win,” said one of my coworkers. “You won’t,” I said, matter-of-fact-ly, “I’m winning it.” “But I might win it,” she said. “Nope, sorry, it’s mine,” I answered.

Guess what happened at 3pm. That’s right, I won! With the sixth ticket – if Jennskoot had had the money, she would have bought me three tickets and they would have been from the wrong spot on the roll. If I’d been there I would have bought six when the ticket lady first came around – and, again, they would have been from the wrong spot on the roll. Clearly the fates were with me!

Realizing Apple products couldn’t help but come my way now, at 5pm when my work day was done I quietly closed the office door and called Rogers and asked for the Customer Retention department. Told the whole damned story (again) to the nice young man who answered the phone, and he fully agreed that, yes, I should already have my iPhone – but there was nothing he could do. BUT he was going to put me through to someone who would be able to help – and then he said, “tell me one thing I tell them before transferring you that will make this happen.” I thought about it and said, “OK, tell them this: I’ve been with Rogers for my cable and cell service for over a decade and for my internet since the Spring, so Rogers can either keep me PLUS make an extra $60 per month for the data plan I’m getting, or you can lose it all because I’ll take it all to your competitor.” “EXCELLENT! Hold on while I put you through!”

A minute later I was talking to a soft-spoken guy who wasn’t all that sure of himself. I wasn’t mean, I was just persistent and calm. And I got everything I was promised – my phone arrives tomorrow!

Anyway, back to the iPad – I took it out and realized I couldn’t do anything with it until it had been synced with iTunes at home, so I had to wait. When I got home, I plugged it in and was told that I needed the newest version of iTunes – but when I tried to upgrade it, I was told I had to upgrade my OS to Snow Leopard or it wouldn’t run. Grr! Looked online to see if I could just download it (answer: no, had to go to the Apple store and get an actual disc) and did a bit of research too, as I was upgrading from Tiger (I hadn’t gone up to Leopard yet) and the Apple store website was trying to tell me I’d need to buy the ‘Mac Box,’ which consisted of the upgrade disc (which I wanted) plus iLife and iWork (which I had no interest in and also inflated the price from about $30 to about $200) because I didn’t have Leopard. After a quick search around I discovered plenty of people who just got the upgrade disc and all went well.

I practically RAN up to the local Apple store to get a disc before the store closed. While standing in line, one of the ‘geniuses’ walked by so I asked him, “Hey, I’m on Tiger, I can just use this upgrade disc to get to Snow Leopard, right?” “Oooh, no, you need the Mac Box.” “Really? Why, if all I want to do is upgrade my OS?” “Well, these programs are all the latest versions, and maybe your other programs won’t work on the new OS.” “I think I’m gonna just get the upgrade disc.” “Ooooo-kay, but once you open the disc, you can’t bring it back…” I stood my ground, bought the upgrade disc, went home, put the disc in and upgraded in about an hour – and then I got the iPad running. I LOVE IT!

Damn, I should have bought a lottery ticket that night.

(Oh, btw, the year getting walked all over is DONE – I am not taking shit now...)