Samsung Support, Part II

Okay, I go through all the machinations mentioned in my last post, and finally, five days after I post, a very nice woman from Samsung Executive level support contacts me and facilitates my refund. But, I still have to wait 10-15 business days before I will get an e-mail form I have to complete to enable Samsung  to process the refund directly into my account, as well as another return shipping label. So, finally, yesterday, I get a call from Samsung that tells me those items are on the way. I receive them and fill out the form to get my refund. Then I start shopping online for a new Chromebook.

This time, I decide to read some reviews first, and, of course, many of then are pretty bad, because, well, Chromebooks are inexpensive for a reason. However, I come across one where the reviewer was having the same problem I was - with the device crashing - only it was from a different vendor's device. The reviewer went on to explain how they fixed the problem by going on to Chrome as a guest, then logging in and updating the Chrome OS from there. They said the machine was running beautifully after that. I figured, WTF, why not give it a try? Doesn't it work just like they described.

So, basically, I've had a Chromebook sitting in my house for the past month that I could have been using had Samsung's support dept. been able to tell me how to fix it.

Then I did something really stupid. I proceeded to cancel my refund (not that straightforward, as you'd expect. It took talking to four different people, two calls, and two e-mails) and keep the Samsung Chromebook. Why did I do this?

1. As I mentioned, the reviews of other Chromebooks weren't that inspiring.
2. I already spent $20 on a protective case for this particular model that I wasn't going to be able to recover.
3. I already had the device in my house.

So, here goes....will keep you posted when next issue arises. Hopefully never.

CHROME (part two)

There's a good article on CHROME on today's wire. I thought it was a fair evaluation.

I've been using CHROME and I find that I like the multi-threaded nature. Each tab functions separately, so if you have a tab running a small app (like a video or JavaScript) and the app is taking up too much processor, you can shut down the individual tab to restore bandwidth to the processor. My computer is six years old, so that helps me a lot.

Overall, CHROME seems to use less of my processor than IE or FireFox. Whereas IE feels like a heavy hog, CHROME feels light, with FireFox somewhere in the middle.

I like it, but it all comes down to what you want in a browser.

Last thought: If you're looking for bells and whistles, you won't find them on CHROME. This product was build for funtionality. It is designed to get you where you're going and get out of the way. I doubt that will change as they move beyond BETA.

So, if that's what you want in a browser, then you want CHROME.

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