Computer misery

My laptop has been reduced to a state of complete and utter powerlessness. The contact pin in the power adaptor socket has snapped off inside the plug. Half an inch of missing metal and my computer is dead. As it is only seven months old we contacted Hewlett Packard, expecting them to fix it under the warranty. After an hour of trying to get past recorded message menus and being cut off before reaching a human being, they informed us that they consider it damage rather than a fault and therefore we would be charged to have it fixed. The cost? The same amount we originally paid for the computer! So now we are arguing with HP in the very faint hope they will change their mind, and trying to find a reasonable repair quote elsewhere. Meanwhile we are reduced to using an ancient and extremely unreliable laptop. If I disappear off the face of the world wide web for weeks, you know why.

Think I am going to have to have words with St.Isidore of Seville, who is apparently the patron saint of computer users.