I like the concept of this thread with all that's going on. How about a debacle I've been dealing with for 5 months now with a happy ending? It's a decent read due to my advanced linguistical abilities.
First and foremost my computer is my life. The only time it's off is when I'm sleeping, and it's not even really off but put in sleep mode. It's used all day every day, and used hard. I also need it to last for a really long time. The only way to achieve this is to build them myself. As such, I've built all my own computers over the last 21 years or longer, which has only been 3-4 due to their longevity. Anyway, my current one is now 13 years old and really tired, and on borrowed time. It was supposed to be replaced over a year ago but I had to get the funds together for a new build, and couldn't decide which direction to go in. A lot has changed over the past 13 years, and I dreaded having to relearn what all the new tech is, and what's compatible. Then I'd have to figure out what parts I wanted to go with, gather all the parts from various sources, and finally do the build. Plus dealing with all the inevitable hiccups along the way. It could be a sign of getting older, but I just didn't want to deal with it. So I did the unthinkable, and bought a mass-produced name-brand computer!
*Audience gasps in horror.*
It obviously couldn't be your normal run-of-the-mill computer due to my usage and requirements. Enter the world of workstations. They bridge the gap between home computers and servers. They're meant to be constantly run while handling heavy workloads which seemed like just the ticket. I ultimately decided to go with one of Lenovo's offerings. Mainly for the fact that their workstations are IBM designed since they bought their computer division. I went with a ThinkStation P Series 720 upgraded to dual Xeon processors, 32GBs of RAM, and dual 1TB SSD hard drives.
Now the problem is workstations generally cost thousands of dollars. The kind of money I didn't have or was even willing to spend if I did. So eBay to the rescue as usual. I waited months for one to be listed at a price I could afford. Finally there was a seller who had several new in open box ones they were listing in succession. I lost the first two but won the third.
I won it for cheaper than any other one that's been sold on there from when I started looking to this day. Even cheaper than it was going to cost me to build my own. So needless to say I was pretty excited. Unfortunately that ended the day it showed up. The shipping box was pretty beat up but I was hoping the computer was unscathed. I unboxed it, and my heart sunk as it was covered in damage. What was unusual was the damage didn't seem consistent with it happening during shipping. Like for example part of the front bezel had a spot where it was melted. I contacted the seller, and we fought back and fourth over it for a month which is another story in itself. Upon opening the case to inspect for component damage, everything looked fine, and was indeed brand new. I fired it up, and it worked flawlessly. Luckily the damage was all cosmetic. The seller ended up giving a partial refund, and I was going to use the computer as-is.
I really didn't want to though as it bugged the crap out of me. I was so discouraged and disappointed by the entire ordeal that I didn't even want to look at the thing. I was hoping I could find a used case off eBay or something in better condition when much to my surprise, you could buy replacement parts through Lenovo! That was shocking as I've never seen a brand-name computer manufacture sell replacement parts for their computers before. This being a workstation though was the reason. I was quickly met with more disappointment as the cases were on backorder. Alright, it said the estimated time to be back in stock was in 10 days. I go to the site after the 10 days are up, and it still says out of stock, and gives a new date of 15 days away now. I wait the 15 days, go back to the site, and it gives yet another new date. Every time I checked the date when the case was supposed to be back in stock, the date was just being extended. I contacted support to air my grievances, and they were of little help. Basically they didn't know if the case would ever be back in stock, and to not count on it. I'm really dejected by this point but reluctantly gave my credit card in case they ever did come in. Several months go by, and I get an email out of the blue last week that I was receiving an order from Lenovo... A brand new case! It arrived a few days ago but due to Thanksgiving I haven't been able to fully take it out of the box to inspect it. From what I can see though, it doesn't appear to have been damaged in shipping or anything.
I'm back to being really excited about the prospect of having a new computer. Now is the task of removing everything from the damaged case, to install in the new one. I plan on doing that in the next few days. The irony of all this is that when all is said and done, I technically ended up building a computer anyway, so the story goes full circle.