On June 19, I bought a pink Samsung NC10 in the States. The unit had a manufacturer's sticker stating that it came with a 1 year international warranty. This is a big deal to me since I'm not usually in the States. If the unit hadn't come with the international warranty, I would not have bought it. (I would have bought a Toshiba netbook since Toshiba has a worldwide warranty, and I've used its service before.)

On October 6, the unit booted, but had a problem with the monitor. It'd sometimes go blank white during boot-up, so that I couldn't see the BIOS or Samsung logo. (This is a very bright white screen, not just going blank.) Also when I adjusted the angle of the monitor, the blank white screen would flicker. At some angles, the monitor remained completely white.

I researched the matter by googling and going to a couple of netbook forums, including sammynetbook.com, and saw that there were many other Samsung NC10 users with similar monitor issues. I decided that it was probably a hardware problem.

So on October 7 at 12:41 p.m. I called Samsung in America. I spoke with two different agents. We've checked VGA driver and firmware. I have the latest version, so we ruled out updated driver/firmware problem. The agent thought it was a hardware issue. He gave me a claim number, but told me that I cannot get my unit fixed until I returned to the States as the warranty is only good in the States.

I explained my situation (the manufacturer sticker promising international warranty, etc.), but the agent said he couldn't help me. He transferred me to another division. The new agent told me I needed to send her a picture of the sticker as a proof. I emailed one to her.

On October 8 at 9:20 a.m. Eastern Time, I called Samsung again as I hadn't heard any status update and I wanted to make sure the picture was delivered. I managed to get the same agent, who told me she'd received my picture and was able to see that the sticker indeed said 1 Year International Warranty. She told me she'd talk with her supervisor and let me know. I never heard back.

On October 9, I sent an email to the agent requesting a status update. She didn't respond.

On October 12 at 10:44 a.m. @SamsungService contacted me. I sent him a detailed email explaining the situation. He responded that NC10 comes with an international warranty and that I should contact Samsung Japan.

So on October 13 (now all date & time in JP), Hero Material called Samsung Japan for me since they do not speak English. They told him to call another number. The new number is for Samsung International Warranty Japan, and I called since they have three language options: English, Korean and Japanese. I chose English, and the service center automated menu said they were too busy to take my call. So I left my number as instructed. No call back. I was very very unhappy — ready to start #SamsungFail on Twitter because I was that upset. (It would've been satisfying, but I'd still be without a working netbook.)

Today I called again. I tried both the Korean and English lines, but they were all busy, so I left my number with both. An hour later, a Korean rep from Samsung HQ called. He was very pleasant, very professional and apologetic. He explained that their system can accept up to twelve digits for phone numbers. Mine is thirteen. So he was missing the last digit. So he tried to fill it in from 0 to 9. Unfortunately the last digit of my phone number is…yes, you guessed it: NINE.

He asked me what was wrong. I told him about the problems, and he said it was probably a defective cable. He said Samsung doesn't have a repair center in Japan, but they'll fix it at the Samsung Repair Center in Korea. He assured me that Samsung will arrange for pickup and delivery and that I don't need to pay for anything. Furthermore, he told me I don't even need to pack it myself. He said FedEx will take care of everything once I hand over my netbook. After taking my address and contact info, he said FedEx will call within two days.

Two hours later, FedEx Japan called to schedule pickup. I asked them to come after lunch, and they said they'll be pick my NC10 up between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.

W00t!

Lesson learned: Bypass American call centers as much as possible if I need a defective unit serviced while overseas.

Things Samsung can improve on:

• Making sure that their American service reps know what kind of warranties their products have.
• Ensuring that their reps respond to customer requests on status updates.

Things Samsung did well:

• Contacting dissatisfied customers on Twitter to resolve the issue.
• Having great service reps in Korea. (If it weren't for the rep who went above and beyond the call of duty, I'd be launching an FUQ campaign against the company. As it is, I think I may use NINE as the title for a book at some point.)

Based on my experience, will I buy Samsung products again? Yes, as long as they're covered under international warranty.

I'll post an update to this once I get my netbook back from the Samsung Repair Center in Korea.

Confidence is the weirdest thing ever. When I was in my early twenties, I was a size 4 but could never wear a bikini because I was too embarrassed at how “huge” I looked. (Because I was not a size 2…I know, I know…misguided youth!) I'm bigger now, but got myself a bikini anyway in a color I like. Figured life is too short to worry about a little bulge here and there so long as my bloodwork looks good (and it does; the doc joked that maybe I should eat more junk food or something). Besides, if anyone mocks the way I look in my new bikini, I can always feature him/her as a villain and/or a weasel in one of my stories.

Interestingly, not giving a damn about what other people think gives me more confidence and a sense of liberation. I'm not sure why I wasted so much of my youth worrying about fitting in. Guess it was just part of the growing up process.

On the writing front, I started the first draft of my new WIP. Much to May's surprise, I'm pantsing this draft. I've never really pantsed. Everything I've written had a clear outline, but I figured why not? Maybe I'll do better this way. I'll never know unless I try.

Oh BTW — Amazon is selling Altec Lansing UHP336 earphones for less than $40 which I think is a great price. I love the clarity and the beautiful sound. I can hear everything, every little base note, the cellos, etc. (I'm a very aural person, and I love listening to music when I write, etc.) The only bad thing is that it highlighted how inadequate iPods are for playing music. The earphone is very sensitive so it picks up every hiss, etc. from your audio unit (should you have a crappy one), and iPods produce the worst static and hiss. (Naturally, you won't notice anything if you use the meh “earbuds” that come with your iPods.) What a disappointment. iPod Touch was the worst even if the wifi off. So if I want to listen to music on it, I'm stuck with earbuds.

P.S. I googled the problem, thinking that maybe it was just my earphones, but actually a lot of audiophiles have noticed the same issue. *sigh*

I got a new MacBook. Installed XP on it. Worked fine.

Now it won't work fine anymore. It's been exactly one week.

I've run like seven different diagnostics on it. I'd be so mad if all my important files get lost — all my project files, etc. Well, not ALL, but many of them will be lost.

Am valiantly trying to boot. Because Win XP won't boot normally, and it says my SLAYER file is corrupted! Argh!

My old Toshiba, which lasted almost five years, is so ancient, I can take a nice hot shower while it loads Word.

The bad thing is the data migration of course. I don't particularly enjoy it, but it has to be done. I can't believe I have so much !@#$ on my laptop!

I just installed FF3, and boy it's slow. (I used to use FF2)

Someone told me to go to about:config and set network.dns.disableIPv6 to true. I did that, and it seems a bit faster. Hmm.

What a crummy upgrade.

P.S. If you want to revert to FF2, click here.