My Palm Pilot died yesterday. OK, so they don’t call it a Palm Pilot anymore; mine is actually the Palm Tungsten E. It has served me faithfully for the last 18 months, keeping me apprised of impending meetings at work, storing the orders of worship from 2 years' worth of church services, keeping a running list of books that I want to read, and giving me hours of diversion with games when I’m bored.

Yesterday it died. When I picked it up at 2 PM, the screen was frozen with the notification “Meet with Christy re: Performance Review, 8:30 AM”. It’s quite possible that I hadn’t picked it up all day… It wouldn’t power off, it wouldn’t go to any other screen or program. So, I hit the reset button. It reset OK but as soon as I hit the home button to get to the main screen, it powered off and wouldn’t come back on. Next I tried the hard reset that erases the memory. Same story, still no luck.

I was thinking at that point that it was a good thing I bought the 2-year replacement plan for it. It cost me an extra $50 at the time, but hey, OfficeMax guaranteed immediate replacement if it broke. So this afternoon I took it back to OfficeMax. I had all the paperwork in order; the receipt, the packaging with the UPC and Serial number, the brochure detailing the replacement plan. I knew that they don’t sell the Tungsten E any more, so I wasn’t sure how they would replace it, I figured maybe I’d have the option to buy-up to another model.

The manager at OfficeMax was very nice; he checked and verified that they don’t sell the Tungsten E anymore. Then he told me that means that I have to call the 800 number on the brochure. So I called the 800 number. They are going “within the next 7 to 10 days”, to send me a postage-paid address label. I have to package the unit up, along with its accessories, and send it back to them. Then, “within 10 to 15 days after receiving the device”, and after determining that it really is broken, they will send me an OfficeMax gift card good for the original purchase price of the unit.

This has me pretty darn frustrated. First, that the “replacement plan” really isn’t immediate replacement - it’s going to take the better part of a month. A month? Come on, I use this thing every day! And I can’t just get a replacement w/o laying out any more cash - the Tungsten E2 (the current model) costs $50 more than the old E, which means I’ll have to lay out that money out of pocket to get the new one, and then more money on top of that if I want to renew the replacement agreement. And of course since it’s a gift card, I’m limited to purchasing one that they sell from OfficeMax, which precludes me shopping around. Arrgh.

Shouldn’t a PDA last longer than 18 months? I’m not really that hard on it. Maybe I just have bad luck with electronics.