Tech and its technicalities 

About a month after we moved to Spain, my new laptop packed in. I bought the laptop a week before we came here because I didn’t trust my old one not to cause me problems whilst I was abroad. How wrong was I. 

The screen became super fuzzy, with black lines flashing up everywhere. At first I thought I would be able to cope to till Christmas to get it sorted but after a few more days it became completely un-useable. Luckily I have 3 years warranty on the laptop so I wasn’t too worried about getting it fixed, it was more the timeline… 

The laptop would only be in the UK 3 days before my parents came out to visit so I stressed to the laptop company how important is was that it was repaired by then. The engineer visit was scheduled the day before my parents were due to fly out. Come 3.30pm the engineer rang to say he would be a few hours late. The hours passed by then I received another phone call saying the parts shop was shut so they wouldn’t be able to repair it that day. Nightmare. The engineer offered to repair it the following day but by the time his working day started my parents would be here. 

After the entire hoohaa, and contacting the laptop company (again0, they offered to send me an upgraded replacement. On the surface this was great, but it would take 3 weeks to get delivered and by this point I had been without a functioning laptop for 2 months. 

So here are my tips on what you should and shouldn’t do when your tech gadgets fail you abroad:

• Tip 1: Make sure you have adequate insurance that covers your gadgets abroad and not just in the UK. 
• Tip 2: Upgrade or extend your warranty so that you’re covered for your entire trip. The laptop company I bought from would not repair my laptop until it was back in the UK, nor would they cover shipping costs if I would’ve sent it from Spain.
• Tip 3: Try to have a back up solution. Luckily for me, I have a tablet with a keyboard and Rebeka was happy to lend me her laptop whenever she didn’t need it herself. 
• Tip 4: Don’t back down. I was constantly back and forth with the laptop company for updates on the situation the entire 2 months. It wasn’t until I mentioned I would make a complaint on social media that they actually started to do something to help me. 
• Tip 5: Have some emergency cash. If worse came to worse, I was prepared to fly to the UK for a few days to get it repaired so don’t go blowing your entire erasmus grant as soon as you get it.