Hard drive - hard luck?

After 6+ years of unfailing service it was time to replace my three faithful Iomega 1TB hard drive backup units. I bought three new 3TB LaCie HD's to replace them before Christmas and they've worked perfectly - until today. On startup this morning HD3 stuttered, appeared on the desktop for a couple of minutes then disappeared.

These HD's backup all my travel guide data - all 14 years of it so they're quite important. I had to sort this dodgy drive. I phoned Applestore in Newcastle where I bought them but despite three attempts I got through each time to an automated voice activated computer. Oh sh*t.

Now my accent isn't BBC English but everyone else seems to understand me. Everyone except Ms Moron with the Tennessee drawl up in the Apple iCloud. If you met her in a bar you'd swear she'd been on the wacky baccy. In the end - after 5 minutes - she said something indecipherable and George in Athens answered my call. He gave up with me after 8 minutes saying he was on iPhone 5 support and didn't know why I was talking to him. I pointed out that I was at a similar loss. He advised I talk to the Apple CPU division. God alone knows why. I don't.

Juliana in Portugal answered after I spent a 4 minute session listening to 'These boots were made for walking' and 'Sitting on the dock of the bay'. Notice the computer connotations in these songs? I relayed my tedious tale and got a similar "Why me?" answer to George the Greek's. Actually what she said was, "Why didn't you ring the Newcastle Applestore"? I bit my tongue. After another 5 minutes she transferred me to another singalong machine. For a long time.

Eventually Beth - or was it Bess - in Newcastle answered the phone. I told her I had a dodgy XHD drive. She checked they had one in stock and suggested I bring the old one in and they'd replace it. Simple as that!!!

It took 28 minutes and a trip around Europe. I only have one suggestion… Get rid of that bloody stupid voice activated computer until you can invent something that works. Not good enough Apple.