Earlier in this week my computer started playing up in that it would constantly boot up several times and various POST beeps would come from it. It would finally get to the desktop but was definitely not stable.

After searching for sometime for the problem, I eventually removed all my six ram modules and replaced them in various sequences that my motherboard allowed. I finally found one of the modules was faulty; these had been upgraded last year to faster Crucial DDR3 Ballistix.

I phoned Crucial for a RMA number which they gave but at the same time was told that my memory had been superceded and that I would have to return all six. So I packaged them up carefully and and put the address label on it together with the RMA number written twice in prominent positions.

It was then that I realised by sending it freepost, as per the label, would mean my computer would be down for around a week waiting for the new memory, so I told my wife to send it express delivery - PO next day delivery before 9am - which she did. This cost me £18.80 but would be worth it to expedite things to get my computer up and running again.

I rang Crucial in the afternoon to find out if the memory had arrived safely, only to be told that it hadn't, and was told to get on to the PO tracking website. Of course this meant I had to get some memory locally which I did - another £30! When I got to the tracking site and gave my details I could see that my package had been delivered in good time.

When notifying Crucial of this they still said it hadn't arrived. As you may imagine I was getting somewhat concerned about the situation but eventually, late Friday evening, I received an email from them confirming receipt at the RMA Labs. What a relief that was!

Thinking things over, I realised that I had bucked the system by paying for express delivery and, by not allowing the freepost system to operate, the parcel had been delivered and signed for probably by someone at Crucial's main office in Glasgow. It then took two days for it to be passed to the RMA Labs, even though the RMA number was written large twice on the package!

Certainly a hard lesson learned by me and its 'ramifications' will haunt me for some time! :) Anyone else here been guilty of bucking the trend, as it were? TC.