LAWYER! SUE!

Those were the words that were running through my head at this time yesterday when no box had arrived. I called HP's support line to try and get a tracking number on the box. The day time calls for support are routed to Mexico complete with lots of static on the phone lines. The so called tech could not find a tracking number for the return box. He said call back in 24 hours. I told him I had paid for an expedited service policy on the computer, and they were supposed to turn it around in 3 days. I asked him if he understood. He said, "Yes, Sally I understand you are frustrated." I said you are pathetic. Do you understand what that means? He said "yes, Sally I understand you are frustrated."

 

On my first call on Monday night the tech. had told me that Circuit City, Best Buy and Radio Shack were authorized HP service centers. I loaded the pc in the car and took it to the Geek Squad at Best Buy. I talked to a very nice older man. He attempted to turn the pc on and saw the brief flash of the power light and then nothing. He said they could handle the warranty repair, but it would be sent to Kentucky and then in turn would be sent to HP. He said my best bet was to get the box from HP and let them handle the repair.

 

I went back home and read all the fine print in the service agreement. The sorry part about this agreement is there is not a special phone number for the expedited service on notebook computers. You have to use the same number that send you to India or Mexico. When the call is answered, the tech's don't know what expedited service means. The previous day I had a terrible time getting the expedited service activated because it is supposed to be done online or by fax. Since I was without a working pc I called the number the tech. in India had given me. I had to beg the rude man to activate the service over the phone.

 

After I got back home, I again called the phone number I had used to activate the policy. I gave the woman who answered an ear full of my troubles. She said my problem needed to be escalated. She gave me another 800 number and told me to choose option 7. I called the number and was put on hold and then cut off. Steam was coming out of my ears. I called again and punched 7. This time a man answered and said he was in HP's corporate headquarters. He was very curt and would not listen to me but said he recommended I return the computer and place a new order for a new computer since the first had failed in such a short time. He transferred me to Mexico. This person had excellent command of English. He placed the order. He wanted to send me FedEx shipping labels. I told him I had no way to print them out. He called FedEx and arranged for next day pickup. He read the order to me for the new computer. I told him I needed a new expedited service policy since the first one had been activated with the serial number of the pc that was to be returned. He said he was taking care of that.

 

I then went to the Frisco library and checked the new orders and return order. There was also a confirming email from FedEx saying the package would be picked up between 1 and 5 PM on 2/15. I printed the new pc order and the return order and the FedEx email and took them home. When I got home,I saw one small item had been left off the order for the replacement pc. It is just a pair of earbud earphones which I will probably never use. I called the number of HP headquarters. I talked to a very nice lady. At last I found someone nice at HP. I told her about the omission, and she said she would take care of it. This nice lady said I would call the special number any time I have a problem in the future.

 

At 2 PM the FedEx truck pulled up to my house. The driver printed the shipping label and gave me a receipt. The new pc is to be built on or before Feb. 27, and I was told to allow two days for shipping. At least I have put the thoughts of lawyer and sue on hold.

 

I have spent so much time on the HP support line I never was able to write in the blog what went wrong with the pc. The new computer was delivered around 4:30 PM on Monday. I unpacked the computer. There was a note inside the computer that said Vista would take approximately 25 minutes to load the first time and not to attempt to shutdown or reboot during the start up. I sat back and watched as Vista did its thing. Finally it was ready for me to do some work. I chose a user name, pw and named the computer. I named the computer "Black-Beauty" because at that point that was what I thought of it.

 

I clicked on the wireless network icon in the task bar and entered my encryption key. It worked perfectly. In no time at all I was notified that Windows updates were ready to be installed. I clicked to have them install. The computer rebooted and all was well. In spite of the fact that I had not purchased the Norton security software, HP had installed a trial version anyway. I went ahead and signed up for a 60-day free trail and let it do its install. Again it all went well. Then I loaded Microsoft Excel. A screen popped up to activate Microsoft Office online. This process failed but gave a telephone number to call. I called and stepped through an automated menu which gave me a code to enter. This attempt to activate was successful. I used Excel for a while. I loaded my spreadsheet with my most important financial data from a CD and updated the information. I then saved the spreadsheet to the pc's hard drive. I then loaded Internet Explorer. I accessed by bank and downloaded my last statement in PDF format. Everything was going so well, and I was so happy to have such a beautiful pc. I thought about connecting my external disk drive and copying over all my photos, music, scanned data, etc., but I was getting tired. It was about 7 PM, and I shut the pc down. The shutdown was via the menu and was completely normal. It was very similar to the way Windows XP shuts down. I was glad that I had found no problems with Vista. I had checked the Vista performance index on my pc and stacked my windows and saw the touted Aero 3D display. All was well.

 

Around 9 PM I decided to go back and play some more with my new toy. I pressed the power button. There was a brief flash of the power light and then nothing. I removed the battery and tried again. Same result. I unplugged the computer and tried to start it on the battery only. Nothing. I tried a couple of different electrical outlets. I then called HP and was on hold for 73 minutes before the first tech in India answered. I had an extremely hard time communicating with him. I was frantic thinking about the financial data I had copied to the hard disk.

 

I do not think I slept at all on Monday night. Actually is was Tuesday morning by the time I went to bed. The next morning as soon as the financial institutions opened I was calling and changing ID's and PW's. I left a message for my personal adviser at the bank. I had already changed my banking ID and PW. He called back and tried to reassure me that my risk was very small. My accounts are insured and the bank has many safeguards in place.

 

I then borrowed my neighbor's little notebook computer. I finished changing passwords on my accounts and paid a couple of online bills. Earlier I had made a second support call that landed in India. This woman had me get a phillips screwdriver and remove compartments on the back of the pc. She wanted me to reseat the memory simm's. She was absolutely nuts. I told her I wanted to get busy and get the pc packed up for repairs. She told me a hardware tech would call me back within the hour. I waited 3.5 hours and received no call. I then called again and the call was answered in Mexico. This tech supposedly sent up the order for a box to be sent to me--the box that still has not arrived. I again explained that I had purchased the expedited service policy. By then I was almost sick. I fell asleep in my recliner while I watched my soap opera.

 

Now I am in waiting mode again. If all goes well, Black-Beauty2 should be delivered two weeks from today. I imagine the first Black Beauty will be repaired and show up on HP's website where they sell refurbished pc's. It will have a substantially lower price than I paid. I do not know if I would consider buying that computer. I do not have a clue as to what caused it to fail. It may be something was shook loose during the trip from China, or it might be some bad soldering. I will never know the answer.