To close, I thought I would inform everyone of my recent dealingwith HP Technical Support, which is a reason that I will no longerpurchase a pre-built computer.
In October of 2003, my manufacturer’s 1 year warranty (the basewarranty) on my Compaq Presario 700 laptop was set to expire. I phonedHP Customer care and asked if an extension warranty was available forpurchase. The support agent said that there were two optionsavailable: purchasing a one year extension for $70 or purchasing a twoyear extension for $99. I thought about that for a while and decidedthat I might as well cover the thing for the full two years. It waspurchased on October 7, 2003.
In October of 2004, I contacted them about a hardware problem on thelaptop, and was informed that I did not have a warranty on it. Confused, I told them that I had purchased a 2 year extension a yearearlier. The support agent said that there was no record of theextension in their database, and gave me a number to fax a proof ofpurchase to. Funny thing is: I never received any type of proof ofpurchase.
I knew that it had been charged, because I would havecontacted them immediately if it was not. So I started to dig for thebank statement that it was charged on. Sure enough, I found it rightwhere it should have been – charged on October 7, 2003. I faxed this,along with a nice little explanation that I never received proof ofpurchase, and that the statement was all I had.
After waiting a few days, I receive an e-mail from them telling methat they do not except credit card statements as valid proof ofpurchase and to contact the place I purchased the warranty for a validproof of purchase. At this point, I was extremely unhappy – not onlydid I have to do work that I shouldn’t have to do, but I still had alaptop with a broken network card, floppy drive, and recently “expired”DVD-ROM drive. I faxed them back, and told them (again) that Ipurchased the warranty from them and I was requesting an official proofof purchase.
After waiting a week, I had heard nothing back from them, so I triedone last time to get them to acknowledge me. I threatened with alawyer this time, to see if that would get them to do something aboutit, but still, nothing happened. This time, I decided to take a lookaround on their website to see if I could find the number to HP’s legaldepartment. What I found was a lot better. After digging throughtheir investor relations page, looking for a link, I found a link to an“E-Mail the HP Board of Directors” page (the link is quite hidden, soif anyone ever needs it, here you go:
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/email/bod/index.html). I sent them a letter informing them of the problem, and told them thatif they ignored me like their support department did, I would takelegal action. Within a business day, I had a “highest priority”response from their executive customer relations team. I was given anumber to call during business hours, and told that they would helpsolve the problem.
Source -
ToBuild or Buy, That is the Question
