Circuit City is dishonest and HP is no better.

May 6, 2006

I purchased a Compaq notebook computer on March 21, 2003 for $1699.98

and aProtection Plan for $299.99. NEVER AGAIN!

This computer hates the internet! I had dial-up until last fall. The

computer would connect for a month and then suddenly I couldn't get

connected if my life depended on it. I called City Advantage and time

and time again they would tell me it was AOL's sofeware. Several times

I got a new CD to install AOL and it didn't make a difference. City

Advantage would not budge. They insisted it was AOL causing my

problems. I called AOL's technical department and they insisted it was

a problem with the computer.

City Advantage's final solution was to reformat the computer everytime

the connection problem occurred. That meant reformatting the computer

every two or three weeks. I gave up and decided I would live without

connecting to the internet with the notebook.

Last fall, I got DSL. I thought that would solve my problem. WRONG!

I spent $120 in wireless cards, and still no internet. There are THREE

other notebook computers in my house and ALL three are wireless

connected to the internet. The cards I purchased work fine in every

other computer but my Compaq.

I called HP, and got nowhere. I called City Advantage, and again they

tried to blame it on everything except the computer. It had to be the

wireless cards. When that didn't work, I was told to reformat the

computer.

I have reformatted this computer so many times over the past three

years that it now has problems excepting the CDs needed to reformat it.

I finally told my son to speak with the technicians since he took

computer repair in school. My son fixed our Dell computer when Dell's

technicains couldn't. He finally convinced the technician that there

was a definite problem with the computer.

I sent the computer in for repair on April 27th. I got the computer

back yesterday, May 5th. I told my son to install the wireless card.

Everything seemed to be okay until the computer had to reboot. When

the computer rebooted, it didn't see the wireless card. The card had

ans has to be reinserted and then the computer says, "wireless

connected", "wireless not connected", "wireless connected", "wireless

not conncected", "wireless connected". My son said something is still

not right with the computer and he feels eventually I will be right

back where I started. No internet connection.

I called City Assure. They were the ones that fixed the computer. The

man I spoke with didn't want to hear anything I had to say. He told me

the computer had been repaired and that the wireless card slot had been

checked out and there was nothing wrong. He told me to call the

technical department.

I called City Advantage. Once again, it had to be the wireless card.

Once again, I had to explain WHY it wasn't the wireless card. Once

again, I was told to reformat the computer. I told the technician that

City Assure had reformatted the computer, so WHY should I have to do it

again? He still wanted me to reformat the computer and that was the

last straw!

I told this technician that I WAS NOT going to reformat the computer

again. I was going to type a letter of complaint to my State Attorney

General's office and tell him that I wanted the $299.99 back that I

paid for the WORTHLESS Protection Plan. I also informed him that I was

going to try and get some of the $1699.98 that I paid for the Compaq.

The only thing I got from Circuit City, City Advantage and City Assure

was THREE YEARS of aggravation. I told him to have a nice day and hung

up.

I might also add that City Assure replaced the hard drive in my

computer and I believe that they put 60GBs of hard drive instead of

80GBs in my computer. When I told City Assure that I believed I had

ann 80GB hard drive, I was told to "prove it". Unfortunately, that

information is on the box and I am sure he realized that after three

years, I wouldn't have the box.

Five minutes after telling the technician that I was writing to my

State Attorney General, I got a call back from a supervisor stating

that my computer was obviously not repaired properly. He was arranging

for the computer to be picked back up first thing next week.

To all of you being ripped off by compute sales stores: 1. Make sure

you keep the Spec's for your computer. Cut the label off of the box

and keep it in a safe place. 2. READ the service aggreement. If it

isn't in writing, it doesn't mean a thing. 3. When you send your

computer in for repair, make a copy of the form you need to fill out.

Make sure you have written on the form all of the things you included

with the computer such as, the wires, battery, and CDs. 4. Don't waste

your time arguing with the store or incompetent technicians. Write a

letter of complaint to your State Attorney General and the Better

Business Bureau. 5. Don't spend a lot of money on a computer. I have

found price does not mean the computer will be a good one. I purchase

a cheap $600 desktop and it lasted longer than the $3000 Dell. I just

purchased a $700 Toshiba notebook. So far, it works better than the

$1699.98 Compaq.

I am going to wait until after the Compaq is repaired and ask for the

$299.99 back for the Protection Plan. Circuit City did not live up to

that contract and I am not goint to pay for a services that were never

recieved. The computer should have been fixed THREE years ago. I am

also going to try and get back some of the purchase price for the

computer.

I will never purchase another thing from Circuit City. I will also

never buy another computer from HP.

________________________________________________________________________

Check Out the new free AIM(R) Mail -- 2 GB of storage and

industry-leading spam and email virus protection.

Comment On This

This is almost a repeat of what I went through with Circuit City & HP.. C.C. also blamed AOL, despite AOL troubleshooting & reloading. Turns out it was the hard drive, but to bad for me, because by the time the drive totally died, the extended warranty had expired. (Also, $300 for a nerd to come in and tell me it'd been the drive all along)