HP Laptop..customer service and repair service

Beware of HP. Beware of HP's order line. You are more likely to get someone that isn't smart enough to get hired at McDonalds than you are to get someone that knows anything about a computer. I spent two and a half hours on the phone ordering a laptop. I should have hung up after the first five minutes. I had special requirements for the laptop that I was prepared to spend well over $1000.00 for. If I had wanted a standard stock laptop I could have driven to Office Depot, walked in and bought one off the shelf, driven home and loaded it with programs in less time than it took me to order it over the phone. They tell you that you can call and build your own computer. Every other question I asked, the agent would put me on hold and come back after very long hold time telling me "yes, we can do that." I asked if they would put the slot in for a HP USB Digital Drive and 256MB SD Card (EK036AA). I even gave her the part number so she could look at it. Again, she put me on hold and came back to tell me, "Sure, we can do that." I asked that no shareware or games be put on the laptop because I was using it for work and DID NOT want anything but the operating system on it. AGAIN, she put me on hold and after a long wait came back and said once again, "Sure, we can do that." I ordered a 120 GB hard drive be put in it. I figured that ordering XP Pro would only take up 10 GB at the most so that would give me 110 GB.

I was told it would take about 2 weeks to build. I waited for delivery and it came in about a week. When I opened the box the first thought was they had sent me the wrong laptop. There was no slot for the HP USB Digital Drive and 256MB SD Card (EK036AA). It was loaded down with shareware and games, had a 10 GB partition

holding recovery files which I did not request and that 120 GB hard drive had shrunk down to only 89 GB. I called customer service and was told by a very rude agent that in fact that was the laptop I ordered. I told her I wanted to send it back to have it wiped clean and only the operating system put on it to which I got in reply, "We

can't do that." Okay, then I want to send it back to get the slot installed. "We can't do that, we no longer put that slot on our laptops." What, did you stop putting it the slot in the last 2 weeks? "No, we haven't installed those slots in 2 years." This is when I asked to speak to a supervisor and things turned from bad to worse! On the line comes this kid that is so arrogant that you would have thought God Himself had just handed him the keys to the world! I recounted the conversation I had with the agent that took my order and the things that I had specially requested. Of course he said he didn't see any of the special requests that I was referring to and all but called me a liar. I then told him I wanted to send the laptop back to have a larger hard drive installed to compensate for the 31 GBs that HP had robbed me of. As we are

talking I am on the laptop and notice that every time I try to click on something using the mouse pad the cursor is jumping all over the screen. I told him there was something wrong with the mouse pad. At this point he said, "Sounds like you need to talk to tech support and in a split second I was on hold and on my way to tech support.

After 30 minutes of being on hold a tech support agent came on the line. Again, I told my story and believe it or not this guy couldn't apologize enough. He explained that he has gotten so many calls from people that are so angry about all the "garbage" that HP is putting on the hard drives. He was kind enough to help me delete a lot of it but when I brought up the fact that I was having problems with the mouse pad he said that I should send it back in to have that fixed. He filled out the work order since he could see that I had also paid for the extended warranty...$349.99 for. This wrapped up four and a half hours on the phone.

I got the return paperwork and box and the Fed Ex guy was kind enough to wait while I boxed and taped it up. HP had it the next day and believe it or not it was shipped back to me the same day they received it and I had it the next day. It's very easy for them to send it back the same day they receive it when they don't do a thing to fix the problem. The work paper that came back with the laptop had nothing checked off and nothing written on it. Nothing had been done.

I called HP and asked to speak to a supervisor...another 30 minutes on hold. When the supervisor came on the line I told them that repair had not fixed the problem and she assured me the problem had indeed been fixed and if I didn't know how to use a mouse pad I should buy a mouse. I asked to speak to someone over her. I could

hear her cover her mouth piece and laugh. When she came back she told me that a Ms Katherine Wapner was the only person over her and she could not transfer me to her and then gave me a phone number I could call and then hung up on me. When I called the number it was on of those that you had to have an extension to get someone to answer.

After calling HP for four days I finally found someone that knew who Katherine Wapner was. It turned out she is the CTO Escalation Manager for HP Home and Home Office Store. There was no phone number but they could give me an email address. I sent an email and again recounted the nightmare that I had gone through. It took several days for her to answer back with

I apologize that we have not met your expectations with either our customer service or your sales experience. I did want to acknowledge receipt of your email and let you know that I am looking into your various issues. Please allow me a few days to respond as I have several people I need to speak with in conjunction with your outstanding complaints.

Regards,

Katherine Wapner

CTO Escalation Manager

HP Home & Home Office Store

Email User

www.hpshopping.com

That few days turn into a week and a second email from me. The emails went back and forth or whenever she felt she needed to email me. After three weeks she finally turns me over to someone else. This would be Andrea. I'm told by Andrea she will send me a disk to wipe to laptop clean and maybe at that time we can fix the mouse pad problem. I get the disk and it will not open because it's not for the laptop that I have. I call her and tell her this. She orders a second one and when I get it, it's the same. Now she thinks the something may be wrong with the motherboard. We are now more than a month away from the day I ordered the laptop and I have yet to use

it. We go back and forth until she say with a very hostile attitude "I just don't think this laptop will meet your needs and you should think about a refund." We are now 6 weeks from the date I ordered the laptop and I still haven't been able to use it. I told her "No, I wanted the laptop replaced with a working laptop". She said she would have to order a new one and lead me to believe that it would take 2 weeks to get. Since the last one took only a week to get I called her on the one week mark. Another agent answered the phone and I told her I didn't need to speak to Andrea. All I needed to

know is why I didn't get a new email showing the laptop had been ordered. When she checked my file she told me the laptop had only been ordered the day before and not the week before. I was furious! I asked to be transferred to Andrea. When she came on the line I asked her she she was going to get around to letting me know that

she had placed the order only the day before and not the week before. She told me that they were out of the laptop that I had ordered but would be replacing it with something comparable. COMPARABLE...I DIDN'T WANT COMPARABLE...I WANTED THE LAPTOP REPLACE WITH THE SAME LAPTOP I HAD ORDERED. "That's not possible. But this new laptop will have a web cam on it." I DON'T WANT A WEB CAM ON THE LAPTOP. I DIDN'T ORDER A WEB CAM. I ORDER A LAPTOP WITH A SLOT FOR THE HP USB Digital Drive and 256MB SD Card (EK036AA) AND YOU COULDN'T DO THAT AND NOW YOU WANT TO GIVE ME A WEB CAM?" Her

response was pretty much, take it or leave it...you want that refund now? NO, I WANT THE LAPTOP THAT I ORDERED IN THE FIRST PLACE WITH ALL THE GARBAGE AND THE PARTITION OFF. I WANT THE SLOT FOR THE HP USB Digital Drive and 256MB SD Card (EK036AA) AND I WANT THE AGENT THAT TOOK MY ORDER IN THE FIRST PLACE THAT STARTED THIS HELLISH NIGHTMARE FIRED.

In a very condescending voice she simply replied, "That's not possible."

If I had a dollar for every "No" ... "That's not possible" that I've heard from HP I would be rich! I am now looking at taking my THIRD business on Oct 9 without my new laptop. Oh, did I mention that I even called Corporate and the fellow in charge of customer service after hearing my story said, "And what do you want me to do about

it?" I had to laugh and say, "I JUST THOUGHT YOU MIGHT LIKE TO KNOW HOW YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE BEING TREATED." AND HUG UP.

My final thoughts, I've been buying computers..about 1 every 2 years for the past 15 years. I started out with Compaq until their customer service got so bad that I once remarked it would be the downfall of the company. And sure enough it was. HP stepped in and grabbed them out of certain bankruptcy and then customer service

was good again. History is repeating itself. Just how long will it be before HP looks up only to find that everyone has gone elsewhere to a company that offers good customer service, a reliable product, well trained and competent order takers? I don't think it will take as long for HP to fall as it did for Compaq. We are smarter consumers than we were back in the Compaq days. We know the power of taking our money elsewhere. The consumer will either make or break a company and it's time the company realizes this fact. I will never buy another HP product..be it a laptop...desk top or printer ever

again. I will discourage anyone standing in front of a HP product at Best Buy, Office Depot, Sam's or any other place that I happen to be in from buying an HP product. I will recount my HP horror story again and again and see the same look of gratitude in a person's face when they realize they could have been me that I used to see back in the old Compaq days.

Oh, by the way, the phone number for level 2 tech support is 877 917 4380 EXT 94. This will keep you out of India

Magic Memories

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