www.compaqfactoryoutlet.com - presario laptop purchase - Compaq customer, warranty, and technical support

December 20, 2001:

From:

RE: www.compaqfactoryoutlet.com - presario laptop purchase - Compaq customer, warranty, and technical support

Today is Thursday December 20th.

My complaint is with Compaq.

I bought a presario 1200 XL-106 in July 2000 from compaqfactoryoutlet.com and I purchased the 2 year warranty. The hard drive crashed in December of 2001. I called for tech support and they told me that it was out of warranty. I informed them of the fact that I bought the 2 year warranty, but no one could find it. Finally a guy in the Canada facility looked under a different utility, found that it was still under warranty and attached what he found to my case number.

I called tech support again, and they told me they would send a box for me to send the unit in for repair. I called the next day to see if it would be faster if I took it to Compusa or Bestbuy, and they told me that they had no record that they were sending me a box for sending the

unit in for repair, because it was out of warranty.

I went back and forth talking to different technician, supervisors and then they transfered me to the customer relations department where I was completely dissatisfied and asked to speak to a supervisor at which point I was told "no...that isn't possible". I argued with this guy for at least 5 minutes before he would get a supervisor for me, after I repeatedly said "I want to speak with a supervisor". The supervisor finally got on the line and he says it isn't under warranty.

I informed him of the attachment to my case number, which he said he saw, but he say he also saw where it said in 2 other locations that it was not under warranty. I had to fax my original purchase receipt in order to prove that it was still under warranty, which tells me that had I lost the original receipt, I would not have been able to get my laptop repaired, because their customer support can't keep track of customer transactions. Now 3 days after my initial call to tech support, they agree to send me a box. I call tech support to give them the information, the technician says that he sees the warranty information has been updated

and proceeds to take the information. Somehow we were disconnected on his end, and I had to call back. When I called back, I spoke with another technician, who informed me that the warranty has expired. I

told him what I had to go through and that I just spoke with a technician 20 minutes ago who said that it was all updated. He put me on hold, called the customer relations department, and 15 minutes

later he was able to help me. The day before all this happened, I received my new Compaq presario 1210US laptop. I received it on Friday December 14th 2001. I plugged it in that night and left it plugged in until Sunday December 16th,

and the batter still read 1%. I called tech support, and they walked me through recalibrating the

battery which didn't work, he then told me to restore the system to make sure that the software wasn't preventing the battery from charging. I asked him if he was joking.

I told him fine, I'll reload the system, which I no intentions on doing for a dead battery. I simply put in the battery from my other laptop, and it charged up fine, so I called tech support the next day and said I reloaded the system and it still reads 1%, then they agreed that they battery they sent me was indeed DOA. I won't even discuss what I had to go through to find out why I paid sales tax on a purchase from the compaq factory outlet, which I believe is in Texas, when I live in Ohio, but lets just say that they people in Compaq's executive offices, should have positions doing something else. On Wednesday December 19th, my laptop in for repair was returned to me. As soon as I opened the box, I knew that it was not the same as it was when I sent it to them. My laptop was dark blue, all the way

around. The internet access key icons were black. The internet access keys on the unit returned to me were red. After taking the unit home and looking at it under better light, I saw that the entire touchpad

section of the laptop was GRAY.

So now my repaired dark blue laptop is now a two toned dark blue and gray piece of junk. I want to give the laptop away as a Christmas gift, and as you know Christmas is Tuesday December 25th.

They want me to send the unit back in for repair, which means I won't get it back until the week of New Years. That is a little too late to give it away as a Christmas gift isn't it?

I asked them to just send me the touch pad and I'll swap it out myself. Everyone including people in their executive offices keep telling me that it is impossible, because that peice doesn't have a

part number. One person suggested that I pay for it out of my own pocket. I asked him why should I? I didn't screw it up, your company did.

I asked to speak with another higher manager, and I asked him since they replaced just about everything in the laptop anyway, why not just send me another one overnight, with a return label on the box, and

I'll send this one back?

I am waiting for a return call as I write this letter. I will never again in life, purchase another Compaq product.