Working on a client's laptop today.. He called me initially because he was unable to completely load into Windows on his Compaq Presario V2405US. I went to his place and took a look at the laptop, and sure enough, it wouldn't finish booting. He had some other work for me to do on his desktop, so I finished that up on the spot and took the laptop with me to do further testing and hopefully repair it. Windows complained that and entire system folder was missing. No problem.. I booted from a Windows XP cd and went into the recovery console with hopes of transferring fresh copies of the required system files over to the hard drive. Problem is, it wouldn't let me log into the installation even in the recovery console, leading me to suspect hard drive problems.. I ran diagnostics from the BIOS, and my suspicions were confirmed.. A cryptic hard drive failure code was given. I called the client back to advise him that the hard drive was faulty and would need to be replaced. He then reminded me that I had just installed that hard drive for him on 05/31/07!! I checked my records, and indeed he was correct.. I removed the hard drive, went to the local Best Buy where the drive was purchased, and attempted to get an in-store replacement, as 40 days is well within warranty. They advised that they are unable to exchange computer components because their POS system would not allow it. No problem, I will go to the manufacturer, which is Hitachi. Hitachi provided more diagnostics tools to tell them exactly what the problem is. Their software reported the hard drive failure was due to excessive shock, suggesting the user has thrown the laptop, dropped it, or sent it on a long ride on the back of a donkey... Or, what I just like to call abuse... However, Hitachi issued an RMA to send the drive back to them for replacement under warranty. I contacted the client to advise of my findings, stating the reason for the failure so he could instruct his son to take much better care of his equipment, and providing him with the information he needed to get the replacement warranty. After all, the warranty is through Hitachi, not me, as the failure is due in no part to my installation of the drive...
Here's where it gets funny.. Compaq's tag line used to be "The 'Q' stands for Quality." I don't know if this is due to the merger with HP or just the fact that they have a bunch of goons working for them now, but quality is nowhere to be found in this leg of my story. I open an online chat with a technician this morning to get a part number and availability for recovery software for this laptop, as Hitachi will simply return a new blank hard drive, and the customer will be able to install the operating system, drivers, and software himself with these CDs, saving him the expense of paying me to do everything manually.. Sometimes I have too much of a heart and cost myself a good deal of money for the sake of being honest :) Anyway, I explain to the "technician" in explicit detail what has transpired, ending with "I simply need to get pricing and availability for recovery cd for a Presario V2405US laptop, serial number ##########.." The technician then begins to diagnose my problem... I then tell her my problem is already diagnosed, i have a faulty hard drive that I am going to replace, I just need the Cds. She then tries, not once, not twice, but 3 times to sell me a new hard drive with the information preinstalled. I tell her again a somewhat shortened and angry version of the story I had already told her a few lines up the chat window, stressing that she should seriously consider reading the customer's comments before posting some obviously pre-written answers to just spit out in the chat window, as obviously she had not read my concerns... She tries again to sell me the hard drive.. God must have been smiling on me at this point, because for a moment, something finally clicked with her, and she proceeds to give me information about the cd set. She gives me a link that should contain information to purchase the discs. I copy and paste the link into the browser, only to find that the link is invalid, and I quickly told her this. She then wants to help me by "troubleshooting" and question my copy and pasting skills. Mind you, I am a computer technician, and am pretty sure I have a firm grip on copying and pasting text.... I took a screenshot and showed her the webpage I had tried to access, at which point she posts the same link again!!! I once again asked her if she was even reading my comments..
We went back and forth for a good twenty minutes. Every part number she gave me was not listed in the online parts store. Her only answer was I needed to call customer service. I explained to her that my whole reason for starting the chat session was to avoid draining most of my morning sitting on the phone with some moron who would undoubltedly speak to me like I am a kindergartener with no computer experience whatsoever... But she had already taken care of the drain, so it could only get better from here.. I told her I see no point in calling them to sit and hold and have them tell me all my part numbers were incorrect.
I finally terminated the session and promptly sent an email to the president of HP/Compaq along with a full transcript of our lengthy conversation. I sure hope to get a callback or some sort of correspondence out of this...
I can't think of too many words with a negative connotation that begin with the letter "Q", but Compaq seriously needs to rethink this whole quality statement... All things considered, that kid needs a nice bag with some semblance of shock protection to keep that laptop in....
God bless,
-myk
No comments:
Post a Comment