My experience with an HP laptop
My horrid experiences with an HP Pavilion laptop
I was reading about how the quality of HP and Compaq computers has declined considerably over the past two years, and how customer satisfaction with them has not been good. For this reason, I thought I'd talk about my own experiences with one of their laptops -- an HP Pavilion ze4125. Suffice to say that it has not been good.
This laptop broke down five times over the course of 22 months -- twice within the first year. Each time, it was the same problem, or a similar one. The unit refused to turn on, despite numerous attempts to reinitialize it, or the vain hope that the problem was simply due to a flaky switch. This lead me to suspect that all the attempts at fixing it had simply been hopeless--that no matter what repairs were conducted, it would surely fail within a few months.
When it failed for the third time, it took nearly two months to fix the thing. By then I was fed up, and very much disgusted with the dumb thing. It became clear that I needed a more reliable machine, so I gritted my teeth and dug deep into my wallet. I purchased a Toshiba laptop to replace my flaky HP unit. (This laptop has been more reliable so far, but customer service has been pathetic. I'll say more about that sometime.)
After my Toshiba laptop failed, I was forced to use my HP computer again -- and sure enough, it failed. Same symptoms, same problem. I feel like chucking the whole thing off of a convenient roof.
HP's customer support has been less than stellar. I distinctly remember two call center gents that I spoke to, on two separate occasions. They both had distinctly Indian accents, and they were both woefully incompetent.
The first one was incapable of answering even basic technical questions, and I got absolutely nowhere with him. Eventually, I said that since this unit kept failing repeatedly, I deserved to get the whole thing replaced. In response, he kept saying, "I can't help you. You'll have to find the person that sold it to you..." EXCUSE ME? The PERSON that sold it to me? Did he think that I bought this from some street vendor or a guy in a dark alley? I began to suspect that this person was some untrained schmoe who had never bought a computer in his life.
Eventually, after being thoroughly frustrated with his incompetence, I said, "Okay, I have one last question for you. Can you tell me how I can get in touch with a customer service representative, so that I can complain about the quality of this product?" Instead of replying, he just giggled nervously. "So does this mean that you don't know how I can get in touch with a customer service rep?" I asked. "No, I don't know," he replied. "That's a very basic question," I pointed out. "I would think that every HP technical service rep should know the answer to that one."
I spoke to another of these Indian-sounding tech support guys on another occasion. He was no better than the first. When I told him how my laptop refused to boot up, he said, "Can you give me your e-mail address, please?" I asked why he needed this. He said, "I'll send you a troubleshooting guide via e-mail." Um, excuse me? My laptop was down, and he didn't even bother to ask if I had some other way of accessing e-mail? Besides, shouldn't he be providing personal support, instead of sending me a friggin' troubleshooting guide?
It didn't end there. It seemed like every other question that I asked was answered with, "If you send your laptop to us, we will fix it for a fee." I got the distinct feeling that he wasn't even listening to me.
After multiple other frustrations, I asked him how I can contact HP to voice my complaints over their product's reliability. Once again, he said, "If you send your laptop to us, we will fix it for a fee..." By then I completely lost it. I yelled, "THAT'S NOT WHAT I WAS ASKING!!!! I wasn't asking you if you could fix this. I was asking you how I can contact a customer service rep to complain!!!"
One thing's for sure. I won't be buying an HP laptop again, anytime soon.
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