Hewlett Packard’s Repair Service

October 17th, 2007

I will preface this post with a cautionary statement: I wrote this in a fury of anger and so it is not fully grammar or spell checked. I hope it’s somewhat coherent.

My last entry in this blog was on July 30th. As you can read below, I had just sent off my HP DV8310 notebook to get the letter ‘T’ replaced, and was expecting it to return to me in three to five business days. This is the full story of the repair.

So, I waited, back at the end of July/beginning of August for the five business days to get my computer back. Seven business days later, I was called by Purolator and told I could come to the service center downtown and pick up my package. The next day, I rushed there before they even opened. When I got there and they let me inside, I could see the box sitting there, waiting for me. To my horror, however, as I ripped open the box on the floor of the Purolator transfer center, I found a note inside the box saying that there had been “no service call open for this serial number”, so my computer was being returned to me as broken as it was when I had sent it out.

Say it with me: “what?” Let me explain. When you open a service request with HP, they send you an empty box in the mail. You then put your computer in the box and send it back to them. It is impossible to have a box and not have a service call open, since one cannot acquire one of these boxes without having requested a service call.

So, how on earth could I have this box, but no service call?

I started making up theories in my head, on the way to work that day. What could have happened? Had HP lied to me? Granted, this was a bit of an odd case since I requested the box in March and not shipped until July. But I had *known* that I was not going to ship right away, so I had asked a representative about this on the phone as I made the order in March. He had told me that as long as I had a warranty, it didn’t matter how long I took before shipping it off.

Well, my warranty was good until Sept 16 or so. I had plenty of time. Well, of course the next step is to call HP and ask why my computer had not been repaired. They claimed that my warranty expired in the middle of July. A lady at HP asked where I had purchased the computer, and I told her it was the Future Shop on St. Catherine street in Montreal. She said that was fine; she was going to call them and get a proof of purchase slip from them, so she could then update the warranty information. This would then let me send the computer back to HP so that it would finally get fixed.

So, a new box gets sent with a new service request opened. It’s now the middle of July as I wait for this empty box to arrive. HP calls me back and tells me that Future Shop could not supply them with proof of purchase information and that I would need to fax it to them myself.

Well, my receipt is a bit worn down and illegible, so I went back to Future Shop to have it reprinted. The first person I spoke to about this told me they didn’t keep any receipts. Sure. Okay then, I’ll go ask somebody else. I did eventually get it reprinted, and they even faxed it to HP for me.

Upon arriving home, I had an email from HP thanking me for the fax, but explaining that they could not find the date on the proof of purchase and asking me to please re-fax it with the date circled. I looked at the page we had faxed them. I could clearly see the date of purchase marked - very clearly - in three different locations.

I emailed back telling them that I would not re-fax it, especially since I don’t have a fax machine at home. I told them that the date was on the first page in the upper left hand corner.

This did the trick, and they updated my warranty information. so that I could get the service done. Around the same time this was resolved, the empty box arrived for me. Good timing.

Now, during this past week I had been using my computer, of course, even though there was still no ‘T’. I had noticed some really odd noises that sounded to me like something was caught in the fan. Perhaps it was damaged in shipping? I figured that while I was sending the computer in to get fixed anyway, I may as well have them get that checked out. That decision dramatically changed the course of events for the next two months.

So, during the first week of August I sent my computer off again with an extra note saying I thought the fan might be broken but that I wasn’t sure. I was told again that I should expect my computer back to me in three to five days, but I knew for sure this time that those numbers were complete fabrications. I would wait the usual eight days before getting annoyed.

The next month went by uneventfully, except that I never got my computer back. Every two or three hours I would check the hp.ca/status website, and it would say the same annoying things every day. The important sections on the repair status website are the expected date of delivery, the shipping date and the tracking number. Now, “Expected Date of Delivery” did some weird things. More often than not, this date was in the past (huh?). Occasionally, it would jump ahead and say the date of the next day, whatever that might be. Then it would stay like that for a week or so. “Shipping Date” was always “not yet shipped” and “Tracking number” was always blank. Fun.

Two or three times a week I would call HP and ask why three to five days was turning in to more than a month. They would tell me I was waiting for a part that was on backorder. Hey, I was right! My fan *was* broken.

On September 5, a shipment of fans arrived, but, as luck would have it, I didn’t get one. I kept waiting.

A few days later, I got a call from a 212 number, which seems to be a different HP office. The woman on the other end of the phone told me she was sorry that I had to wait so long for my repair and that HP was prepared to offer me a choice. I could either wait for my computer to be repaired and they would give me $100, or they would buy me a new computer. Hm…tough choice.

I was told I could go to Future Shop, pick one out, and I would have it in 5 to 10 days. Fantastic! So, after calling her back to leave a message letting her know which computer I wanted, I had to wait. Her voice mail system told me that it was frequently monitored, and that I would be called within 4 business hours of leaving a message. That was a lie. It was about 32 business hours later that I got a response.

She told me I still had to wait to get my old computer back before I could trade with Future Shop and get a new computer. This makes so little sense I don’t even know what to say about it. When (if?) I get the old one back, I could expect a call from Future Shop offering the trade. More waiting.

So, I called the normal HP repair center again, asking for a new estimate on when the computer will be returned to me. They didn’t know, but someone told me she would put my case at a higher priority.

Leaving out a few frustrating details of shipping times, I got my old computer back on September 21 (my warranty is now expired).

Do I need to tell you about the state of my old computer, upon getting it back? They *did* put a ‘T’ on it this time! But that’s not all. Rather than leaving it with just a new ‘T’, they decided to replace my whole keyboard!

…but they got the language wrong. It was french, with “annul” and “eschar” keys (or something like that).

Trying to bottle in my anger (and trying to keep in mind that this isn’t my computer anymore, since it will be traded with Future shop), I tried to turn it on to have a look at my files. No go.

That’s right: HP sent me back my computer with a keyboard in the wrong language and with a fan in *worse* condition that it was in when I sent it to them!

I looked around, and there was a note in the box. It said that they were sorry they couldn’t repair it, but they had a reason. I’ll quote it:

“Unfortunately we are returning your system unrepaired. We 1-required approval to make repairs & were unsuccessful in gaining your approval.”

Ignoring the random “1-” in the middle of the sentence (there was no “2-” anywhere, just the “1-”….puzzling), there are so many things wrong with that sentence I barely know where to begin. I’ll leave that as an exercise to the reader.

So, I’m left with an out-of-warranty completely broken machine (that doesn’t turn on for more than 3 seconds at a time) and a vague promise from somebody at a random 212 number that I’ll get a new computer. (It should be noted that I did succeed in coaxing the computer to turn on for about 2 minutes one time, but I could never repeat this.)

What does one do in this situation? One waits. There almost begins a new saga, right here. The first phone call I made in this part of the saga was to HP. It was brief. They told me that they had informed the Futureshop of my situation, and that I should go there now for the exchange.

Upon arriving at Futureshop, I was told by three employees that they would not replace my computer, and to talk to someone else. I finally got through to the “Technical Director”. To be blunt, he was very rude. His message to me was that in his 8 or 9 years of working at Futureshop, he had never replaced a computer in this fashion. In fact, the only way I was going to get a computer would be if I went to the cashier and bought one. He even did a condescending, “Where are you, Futureshop or HP?” “Futureshop.” “What makes you think I care, then?”

Ouch. I left in a huff, and called HP. This call was well over an hour and a half long and I spent most of it on hold. The lady helping me was very kind, and explained a great deal to me. She told me that this case goes to HP’s corporate offices, who would contact Futureshop’s corporate offices. The message (the story of my new computer) would eventually trickle down to the store manager of the store where I purchased the computer.

Gotcha. So that’s why the employees wouldn’t do it; only the store manager would even know of my case’s existence. I’ll cut out some more angering details for the sake of brevity (ha!) and say that the store manager is nearly impossible to reach (he takes multi-hour lunch breaks and only works odd weeknights…or something). When I eventually did reach him, for about 2 minutes he interrogated me as to how I knew his name (some nameless Futureshop employee told me). When we finally got past that, he told me he did not know anything about my case, but sometimes these things take time. He’ll call me when he’s heard something.

A week later, there was still no call. I called that weird 212 HP number again, and left a message. The machine said that for this particular service, the expected call back time is four business hours (still). This time, it took about 12 business before I got called back. They’re improving. Kind of.

Anyway, the woman was confused when I mentioned that Futureshop didn’t know about my case. She then asked why I had gone to Futureshop and not Best Buy, like my file indicated.

My initial reaction was predictable:

What? Are you kidding me? I’ve been waiting two weeks for Futureshop to call me after they are contacted by HP, and…what? HP hasn’t even tried to contact Futureshop? They’ve been contacting the wrong company for two weeks?

Now, I did realize that Futureshop is actually owned by Best Buy. However, the HP woman knew nothing of this, which doesn’t, as they say, inspire confidence that the situation is going nicely.

Two weeks later, nearing the middle of October, I got a call from Futureshop. They offered an exchange! I went down to the store immediately. The whole process there took about three hours (numerous employees needed to be involved in finding me the right replacement, and each one of them required a reason for doing it. I recall one guy refusing, saying he’s never done anything like this before. Right…) but it eventually worked out.

So, it finally happened. I got a brand new computer, with a brand new warranty. I pose this question to the reader: Would you go without your computer for nearly three months if you were to receive a new computer and warranty at the end of it? (Keep in mind the replacement computer must match the specs as closely as possible to your old one. In my case, I got 40GB more hard drive space and a slightly faster processor.)

True story.

Entry Filed under: Technology, Rants