They just use an more intellengent bred of Indian?

"Greg Swift" gjs at ctm-inc dot com wrote in message
...
I would second much of what nut cracker said. The difference between
the business support group and the consumer support group is like
night and day. (I have personnaly dealt with both, though I think
pre-HP Compaq support was a bit better than it is today.)

As for the hardware itself, however, I would point out that there are
a few "high end" consumer models that are not much different than some
of the "low end" business models. Still, the business model has a
better warranty, and in my opinion, that plus the enhanced support
makes the price difference worth it.

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 17:17:56 -0500, "nut cracker"
wrote:

every so often someone comes up with one of these. Guess what, it
happens.
Support debacles occur.

If you dont want things like this to happen, buy the business grade
machines. They are built better and come with better support. Or, build
your
own computer. It will be a good experience for you.

Most of the people who write these kinds of Open Letters paid a
comparatively small sum of money for hte equipment they are complaining
about, and expect preferencial treatment because they feel like they
deserve
it.

To all these people, i say: You get what you pay for. And do some proper
research before you invest in a computer. Your support nightmare might be
the 1 in 250 that suck, but that doesnt mean that you can take your one
experience and make a blanket generalization about the quality of an
organization.

How much of a bargain is that RadioShack display model machine now ?


"kevin" wrote in message
...
First Email
Dear blanked out,

Your feedback is very important to us and on behalf of Hewlett-Packard
we
apologize for the difficulties you are experiencing. Your message has
been
forwarded to someone who can help resolve your problem.

We very much appreciate you taking your precious time to bring this to
our
attention. Your input is vital to our continuous goal of providing you,
our
valued customer, with the service you expect from Hewlett-Packard.

Thank you,

HP Executive Communications



Original Message Follows:
------------------------

This is a message to HP's CEO, Carly Fiorina, from a valued customer:
blanked out.

Customer's Phone: xxx-xxx-xxxx
Customer's E-Mail: blanked out
Feedback Area:
- Product experience
- Service or support experience
Message:
I am writing you to relate to you my bad experience with Compaq that
you
need to know about. If I get cut off due to the character limit and
you
want more info please feel free to call or email me.

I am blanked out (Case#blanked out/CSO#blanked out) and I
recently
had
a horrible experience with Tech Support. My first contact was when my
video
card was intermittently acting strangely (9/21/03). I called TS and
told
them, they told me it was video drivers or BIOS settings. They
instructed
me to reinstall the video drivers and change some settings. I did and
the
video card appeared to work. During the next few months I noticed ait
was
still acting up but I was in the middle of a huge web project that tied
my
hands from sending it in. Sometime later (exact date unsure) I had a
problem when I was using the laptop and cleaning my mouth and I coughed
on
it (keyboard got damaged). I called TS again and they said it would be
approx $278 and I did not have the money so I asked if I could buy the
keyboard and install it, the TS Rep said that would be OK. So I did.
I
have 20+ years of experience repairing computers, so I considered
myself
qualified. Anyway, the keyboard did f ix the problem. BUT there was
still
this nagging video issue (that predated the keyboard) so I sent it in
for
repair. I was told the repair is out of warranty because the
technician
believes that the keyboard problem was the cause. That video issue is
documented in your own system as pre-dating the keyboard. I felt in
the
interest of avoiding "he said/she said" that Compaq would do the right
thing
and just repair it. Well this is not happening. I was hoping you
would
intervene and at least force the repair location to properly evaluate
thier
decision (not force them to make a decision on my behalf - I would
never
ask
that) MERELY FORCE THEM TO LOOK AT ALL THE FACTS BEFORE THEY RENDER.
The
keyboard issue WAS repaired and is not the cause of the current
problem.
My
laptop is as of now in the repair center and action must be taken fast
before they return it unrepaired. Could you please help me out on this
issue?

TY
blanked out

PS I will be posting another email regarding my experience with TS
again
after this one. That email will show you how the bad TS policies /
practices led to this problem. Please read the follow of for more of
my
reasoning.




Second Email
Here I am again, blanked out (Case#blanked out/CSO#blanked out.

Here is how this specific case was handled:

I called Tech Support regarding the video issue (second time) on
Saturday
or
Sunday (27-28 March 04). I was told that I would be contacted via
email
for
pickup instructions. I got an email Sunday late afternoon (after the
location where I was going to pack the laptop closed) instructing me to
have
it ready for pickup on Monday. I called back to reschedule, and they
did.
I got the laptop packaged up and the FedEx never showed up (or if they
did
they never left a note). I called back Compaq and asked them why and
they
apologized and scheduled another pickup. I asked how I could be sure
this
one would happen since the others did not so the TS Rep gave me a
confirmation number (TCMA38). I wrote it down and waitied for pickup.
They
never showed again. FeEx this time claimed they were here BUT AGAIN no
note
on the door to prove it. I told them on every pickup day that the time
between 2:45 and 3:15PM No one would be here and they supposedly put
that
in
the notes.

Anyway, finally I got a Compaq TS Rep on the phone in conference with
FedEx
and the TCMA number they had for the new shipment (according to FedEx)
was
not even in the system. The decision at that time was made to reissue
the
order number (canceling the old one) and getting a new shipping time.
Eventually the item was picked up on 4/1/04. Any, after being picked
up
it
was dignosed and I never got any correspondance regarding the laptop.
So
I
went to the website and discovered myself that it was out of warranty.
I
was mad, called TS and asked why. They said they did not know and
would
look into it. Now after several failed attempts at getting the
information,
they finally told me it was due to the spillage (see previous email to
you).
I explained the circumstances of that to the TS rep, but they could not
help
me. After another several calls I finally reached the Seattle Office
and
spoke to Ryan. Ryan finally was able to relay the circumstances (via
email)
to the repa ir center, but said it would be 24-48 hours to get to
them.
I
wanted to expedite this. The next day (4/5/04) I called again and got
a
tech support rep to finally say he would submit my case to the "Quality
Dept" (which I cannot verify he did because he left no notes in the
system).
Anyway, I again called and spoke to Mike Drake (Seattle) and the case
finally is being resolved because he explained to me the situation
fully
(like NO ONE BEFORE HAD).

The reasons for this email is:

(1) To express to you my sincere dislike for outsourcing the TS
services.
It has caused me great pain from language barriers, technical and
policy
expertise issues. Everytime I spoke to a TS rep in India or wherever,
I
walked away bewildered. It was one of those that "assisted" me on the
original Video issue, and it was one of those that I dealt with on the
"keyboard" issue.

(2) Mike explained to me that the technicians word is not binding ONLY
the
written word (contract, warranty, etc). If thier word is not binding
how
do
I the customer hold them accountable for the times they create mistakes
like
this. If the technician regarding the video issue had told me to send
it
in, I would have and we would not be speaking (the video issue is a
MANUFACTURING FLAW). If the technician that I spoke to regarding the
keyboard had been more clear I also would not be here now, I would have
paid
the $278.

(3) The inability for Mike to allow the "Human Part" of this situation
to
just make the decision to repair the laptop is beyond me. I have never
dealt with such an obtuse company in my life. I own FOUR HP / Compaq
products and 3 of them were broke OUT OF THE BOX and I had to
constantly
deal with them. (A) HP ScanJet 3300C makes a noise and in order to get
Win
2000 drivers I had to order a CD... no one makes you order CDs for
this,
they usually make them available for download. I am not on Windows XP
so
it
does not matter now. (B) HP LaserJet 1100 jams all the time, order for
free
the repair kit because you KNEW it was bad and repaired it and it still
JAMS, well why is it bad off the design / production floor and why do I
have
to use this cheesy cardboard repair thingy? I should have gotten a new
printer. (C) That brings me to my Laptop which was bad when I got it
intermittently, and getting it repaired is a nightmare.

(4) Finally, the phone system you have is appauling. It transfers to
the
wrong place most of the time. It relies on the human voice (which is
not
perfect) and then if you make a mistake you get the call director that
is
in
India and transfers your calls to the wrong area. I have made probably
25
calls to your TS line since I bought this laptop and I want you to know
that
after this experience.... I WILL NEVER BUY HP or Compaq again. FURTHER
I
will make it my lifes mission to stop anyone buying HP or Compaq. I am
an
IT professional, fully Microsoft Certified and I have done everything
from
build, provide tech support for and reapir, including loading software
and
replacing CPUs, and I have never seen any company that so misrepresents
this
industry.
I worked for Radio Shack for 3 years (ref blanked out @ blanked
out,
WA
Radio Shack) and in that time about 60% of the Compaq repairs I was
involved
in was customer dissatisfaction with the repair service. I even saw a
few
come back from the repair center even more damaged then when they went
in.
I saw ONE that came back so poorly packaged that the store I worked for
at
the time had to buy a new one for that customer. I decided ONLY to buy
this
laptop because I thought since HP bought them out that MAYBE JUST MAYBE
they
might have better support / service. Well I was wrong.

Finally, the whole experience has left such a bad taste in my mouth
that I
want to get rid of ALL my ties with HP or Compaq and never buy anything
from
you all again. My sister owns one of your HP All-in-One Printer
(HP1350)
and a HP digital camera (HP320) and she and I troubleshot it over the
phone
for several hours. The order of the printer / camera install finally
ended
up making the difference. What happened was that the software
installation
had errors all through it over and over. The technical support team
was
useless. She (my sister) wrote HP regarding this issue and the
Automated
response merely told her to reinstall the software, that did not fix
it.
Anyway after all her pain (3-4 weeks of it) she finally discovered (on
her
own) that the order in which the software / drivers are loaded causes
all
the problems.

What kind of CRAP is that?

I want you to know my sister is a Buyer Level III for IT products for a
major Central California HMO and she has decided NOT to buy HP or
Compaq
ever again. And believe you me I am going to tell this story to
whomever
will listen.

Thank You,
blanked out

This message was sent on: 4/10/2004 at 17:21:57 GMT

blanked out also added this personal information:
Company:
Address: blanked out
City: blanked out
State: blanked out
Zip Code: blanked out
Country: USA
Fax:






Greg Swift
email: gjs at ctm-inc dot com