Thanks to a compassionate FedEx driver, I was spared the drive to Montrose to pick up my computer (see my last post). He made the arrangements to bring the box to me himself. What a guy!

The Presario appears to work. When I shipped it to HP, the machine wouldn’t boot. The LEDs would light up, and the disk would spin for a second, but then nothing else would happen. I knew it was the motherboard that was the cause because 1) HP has a recall program for this problem, and 2) I was able to backup my disk by taking it out and copying the contents to another machine.

The machine now starts up without a problem. And surprisingly HP didn’t wipe the drive as they told me they would. Which means I should be able to copy my email and a couple other documents from my surrogate machine and be on my way. That’s a relief.

Although the Presario is a bit low on disk, so I’ll probably have to upgrade it before long.

So, all in all, the problem is resolved. It took almost exactly 1 month to get from A (HP providing me with a return ticket) to B (HP returning the notebook in working order).

If anyone from HP ever reads this, here are my recommendations.

1. Train your customer service reps (CSRs) properly. HP’s reps never really had the information or training they needed to get the job done right. Their English was poor and they tended to go from script more than using their heads. I can’t tell you how many times I had to explain my situation because the CSR couldn’t absorb information that didn’t fit their script.
2. Provide accurate information. The time estimates for the repair started at 7-10 days. Soon it was increased to 15 days. Then, when several days had passed and HP hadn’t even sent me the return packaging, the CSRs blamed FedEx for the delay. It was obvious that HP was having a major problem with repairs, but the CSRs waited until I was shouting at them before they’d admit there was a problem. And worse, ALL of HP’s email correspondence points the customer to an online status page. During the first week of my ordeal, the status page wouldn’t even come up! And even when it finally did actually show up in my browser it was never anywhere close to showing an accurate status. The online status page was worthless.
3. FIX YOUR SYSTEM. It’s great that HP acknowledged the problem with several models of their computers and repaired my notebook for free. If HP had handled this better, I would be singing their praises. But the experience was painful and infuriating and I will never buy another HP computer again. I also will not likely buy any of their other products.

If anyone who’s having trouble with HP reads this, here is my advice:

1. Let go. There is nothing you can do or say to make HP follow through on their promise faster than they are. Plan for the process to take 3 or 4 times longer than what you’re told. Go on with your life and try not to think about it.
2. Use email instead of the phone. This saved me a lot of headaches and high blood pressure because I didn’t have to wait around on hold to be given inaccurate information or bad news. Additionally, emails provide a "paper" trail.
3. Have your order and ticket number ready if you do call. This will save you time because the CSR can read your history instead of making you repeat it.

Good luck.

Despite telling two separate HP customer service reps that my address had changed, HP never updated the work order for the repair on my Presario. I learned this on Saturday (the 8th) when I went back to our old place to do some cleaning. FedEx had apparently tried to deliver the package to the old address twice.

So I called FedEx to explain and find out my options. Since they weren’t allowed to deliver it to a new address without approval from the shipper, and since a signature was required, I had to drive the hour to Montrose to pick up the box. Unbelievable.

And what makes this whole ridiculous story so much more ridiculous is that today, FedEx delivered to me a package from HP! At first I was thinking, "Hooray! My laptop is here! I wonder how they figured out the address mixup?" But the name on the box was NOT MINE. I’m guessing that those utterly incompetent folks at HP updated my new address on the WRONG ACCOUNT! Some poor schlub is sitting out there waiting for his HP shipment wondering why it hasn’t arrived yet.

Seriously – you can’t make this stuff up.

So I called HP to let them know they’d sent someone else’s package to me. It took me three attempts to make the rep understand the problem. He kept apologizing, and I kept trying to make sure he understood that he should be trying to fix the error for the other customer. Don’t know if it ever sunk in, but I tried.

I also inquired into a new ETA for the repaired laptop. According to this particular agent, it will take another 2 days to diagnose the problems, and that will determine the timeframe for repair and return. So, more waiting.

Meanwhile I’ve almost got a replacement ready. We bought a new Dell Optiplex 755 tower to fill in the gap in the short-term. It arrived yesterday and I’ve been frantically re-installing software and doing all the configuring. (I never cease to be amazed how much time is involved in setting up a computer.) When/if I ever get my laptop back from HP, the Optiplex will become our file/server and backup machine.

The new Dell works well and I’m impressed with the quietness of the fan. My biggest complaint is no digital video output for the monitor, so I use the VGA connection to the 19" widescreen monitor that came with the tower.

The box was 10 days late, but I should point out that this marks the first time an HP promise was actually fulfilled. They told me on the 20th that I’d receive the box within 2 to 3 days and it showed up on the 3rd day.

So basically I’ve made zero progress. According to HP they still haven’t even sent the return packing materials to me. They keep promising them though, in the next 2-3 business days. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that from these guys, I’d have at least 50 cents.

Meanwhile, the backup laptop I’ve been limping along on is acting up. This morning I awoke to find the machine with a black screen and just one line of text: Boot disk not found. Luckily I was able to power off and reboot, but how long will it last?

I ordered a Dell Optiplex for the short-term, something I can use for my consulting business, and a box that can be easily converted to a file server later on. Unfortunately it takes time for Dell to build the thing, and for the boxes to get here. Sigh.

As noted in my last post, my HP Presario V3000 laptop needs a new motherboard. HP Customer Service has agreed to pay for the computer to be returned and repaired at no cost to me. (The only ray of sunshine here.)

Five days ago I was told the packaging materials for returning the laptop would be sent to me within 2 days. After two ineffective phone calls – the most recent of which happened this morning – I’ve learned the packaging materials still have not yet been sent out. Both agents promised to take care of it.

I don’t have tons of money laying around, so my laptop is my primary computer. This means I need it to operate my consulting and web development business. But right now it’s just sitting there while I try to get by with a 6 year old laptop that isn’t capable of running most of the stuff I need.

Worse, I did some searching around and discovered that there are hundreds of stories far worse than mine that clearly illustrate HP’s criminal approach to customer service. There are some true horror stories out there.

Based on what I’ve read, I’m beginning to wonder how wise it would be to send in the laptop at all:

1. Even escalating and complaining to a manager doesn’t seem to do much for you.
2. It could take months, regardless of the time promises of HP agents.
3. Even if it’s repaired, many repairs appear to be temporary.
4. The laptop may come back in pieces.
5. I’m not sure I want to put myself through such a frustrating experience.

It also makes me nervous that I wasn’t told that my hard drive would be wiped until I asked specifically about that. A friend of mine tipped me off about the likelihood of losing everything, so I made sure to check during one of my calls to find out where my return shipping box was. I asked the agent, who could not tell me any useful information about the status of my return shipping package, whether my drive would be wiped.

“Oh, yes. We must wipe the drive to ensure there are no conflicts with the new motherboard,” she said.

I said, “Do you realize that you’re the first agent to tell me of this, and that if I hadn’t asked, I wouldn’t know until my computer arrived here with a blank disk?”

“Oh, I’m very sorry sir.”

“Look, it’s not your fault, but I think it’s important that you tell someone at HP how critical this kind of information is to make sure you don’t cause someone to lose their data.”

“Yes sir, I apologize.”

The agent was friendly enough, and was clearly unhappy to hear that I’d been misinformed. But I doubt anything will become of it.

Of course, knowing what I know, I was naive not to expect they would wipe the drive. But a huge majority of other HP customers would have no idea of the possibility of losing everything on their disk. As for me, I borrowed a friend’s handy universal drive adapter, took out my hard drive, and imaged it for use when I get the laptop back. But I’ll still have to reinstall all the software I had on the laptop, which will take me quite awhile.

So I might go ahead and have HP try to fix the laptop, and simply write it off in my mind. The laptop is worthless to me now, and I have very little confidence that it will be returned in working order. So maybe I’ll just move on. Here are my options as I see them:

• I could buy another basic laptop, possibly a Dell, and get going on rebuilding a system for my work.
• I could build my own PC, which I’ve been contemplating anyway.
• I could switch to Mac, though that would be relatively expensive for a laptop.

I’ll ponder and post an update when I have one. Meanwhile, if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

This explains the problems I’ve been having with my notebook failing to boot after sleep or hibernation, and the blue video signal being sent to my external LCD monitor. The startup problem required multiple power cycles in order to get the damned thing to boot up.

So it’s good that HP is owning the problem. The problem, however, is that I need to figure out how to get along for 10 days without my laptop, which is the primary computer for all my consulting work. I have an old Dell laptop that I use for testing web pages on older browsers, but I don’t think it will handle much of what I need to do. It has only an eighth of the RAM my current laptop has, and a quarter of the disk. Maybe I can swap the disks, but I can’t do anything with the RAM (except to buy more for a notebook I pretty much never use).

So this seems like a good test for me as I consider starting my own computer fixing business here in the North Fork Valley. I guess I should be able to fix my own problems before I start expecting others to pay me to fix theirs, huh?

UPDATE 10/12: Before I had a chance to do much with my hard disk, the laptop just stopped working. Can’t reboot. So now I REALLY have to find a way to get at the files on the hard disk before I ship it to HP.