Author Topic: Computer Companies and customer service  (Read 1385 times)

Offline Matt_Fury

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Computer Companies and customer service
« on: May 11, 2006, 04:40 PM »
I thought I'd share this little story with all of you and see if any of you have had any similar experiences with your computer(s).

About a year and a half ago, I purchased a laptop from HP.  The laptop I bought was fairly top of the line and quickly became an important tool in working towards my Masters degree as well as games and entertainment when the Air Force sent me TDY to california for 6 weeks for training, leave etc.

Unfortunately, I kept having display problems every few months.  The tech support people were very helpful and even though I would lose my laptop for about a week, they'd fix it and send it back to me no charge.  Unfortunately, I ended up having this problem yet again and my computer was out of the warranty.  Even thoough it was out of warranty, HP tech support said they would pick it up and fix it for free yet again, but after having this problem for the 4th time in 18 months, I was understandably not at all happy about it.

Luckily, my fiance works for HP and had access to this voice of the customer tool that tech support normally doesn't have.  She gave them all my information and in about 3 days, HP sent me a brand new laptop that is top of the line by today's standards and still have the great features of the 17" screen and full keyboard.

Bottom line of my story, even though I originally received a bit of a lemon for my original laptop, HP's customer service has been nothing short of outstanding and I'd probably buy another one.  I don't mean for this to sound like a great HP commercial or anything, but I was curious if anyone else had similar problems with either an HP computer or another brand and how well their experience with customer service/tech support has been.
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Offline jokabofe

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Re: Computer Companies and customer service
« Reply #1 on: May 11, 2006, 07:35 PM »
All I had to read was "About a year and a half ago, I purchased a laptop from HP." I stopped right there.

I don't remember all the details, because it was back in the late 90's when I got my first PC, and it was an HP. All I can remember was that I called up one day because the CD writer that I had wasn't working. At the end of the third call I gave up, because the "techs" (and I use that term as loosely as possible) not only didn't fix the problem I was having, they somehow were able to cause the DVD drive that was also in the PC to stop working. That was the first - and last - time I called tech support of any kind.

Since that day, I've purchased quite a number of computer books, and learned pretty much all I needed to know. Enough so that I was able to build my last 2 computers, instead of purchasing them from anywhere. Those tech support people in any of those companies are a joke. I don't know where they find them, or how they can hire people who obviously don't know what they are doing.

Online Ryan

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Re: Computer Companies and customer service
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2006, 01:12 PM »
I've actually had pretty good luck with Dell Customer Support. I hhappen to use the Gold Service though, so maybe that's why. My last Computer was a real lemon and it broke down 4 seperate times last year, the hard drvie crashed twice, the motherboard got fried once, the power supply broke, and then it crashed for good last summer. I was able to convince them to give me a brand ne computer with lots of upgrades for free, as a result I now have 1GB of RAM, a 250GB HD, and a wireless keyboard and mouse. Not to mention I haven't had any problems with it in almost a year now. (Knock on wood.) :P
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