[kischt]

Hey Everyone,

I am writing this to warn people and also to get some feedback from the community before I take HP to the (small claims) court. Let me briefly explain what has happened so far.
-November 2003: My 1 month old computer breaks down after I spilled 0.5 ounces of juice on it (completely my fault)
-For 4 straight days I try to get help from customer service that is based in India (nice folks and very proffesional, but they simply seem to be talking off of some kind of script)
-Day 5: I need to send in my computer, so I am told to get it ready for shipment, and FedEx will pick it up the next day. Two days later, no FedEX. I check my email and I can check my service progress on a webpage. It includes a FedEx next day air tracking number, I click on it, it takes me to FedEx.com but the number is invalid. (oops, I was trying to make it short)
Turns out that it was an airborne express number and that HP forgot to send me a box to ship it in.
-December 2003: It has been 10 days, no call from HP, I check on the status page and my laptop was supposed to be at my house 12/01/03. Well, it was the 3rd AND a $706 bill cause the damage was out of warranty. At the bottom of the page it said that they were trying to get a hold of me. They never called my cell, so I don't know what they were talking about. So I had to call them (Long Distance of course) and I decided to pay right away but to speak to a "quality assurance specialist". I should hear from someone within 10 business days max. (note: it's around Dec. 13 or so).
New Years Eve: No call/email. So I write them an email (80% of the time I call the long distance number I got disconnected after keying myself through selections for 5 minutes). 2 weeks no email response (they claim: "We will respond within 48 hours")
January 17: A phone call, finally!!! I ask what took them so long and he said that he tried to call me a few weeks prior. After I told him that this was a cell # he apologized and all in the sudden blamed the busy holiday season. Good news though: cause the service has sucked so far and the cost was a little high, he lowered it to $269. I then asked him to ship the laptop to a different address then where I sent it from.
Five days later: My roommate at my old address calls me and says my laptop got there. I call the same guy and he apologizes and schedules the pickup.
1 week ago: I check my account, and notice they took out $706 and I have 5 overdraft charges because of that.
I call the same guy, get his voice mail each time and am told by a machine that someone will return my call within two business HOURS. Well, it has been a week! What would you do?

[dalereis]

I don't know what I'd do but I read about a lot of problems being solved by Smart Computing's "Pay Up, Pal" (actioneditor@smart computing.com). That's a column in their magazine. I had a hard drive go bad under warranty (HP) and used the "IM" help provided on the computer and I had the box to send it back in, the package picked up and returned to me with a new hard drive in about 10 days.

[gotrootdude]

Court! If you paid by credit card, you can dispute the charge up to thirty days from the charge.