[klam]

HP Tech Support:
OK here's how it goes, I work in a tech support area and a client bought this Pavillion but it came without the install CD. I had to contact HP cause I needed them to send me the Windows MCE 2005 Install CD for the laptop cause their restore utility didn't work in the first place and the laptop's OS was wiped out (long story short).... how difficult can that be?? Well.... with HP it was a nightmare.

First I joined their online chat session on their website and they promised us the CD, they took all the information and told us to wait around 7 business days....... time went by and we didn't get anything. I went to the chat session again and they told me "your case has scalated and your case number is #xxxxx" then she gave me a number and told me that I should call cause there's nothing else she can do.

I called and it was in the US (I'm calling from Canada), I asked them what was going on? we have been waiting for 10 business days by now and no sign of the CD. well, apparently they didn't know anything about the CD, but they made me wait, answer questions and go through all the troubleshooting I went through during the chat session again!.... so i did... after spending more hours on the phone explaining once again what was going on and doing whatever they pleased they transfered my called 3 times and in each call I had to do the same troubleshooting and repeat myself all over again... I was getting really pissed and my boss as well...

Finally, this last girl says she has to talk to the supervisor to see if they can send me the CD... well, HELLO!!! you've already promised the CD!!... ohh well, finally they accept and they transfered my call to the shipping section.. guess what?? OHH they can't do that.... they can't ship to Canada... why didn't they say that in the first place?????.... so, they transfered my call to Canada Tech Support saying that they will ship the CD cause they can't........ WRONG!!! first thing they do in Canada Tech support is change my case number...

Once in the Canadian Tech Support line this girl makes me go through another stupid troubleshooting even thought I explained her that I've already done the troubleshooting with 5 different people and at the end I was granted the CD....... for the second time.
Anyways, she ignored me and said that I HAD TO... at this point I was annoyed and I said "look I'm a technician here and I can assure you that all I need is that CD!!!" but nooooo, she makes me do a hardware test and told me to call back when it's done and if it passed the test they'd send the CD.... guess what?? I called back... aha!!! this is the funny part... they transfered my called to:

1 - Pavillion Tech support in India
2 - Pavillion Tech support in US
3 - Pavillion Tech support in Costa Rica
4 - Pavillion Tech Support.......... back in India

Now everytime they transfered my call the first question I'd ask is "What country is this?"... Finally I gave up, I was on the phone for 2 days with no success.... my boss got involved... and he had to fight with another person in Canada Tech Support who was about to transfer him too but he basically told her off and started to raise his voice.... so, this girl in Pavillion Tech Support finally decided to have a chat with her boss as per my boss request cause she didn't want to send the CD in spite of 3 different people saying that they will send it if we did what they wanted us to do..... so her boss agrees to send the cd "as a special case" cause they don't usually do that..
Why do they promise what they can't deliver? is not like they were doing us any favor! I mean if you don't ship the laptop with its CD's and its Recovery Utility doesn't work then what's their job? We're talking about a 3 weeks old laptop ..... *sighs* We finally got the CD.

Dell Tech Support:
WWWOOOOWWW, we rarely have a problem but when there is we call and we tell them what we did in the troubleshooting that's basically enough cause we do good troubleshooting before calling. The parts are send right away, and OMG they are so nice on the phone... amazing.

[ferrija1]

I would agree with you on the Dell TS. They are ok in the phone, but on the internet they're pretty good. One time I had a problem soI simpily entered my name, address, email, and phone number as well as my problem (which was needing my OS install CD) and they had shipped a CD to me in only 2 days with no confirmation. They just shipped it and sent an e-mail.

[Daniwrites]

I really can't stand my Dell laptop and I had a horrible experience with Dell Tech Support... The same thing happened--I kept getting redirected and told to do the same troubleshooting processes when finally they granted me a home visit by a tech...He fixed my laptop in 3-4 hours...and it now (3 months later) runs poorly again I bought the warranty so I can have home service and I am realizing I spent $400 on 1 visit =/

[Noyb]

I use the HP Email support and usually get good Service.
One of their favorite answers is … do a fresh re-install ... and Email back.
I have a spare HD that is a fresh install (for Testing, Emergency and Cloning purposes) …
… They’ve never asked me how I do this, in under 5 minutes.

It's kinda scarey when you do a Properties on "My Computer" .. and see this ...

[DFW]

I have to agree with Noyd, I found HP support here in the uk very good, and have always managed to get a set recovery disc's FOC when needed, and in the past with my previous systems that were in warrenty, if they needed to have back to repair, it was always a fast turn around.

[mom2inky]

Have an HP..where are they..no help; Dell is wonderful!! Will purchase a Dell laptop when my HP dies. Canon is another GREAT company!

[SIR****TMG]

I called hp and they wanted me to join there support club at $70.00 per year.

[etaf]

i think everyone will have different experiances - I had some great support from HP, Gateway in the past - and some calls where terrible
also a friend of mine has an ACER and had excellent service - but reading here some people have had really bad issues with there support
now try support with ISP's
like NTL ...... a lot of my friends are on NTL cable and what a nightmare that always seems to be.
UKONLINE are fantastic - but i'm sure someone has a bad experiance
Then Banks - I'm having a nightmare with Nat West at the moment

I guess the main issue they cannot be consistant, and everyone will have ups and downs
They just need to have more ups then downs

[ComputerPooped]

Well, folks, I thought a lot of HP on-line & phn support.......until now.
If you've never heard of "code purple" check it out on a search; and pray you NEVER get it.
I was just told they'd fix it for $249 plus I'd have to get it to them.

After DAYS of research & phn calls to both MSN & HP & numerous attempts to boot up properly, I've had no good results. If I had the finances for a lawsuit, HP would be hearing from me in the near future. They've already lost a lawsuit in regard to not giving the physical software with their computers.

So, in conclusion. If per chance you've met up w/CODE PURPLE and have a solution, kindly let me know will you?

Everyone have a gloreous day no matter what your ole buddy puter does.

[Noyb]

Checkout the third post here ....
http://www2.geek.com/discus/messages...tml?1120707470

Just setup a new CTO HP7680y and it had the wrong memory in it ... it was ordered with the faster Memory.
After two days of Email ... They said they didn't supply the memory ...
... But we could return it and they would replace the Front Panel.

At least HP shopping.com reimbursed the cost of the faster memory that was ordered .. and threw in a little extra for the hassle.

[klam]

haha ok guys I have another story... YES HP!!!, this time for a printer!!!

OK, so I called and asked them that all i needed was to know how to get the mac address from this designjet but hey!! the guy was about to transfer me to the Mac Tech Support section cause he didn't know what a mac address was!! (Yes, he was one of the technical support guy for the DesignJet Branch)... ok so I explain to him what a mac address is (omg how can they troubleshoot network printers then) so anyways we got the config page and that was it.

Now, once I got the static IP I assumed it'd pick it up automatically cause it didn't have the option to put it in but it wasn't picking it up. I called them (stupid decision knowing what the outcome would be) and this person didn't know how to put it in so she made me wait on the line to find out how to do it... she did this 3 different times to ask a question and then leave the phone to do some more research.

Anyways, apparently she couldn't find an answer so all she cared to say was "Oh the printer is out of warranty so we can't help you, are you willing to pay..........." what????????? are you saying that you can't tell me how to put a misserable number in your printer (or conversely just tell me there's no need cause indeed it should pick it up automatically) cause "it's out of warranty"??? OMG!..

I told her that if I was calling was because I searched before even making that call and couldn't find anything on the web.... anyways she didn't want to (or know how to) help and the case was closed.

One thing that amaze me about this people is how they love getting all your personal information (they won't even tell you their name unless all your data is in their precious database) and when they're done they tell you "no, I can't tell you that you need to press the 'on' button for 5 seconds to print a configuration page cause it's out of warranty but hey!! thanks for calling cause we love wasting your time"

I hope they go bankrupt soon...

[Noyb]

Just got my class action Law suit $50 settlement from HP.
It's only good if I buy something from HP shopping.com ...
Even then, it only applies to just a few items.
I wonder what the Lawyers got ??

I've been calling HP about every two weeks now because I have no volume recording controls in my new computer.
This also applies to all the new HP computers at Best Buys.
After about an hour convincing them that I don't have to reinstall windows ... It's not MY problem ..
They keep promising me that a wizard will call.

I keep calling them just to see how many times I have to call.
I need something to do in my retirement.

[klam]

Way to go Noyb!!! I can help you call just for the pleasure to bug them..
$50 only and only applicable for one of their products? sounds like you got scammed

demand for more!!!! make a pain and suffering case, I'll second you haha!

[cwwozniak]

I have to give Dell Tech Support a big

I came in one morning about two weeks ago to find our Dell Server beeping like crazy. When I logged in, I got a diagnostics screen showing that one of the hard drives in our RAID array had failed a lot earlier that morning. I called Dell and the technician first helped me stop the alarm beeps . He then walked me through some diagnostic routines and said the problem was more than likely a problem with out of date firmware and software and drive was OK. A few phone calls and e-mails later I had downloaded all of the updates. Looking at the logs, another Dell support person confirmed that one of the other drives was showing signs of imminent failure. I had the replacement drive within about 3 hours (we have a 4 hour on-site service contract) of my confirming our shipping address was the same as the location of the server.

[klam]

woah that's fast! how much do u pay for that kind of service?

ha and I just called DELL today cause some capacitors blown up and we'll be getting a new motherboard next business day.. amazing DELL