Compaq runaround

DENIALS OF WARRANTY service by computer manufacturers are standard fare on The Gripe Line, but we may have touched bottom during Compaq's last months as an independent company. Let's hope so.

Readers have recently reported some of the most outlandish warranty episodes that I've ever heard of on Compaq products ranging from handhelds to high-end servers. One Presario laptop customer was outraged over the treatment he received for an intermittent power connection problem. "Plugging in the AC adapter caused the charge light to illuminate for a few seconds, only to go out again," the Presario customer wrote. "It turned out the power adapter in the back of the unit was not attached to the chassis and has disappeared partway inside, leaving no way to charge the laptop. After the usual tech-support stress, the unit is shipped back to Compaq where, after 10 days, a Compaq rep tells us it is our fault for damaging the socket. ... And none of this is covered under the warranty."

The Compaq rep told the reader that, as the socket was part of the motherboard, repairing it would cost the price of the unit. "Apparently Compaq's warranty service function is outsourced to some contractor who evaluates warranty claims like my HMO scrutinizes my request for a doctor's appointment," the reader wrote. "He faxes us an invoice for $850 [for repairing the problem], exactly one cent more than the $849.99 retail price of the unit. We demanded the return of the unit and now have a nonfunctioning new unit. Compaq/The New HP has victimized us to the tune of $915.86 with tax."

Another reader discovered that having a system under warranty wouldn't necessarily protect him from having to pay for the simplest of repairs. "Last fall I found a good buy on a new Compaq desktop ... [that] had a coupon for a free upgrade to the forthcoming Windows XP, of which I took advantage and installed within two months of obtaining the computer," the reader wrote. "All was well for six months, but then the floppy drive began malfunctioning."

After determining that other floppy drives would work fine in the system and that the suspect drive would not work in other systems, the reader called Compaq to get a replacement floppy drive under warranty. He was told that "even though my one-year hardware warranty was still well in effect, my 90-day software warranty had expired. The Compaq technician informed me that since she could not determine whether my problem was with the hardware or the software, I would have to pay in order to diagnose and fix the problem. ... I would also have to reload the original operating system [Windows Me], returning the computer to its factory state, before Compaq could do anything. I asked the Compaq person what the value of a one-year hardware warranty was when they could claim undetermined hardware/software failure and depend upon the expired 90-day software warranty to extort money from the customer anyway. ... I gave up and bought a new $20 drive myself."

Compaq support can be just as difficult when more is at stake than a $20 floppy drive. "Yesterday, my Compaq DL360 server reported that the power supply fan had failed, and the server shut itself down," another reader wrote a few months back. Because the server was still covered by its original warranty, including overnight shipment of replacement parts, the reader called Compaq and was promised the power supply by 11 a.m. the next day. "This morning, UPS came but no package from Compaq. I called and was told the replacement had been shipped and should be in my hands."