Today's gripe is a tale about HP and the grueling support gantlet a reader and her son were forced to run to get a broken computer fixed. But I want to emphasize that it could just be easily about Dell, because we've certainly had similar stories about them. Or Gateway ... except if it were Gateway, we probably would not have as happy an ending as we can relate here.
At the end of March the reader beg
All the desperate reader and her son wanted now was to be rid of the computer completely and get their money back. "We just want to send this mess back and get a new one. And we don't think we should have to accept a downgraded version of the system we paid for. We have put in hours and hours of our time on this, trying, with no compensation. We just want the quality computer we thought we were buying, not a defective, rebuilt one. My son has felt so powerless, he has decided to picket HP in front of Staples instead of spending more wasted time on the phone. And he and his friends are making a very entertaining movie to be titled 'True Story: HP Total Don't Care' which will be out soon on YouTube."
Computer support horror flicks? Not a bad idea, actually, although it's a genre that might be a little too scary for some of us. Still, when you're stuck with a lemon of a computer, anything you can do to call attention to your plight and embarrass the vendor is a good thing.
Obviously, contacting the Gripe Line is one of those things you can do. My normal procedure when I get a gripe from someone in really desperate straits is to publish it as quickly as possible in the hopes will it spur the vendor into taking corrective action. HP however has always been very helpful in responding to my reader's stories, so I already knew who I could contact there to speed things up for the reader and her son. The same is true of Dell, by the way, as they also always seem willing to look into any cases brought to their attention. But not Gateway, as we saw quite recently (see "A Stray Gateway Lemon"). Some companies are harder to shame than others - just a point to keep in mind the next time you're in the hardware market.
At any rate, my HP contact quickly agreed that something had to be done in this case, and a few days later the reader received a call from an HP executive who was ready to make things rights. On May 11th, five months into their ordeal, the reader wrote me that her son had just gotten his new computer. "He even got some upgrades," she wrote. "He also sent the defective computer back today -- so nice to be rid of it! At the last minute, the monster was still 'alive' -- I snagged myself helping him return it, as the last technician who 'serviced' it had screwed a screw completely through the case/chassis before returning it in 'excellent working condition.' My son and his friends are now happily gaming instead of making movies for YouTube about HP's 'Total Don't Care' ... Thank goodness."
Gee, I love a happy ending. But let's not kid ourselves -- there are more computer horror stories out there than a dozen Ed Fosters could help rectify, even if we did nothing else. Shouldn't computer users have some other recourse when they are stuck with a machine that doesn't work and that they can't get fixed? In my next story we'll talk about that further.
How do you deal with support nightmares? Post your comments on my website, phone the Gripe Line voice mail at 1 888 875-7916, or write me at Foster@gripe2ed.com.
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