WOOT
The saga of Julie's computer:
March '07: bought an HP Slimline s3027c at Sam's Club. Loved it.
August '07: It started acting funny, slowing down and eventually freezing up on a regular basis. We let it go for a while, checked for spyware etc.
October '07: I contacted HP. After putting me through many diagnostics over the phone, and me repeatedly telling them that "I would love to do that, but the computer has frozen up again," they agreed to take it in for repairs.
A few weeks later: The computer returns. I turn it on, and it freezes up again. WTF. I call HP again, and say, um, did they actually check the computer before they sent it back out? Because it's doing the same thing I sent it in for. After many more diagnostic attempts were all foiled by the fact that the freaking tower was freezing up every single time during bootup, they agreed to take it in AGAIN.
A few weeks later: The computer returns. It seems to be working fine. Yay! Then we start to realize that there is no sound coming out of the computer. No, I say to the HP tech, it is not on mute, I have tried 2 sets of speakers and 2 microphones; there is just no sound whatsoever coming out of this computer. They agree to take it in... AGAIN. I am pretty fed up by this point, but agree to abide by their procedures one more time. After all, all of this is still covered by the warranty, and unlike with our Shuttle PC, they don't make us pay for shipping either way.
A week later: The computer returns. I turn it on, and instead of attempting a normal bootup, it starts some "PC-DOCTOR" diagnostics program. It gets about a third of the way through the diagnostics, according to the progress bar, and then the computer just shuts off. This happens every time I turn the computer on; 7 or 8 times total.
That was yesterday. Today I got an email from my "repair caseworker" at HP, checking in to see if the situation got resolved. I replied with a semi-long-winded email detailing the above events, and explaining that although I was willing to follow HP's repair procedures up through this point, we are now on our fourth motherboard, and it has become increasingly obvious to me that the repair techs cannot even be turning the machine on before they send it back out.
I told him that I would like them to replace my tower, with a new one, not a refurbished one, because at this point I wouldn't trust that either, or give me my money back.
The case worker called me back about 10 minutes ago, and said that because I had written everything out in such detail, he could just go ahead and make the decision: they are sending me a brand new (not refurbished) tower, and not only that, it will be an upgraded model, with 2 gigs of RAM instead of 1, and a bigger hard drive.
(And all this was accomplished without having to resort to being the irate customer; I was polite all the way to the end.)
WOOOOOOOT.
March '07: bought an HP Slimline s3027c at Sam's Club. Loved it.
August '07: It started acting funny, slowing down and eventually freezing up on a regular basis. We let it go for a while, checked for spyware etc.
October '07: I contacted HP. After putting me through many diagnostics over the phone, and me repeatedly telling them that "I would love to do that, but the computer has frozen up again," they agreed to take it in for repairs.
A few weeks later: The computer returns. I turn it on, and it freezes up again. WTF. I call HP again, and say, um, did they actually check the computer before they sent it back out? Because it's doing the same thing I sent it in for. After many more diagnostic attempts were all foiled by the fact that the freaking tower was freezing up every single time during bootup, they agreed to take it in AGAIN.
A few weeks later: The computer returns. It seems to be working fine. Yay! Then we start to realize that there is no sound coming out of the computer. No, I say to the HP tech, it is not on mute, I have tried 2 sets of speakers and 2 microphones; there is just no sound whatsoever coming out of this computer. They agree to take it in... AGAIN. I am pretty fed up by this point, but agree to abide by their procedures one more time. After all, all of this is still covered by the warranty, and unlike with our Shuttle PC, they don't make us pay for shipping either way.
A week later: The computer returns. I turn it on, and instead of attempting a normal bootup, it starts some "PC-DOCTOR" diagnostics program. It gets about a third of the way through the diagnostics, according to the progress bar, and then the computer just shuts off. This happens every time I turn the computer on; 7 or 8 times total.
That was yesterday. Today I got an email from my "repair caseworker" at HP, checking in to see if the situation got resolved. I replied with a semi-long-winded email detailing the above events, and explaining that although I was willing to follow HP's repair procedures up through this point, we are now on our fourth motherboard, and it has become increasingly obvious to me that the repair techs cannot even be turning the machine on before they send it back out.
I told him that I would like them to replace my tower, with a new one, not a refurbished one, because at this point I wouldn't trust that either, or give me my money back.
The case worker called me back about 10 minutes ago, and said that because I had written everything out in such detail, he could just go ahead and make the decision: they are sending me a brand new (not refurbished) tower, and not only that, it will be an upgraded model, with 2 gigs of RAM instead of 1, and a bigger hard drive.
(And all this was accomplished without having to resort to being the irate customer; I was polite all the way to the end.)
WOOOOOOOT.