Does venting consumer outrage on Twitter actually work?

This is a great article on Slate about using the internet to complain about a company and resolve a problem.

AutoZone excels at Customer Service

The other night I was out running errands for a few hours and all of a sudden the radio acted weird and died. Then the a/c went out. And before I knew it all of the gauges went to zero and then jumped around erratically. Yep, my battery was just about dead which concerned me since I had just replaced the battery the previous week.

On my way home I stopped at AutoZone to have my battery and alternator tested. They said the battery was fine but the alternator was only putting out 30 Amps, and registering a low voltage (like 11 Volts). It's supposed to be 14.5 and up. (Or something like that as I'm not a car expert.) I have to tell you the AutoZone employees were awesome. They charged my battery on the stand for awhile and I went home (got a ride from my neighbor Jana). In the meantime a friend let me borrow her cool sports car so I could get to work on Friday. When I went back to pick up my car at Autozone Thursday night I found out that my battery started smoking on the stand so they gave me a new one (I just bought that one the week before). I needed to buy an alternator and a belt from them, but they didn't have them in stock and it was after closing time so other stores weren't answering the phones. I returned at 7:30 am the next morning so we could have the parts transferred from another store and I could pay for them. One of the guys volunteered to pick them up instead of waiting for them to be delivered and he even dropped it off at the auto repair shop for me! How cool was that?

Why I don't shop at Seacret

Have you ever heard of Seacret? They are one of the kiosks in the mall that ask you to smell a soap and you always say No and keep on walking. One day I decided to stop. I figured why not check out their products. I was shocked at the cost of the items but thought I deserved a treat and I had been looking for a really good salt mixture for exfoliating. I find the sugar scrubs are sticky and don't like me very much. After using this expensive salt mixture twice and breaking out into a rash twice I tried to return it. Apparently they have a no return policy. If I had known that I wouldn't have ever purchased the items because I do have sensitive skin. How quickly they want your money but won't help you out when you have a legitimite reason for returning the product. It's not that I changed my mind. It's not like I grew tired of it. It gave me a rash and made my skin very itchy.

All they would do was exchange it for a different salt mixture and now I'm out of lots of money because I had a reaction to their product. You'd think they would want to satisfy their customer so they would say great things to others to bring in more business.

HP still fails in customer service

I've been amiss in updating my HP story. When we left off it was March and I had sent my laptop in for it's 2nd repair. It came back rather quickly in early April and HP had replaced the mother board which of course included a new graphics processor. However, per their policy they are still giving out the "bad" processors so the same problems are occurring again. I called HP about two weeks ago to say that I'm still having problems with my laptop overheating, losing wireless connectivity, oh and by the way my mouse acts erratically. I was quickly given a case manager. But he passed me off to the Safety group because of the overheating story. So now, I'm sending in my laptop for the 3rd time (in 6 months) to a Safety engineer who will test it and then they will tell me if anything is wrong with it.

Can someone please explain to me why they didn't do this the first time when the computer was too hot to touch else you'd burn your hand (and it smelled like it was burning?) That would have been a great example. Now, while it's overheating and runs 65-75 deg Celsius, it's not nearly as exciting.

Don't forget to follow this website and post your own story of issues with HP and the nvidia grapics chips.

Stay tuned.

Oh Comcast, you give me a headache!

I thought I would give Comcast a second chance. I thought I could forgive and forget. But, oh how they just want all my money by inaccurate billing. Oh how they love to waste my time by making me talk to people who don't have a clue how to do their jobs.

After using AT&T's Basic DSL for a few years I was ready for a faster speed - however that wasn't offered in my area by AT&T. Cable Internet was the only other choice in my area. I have had bad experiences with Comcast in the past but with a lack of choice what was I going to do? I tried to subscribe to their service online. I was trying to sign up for their up to 12 Mbps for 19.99 for 6 months but I didn't want to pay almost $50 to have it "installed" when all you do is plug wires into a modem. I can certainly do that myself. So I did what any normal human being would do and I called Comcast. The lady I spoke with said I could get that service of Cable Internet for a year and the install fee was $100 but she would waive it.

Imagine my surprise today when I received my first bill from Comcast and it was for $110! What? They charged me $50 for the install fee and then $28.96 for a connect fee. I was also charged for a modem yet I have my own. And then there are Cable TV fees too. Um, I don't have cable TV, didn't ask for it, and don't have a way of getting it. When I called Comcast tonight the first guy was confused at my bill because it showed I ordered Cable TV. But, I didn't order TV. So he transferred me to a person in disconnect who could get that off of my bill. She was awesome and removed all of the fees, removed the cable TV billing, and reset my internet billing to $19.99 a month for 12 months through some black magic. Apparently it was a promotion they were running that I caught the end of. So how did the Cable TV get on my account? Turns out someone tweaked my account on July 3rd and when they added Cable TV it took away all my discounts. How nice of that person, eh?

You thought I was done, didn't you? No, there is the technical side of things to talk about. The guy arrived and installed my cable on July 3rd. But - he didn't test the cable to see if it worked on my computer before he left. So I had to call in to have someone help me get it working.

On Tuesday my personal modem arrived so I called Comcast to get it set up. The first guy I spoke with didn't have a clue what he was doing. He kept telling me the MAC address I gave him was wrong. How could it be wrong? It's on the modem and the box! I asked him to transfer me to someone else. He said the only way I could talk to someone else was to hang up and call back in. Are you kidding me? So I call back. And this time a woman has no clue what I'm talking about. You want to set up your own modem? Yes, I do. Let me look that up. Okay I enter in your info and in 3-5 days you can call us back to activate it.

I happen to twitter and since I was frustrated I complained about my experience with Comcast. Imagine my surprise when Bonnie from Comcast quickly replied to my Twitter Tweet and came to my rescue. She took care of everything - we did it via email and Twitter and then I had my own modem set up and running. There were no 3-5 days required. She was awesome.

So while Comcast has done some really stupid things they also have some great people. But, overall I still have to rate them as poor because a company should be good to begin with and not just have people to save their butts when in trouble.

Advice for dealing with HP Technical Support

Another HP nightmare.

I originally had a Pavilion DV8000. It kept crashing. I reloaded the OS three times and that did not fix it. It was sent back three times for repair and that did not fix it. I kept going around with Technical Support (the stateside ones aren't bad, but the idiots in India are terrible! They work from a "cookbook" with no real understanding to either the software or the hardware - after about three exchanges trying to dx a problem they always, and I mean ALWAYS, revert to reloading the OS to factory state).

I looked up the CEO's name and address and started writing him letters detailing my misadventures with TS. Later I started sending them certified RRR.

His address is:
Mr. Mark Hurd
CEO & COB, Hewlett-Packard Company
3000 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA 94304-1185.

I also started copying his office and the executive customer relations committee of his office for ALL emails.

• email.ecr@hp.com
• external.ceo-communication@hp.com
  

I also sent my emails to Technical Supprt at these addresses:

• laptop_support_en@mail.support.hp.com
• pavilion_support_en@mail.support.hp.com

If and when I ever called them, I used my Skype & PamelaPro and recorded ALL conversations and told them up front I was doing that. I also noted to them the emails' CC's to Hurd's office.

It took a while and a LOT of bitching, but finally I was called by someone from Hurd's office who put an Executive Case Manager on the line who asked what I wanted in my new, custom built to order, laptop. I started with TS in June and got my new computer on November 11th. They sent me a DV9500, 2.2 GHz Intel Duo 2 T7500 CPU, 2 GB Ram, & two internal 120 GB HDs.

Be persistent, be firm, write Hurd a LOT! Copy the ECR on EVERYTHING (they WILL call you, thanks to me - new policy after my bitching). You should NOT be taking it to any third party as that can invalidate the warranty, regardless of what they say. If they want that done, they can do it. Just keep after them, do their checks and document it all and copy it all to ECR & Hurd. Download the complaints from the forum sites and send it along with EVERY letter & email. Contact the maker of the card in question (which is on the mother board, but not a part of it) and get them in on this issue. Basically be a PITA!

No longer a Walgreen's Customer

For years I have loved shopping at Walgreens enjoying their Easy Saver Rebates program, the friendly employees, and just the overall experience. I know, it's Walgreens. But no more. Walgreens discontinued their Easy Saver Rebates program in May with no notice given to any of their shoppers who have participated in the program for years and years. Employees knew nothing of why it was discontinued, just letting us know when we asked that it was no more. What Walgreens did was replace the Easy Saver Rebate program with instant print coupons that expire within 2 weeks. You've got to be kidding! Before you gave rebates via check or gift card and now you give out coupons that expire. No thank you Walgreens.

At my local Walgreens the management and the employees are unprofessional, lack courtesy, and sometimes simply lack brains. On another trip a friend and I spent a good 30 minutes shopping finding lots of great deals however walked out of the store not purchasing a single item. When we walked in, not a single employee mentioned that the computers were down. So when we got to the check out we were first told that they couldn't accept gift cards because they were having computer problems. Okay, no problem. But then items were ringing up regular price instead of the sales price or the clearanced price. That's when the cashier said, oh it doesn't work today we have to look up the price of everything which meant going to the shelf in the store of every single item and confirming the price. OMG! You MUST be kidding. But that wasn't all. Next they told us that the instant print coupons (for the rebates) weren't printing and they had no way of substituting for them.

My question to them was why didn't they post a sign on the door or tell people as they walked in that the computers were down and the only thing working correctly were regular price items. They could have one kudos of bonus points in actually providing customer service instead of being morons.

I haven't been back. I won't go back. I'm done with Walgreens and their lack of thinking beyond their noses.

Lowe's Disappointment

Today I stopped by Lowe's just to pick up something quickly. I was shocked to find that on a Saturday that there was not a single check out lane opened but only the self-service check out lanes. Do I need to point out that Lowe's is a home improvement store and the majority of purchases made do not sync with checking yourself out.

First of all those machines check the weight of items and have a hissy fit if not positioned correctly. Imagine if you were purchasing a rake, a shovel, a garden hose all in one purchase. Try balancing that rake on the scale. Good luck.

Ridiculous UPS Fees in Canada

I sent a package of gifts to a friend in Canada thinking it would be a nice surprise for her. I should have known something was not right when the process of mailing this package was no easy feat. I had to list every single item in the box, the quantity, the cost per unit, and the weight per unit and all of that had to add up to the total cost of the box and the total weight. Ugh. Um, I couldn't even remember what all I packed into the box.

The package took about 10 days to arrive at my friend's although she has yet to get the package. The UPS lady arrived at her door demanding 51$ (Canadian Dollars). The exchange went something like this:

- mmmm... soory? I beg your pardon? Do you mind repeating what you just said?

- This package is for you. It will cost you 51$. How do you wish to pay?

- I don't. Why should I pay?

- To clear customs. It is 51$, how will you pay?

- I won't. Why should I? I didn't buy anything, this is a gift to me!

- I am not going to spend the day here. Here is a notice of delivery. When you decide what you want to do, call us.

WHAT? Are you kidding me? I've sent her packages before and we have never had this problem.

My friend quickly learned that for any package of more than 60$, the recipient should pay UPS at least 50$ to act as a customs broker. Only UPS does this as the USPS services and DHL do not add on these fees. In fact, the issue with UPS is so bad there is a class action suit against them for this scam. You can read many complaints at epinions.com or check out the Wikipedia section dedicated to "Fees for Canadians".

At this point what are the options?

- she could refuse the package back so it comes back to me so I can divide it up and send it back in two different boxes and mail it via another method.

- she could refuse to have UPS behave in her name as the broker with Canadian Customs. Instead they can deliver some forms to her and eave the package at customs for her to pick up with a fee of around 10$.

What would you do?

HP is definitely wearing me out

It's a game of survival basically. I called my HP Executive Case Manager (ECM) immediately after my laptop returned from being repaired and expressed my disappointment that only the heatsync fan was replaced and the graphic card was left alone along with the rest of the motherboard even though I smelled it burning! The ECM said there was nothing she could do about the repair that since the repair order was submitted by a tech in India she didn't have access to it so even though I was speaking to her for over a week about the problem and how it would be fixed she couldn't update the repair order to communicate with the repair tech! What? Your kidding me. Really?

I even wrote a detailed letter to the repair tech explaining what happened and what I suspected were the problems. That didn't help either.

The call with the ECM got disconnected and since I had waited 30 minutes on hold to talk to her in the first place I didn't have the energy to call back. So later I called the Executive Customer Relations (ECR) I was speaking with and expressed my disappointment not only with the repair but with HP's processes, and the fact that no one at HP considers these failing graphics cards to be an issue even though there are hundreds if not thousands of affected people. Some people have documented their failure and HP experiences here.

But, that didn't help as the ECR just doesn't get it. Not only am I unhappy with my repair I also want to make suggestions to HP for where they just aren't getting it when it comes to customer service and the processes they employ. But...lol, I'm crazy to apparently think they would want to improve as a company. Does it help I have an MBA and I worked as slave labor while in grad school at Compaq right when the merger was taking place? No.

The next time I spoke with the ECM she told me that both her and my voices were little and that HP was a huge company and I'd never be heard. I told her I begged to differ as I work for a very large corporation and my voice is heard and my company does improve their processes on a daily basis.

So while I try to speak on behalf of the many of us who are experiencing this graphics card failure, the only thing I have been able to do is get a 2nd repair on my laptop. That's right. It goes back in this week for repair. Who knows how long they will have it or what they will do to it this time.

Laptop back from HP

My laptop returned from the HP Service Center yesterday. Unfortunately all they replaced was the GPU fan which means they took care of one of the symptoms but not the cause. Had laptop on last night for a few hours and the temp got up to 72 deg C which while hot is not anywhere near as hot as it was getting before hand. However, my laptop did spontaneously shut itself down a few times which was odd. So, we will see what happens in the next few weeks.

NVIDIA Graphic Controller Chip Litigation

I finally came across one class action lawsuit involving NVIDIA, Dell, and HP and that lack of acknowledgment about the faulty graphics cards. What's even worse is the computer manufacturers are charging people $400 and up to repair the laptops and all they are doing is putting in a fresh faulty chip (which then fails even quicker than the first one did). I'm glad there is a class action lawsuit and have heard there are at least three different ones filed through the U.S. I'm ready to join. Bring it on.

Read the complaint.

The law firm's website says the following: If you have purchased any of the foregoing products and wish to discuss your legal rights or this litigation, please call us at 1-(800)-922-4851 or Contact Us to submit a request for more information.

Wired Blog on NVIDIA/HP/Dell Faulty Graphics Cards

There is a WIRED Blog entry on this issue of getting NVIDIA, HP, and Dell to admit that the faulty graphics card are causing laptops to fail at an alarming rate.

New Executive Case Manager

Last night a new Executive Case Manager (ECM) called me and she is soooo much nicer than the previous one and she actually listens and understands what I'm saying to her.

The following is what I found out from her:
1) They are replacing (for my series of laptops) the graphics card with the exact same one, Nvidia 8400M. I have asked her to confirm the manufacturing dates of these cards they are replacing our faulty ones with. If they are additional faulty cards, then in a year we are back to the same problem.
2) They are not taking the graphics card out of laptop A, repairing it and then putting it in laptop B. Well, at least that's not HP's policy I'm told.
3) Nor are they just repairing the graphics cards and sticking them back in the same laptop. Everyone should be receiving new graphics cards.
4) If the motherboard has to be replaced then it is highly likely the hard drive will need to be reset to factory conditions. I admit I'm not a computer expert....but this prepares me for a laptop coming back wiped clean.

But, per the forums this is not happening. Heck, even an employee at HP is having the same issues with his personal laptop and not getting the service he needs.

I found another website dedicated to this nVidia issue at HP. It's called, HP Lies. How sad is that?

HP continues to amaze me (and not in a good way)

Someone please let me know when customer service has turned into this? Really, we have a known defect with a graphics card affecting thousands of computers, the OEM has provided almost $200 million to pay for repairs, and HP is fighting it tooth and nail.

The saga continues...

Over the weekend I had left a message for my original Case Manager asking him to please call me back on Monday and that I wanted to file a complaint against the Executive Case Manager (ECM). No shock - he didn't call. So I attempted to call him and wasn't allowed to speak with him because it had been assigned to an ECM, the person who wasn't helping me and was quite rude. I was told to leave a message and she would return my call. Instead I received an email that stated she already explained everything to me. I replied saying I have additional concerns about the repair and that I wanted to be transferred to a different ECM.

Then I called her thinking perhaps she just had a bad day on Friday. Oh no, that was being too generous. She was just as horrible today as she was then. It was a mistake to call her and expect customer service.

This morning I called Corporate Headquarters so I could file a complaint with Executive Customer Relations (ECR) and I politely explained my complaint against the ECM and how I wanted to be transferred to another ECM for my case. The corporate person I spoke with said the ECM was perfectly within HP's policy and transferred me back to her! I wasn't even allowed to file my complaint. I was shocked. I couldn't believe she too wasn't listening to me.

My original ECM, Cindy, was unavailable at this point so someone else spoke with me and told me that the ECR said to put me back in touch with Cindy who was on another line. I explained to this new person I was speaking with that Cindy was incredibly rude and I was attempting to file a complaint when I got transferred back to them. I was told that my request for a new ECM was being handled (yeah) and someone would call me back tomorrow morning.

But, no I'm not done yet because I still need to file my complaint and when I called the ECR back this time I received a person who understood what I was explaining and now I filed a complaint against the ECM and the ECR. She said she would send my case to the leads of both departments and that this behavior was unacceptable. Well, I agree.

Now, I still need to get my laptop fixed and I'm SO SCARED to send it off to HP's repair shop as I've read horrible things that have happened to people's laptops voiding their warranties by HP blaming the customers for things like liquid spillage. I'm going to have to take tons of pictures of my laptop (inside and out) to make sure I have documentation of the condition I send it in. And of course - I'm still trying to get a gurantee that they will replace the graphics card and not repair it.

New Tactic with HP

I came up with a new plan for dealing with HP and that was to make sure they had the type of graphics card that is in my laptop properly documented. So tonight I called them and spoke to a very nice guy in India even though we had trouble understanding each other. I found out btw he has an electrical engineering degree. Everyone should be asking the following question: why is he working in an HP call center?

It took an hour on the phone with him but I think the objective of the phone call was achieved. He documented that my graphics card is an nVidia 8400M and that my request of the repair technician is to replace the graphics card with a non-faulty one instead of "repairing" the graphics card. I'm very uneasy about sending the laptop in for repair based on the hundreds of people who have had issues with their computers failing even after the repairs.

I also shared with him that the rude escalated Case Manager (named Cindy) said HP would never replace my laptop and he apologized for her and said she should never have said that. I'm glad someone in this world agrees with me on that one.

Interestingly though, when I asked him if he could confirm my graphics card was on the list of faulty graphics cards he said he wasn't allowed to do that. Hmmm...

Rude HP Case Managers

I will give kudos to HP calling me back in 15 hours after being elevated to a case manager. However, their ability to understand and comprehend the issue and resolve it gets a big fat FAIL!

1) They told me my notebook does not have one of the defective nVidia chips and in fact doesn't have an nVidia graphics card. (It does, I specifically ordered my laptop with that brand of graphics card). She was adamant I was wrong.

2) I was informed that since there is no service bulletin for my laptop the only option was to get it taken care of under warranty (which I luckily have because of the previous dealing with HP) even though the fixes are not working (per the forum posts).

3) I was also informed that in no way would HP offer me a replacement laptop because I already received one. I explained to her that was not my choice, that was HP's decision to issue the replacement laptop based on they couldn't get a hard drive to me after 6 weeks. I thought this was incredibly rude of the Escalated Case Manager, whose name was Cindy. I told her they can't hold that over my head. She stated again that HP would never replace it.

4) Nor would she talk about what happens when they return the laptop to me and it fails a month later.

5) I asked to be transferred to someone above her and she said there was no one else that she was at the top. Finally I was able to get Corporate's information from her so I could file a complaint and she gave me a toll number. Me, being irritated at this point asked if there was a toll-free number and her reply was that there wasn't because they were the Corporate Office and they were busy running the company. I couldn't believe she said that.

I go back to this problem exists and I guess my only option at this point is to CONVINCE HP that my laptop has this graphics card.

HP Laptop is extremely hot and smells like it's burning. Thanks HP!

This week my HP Laptop started to get extremely hot and two nights ago it smelled like it was burning! I was a bit freaked out I do admit. I powered it off and let it cool down for about 24 hours before trying to use it again. It quickly heated up again so I called HP. Remember my laptop fiasco with the dead hard drive back in the Fall of 2007? Well, it turns out that the replacement laptop they sent me uses a defective nVidia graphics card. But I didn't know that when I called HP last night. Nor did I know it when I got off the phone with HP last night.

The call was of course routed to India where the person couldn't hear me very well because there was a lot of static on the line. I couldn't hear the static, but he could and we couldn't terminate the call because I'd have to start all over in the process. He worked from a script and had me first turn off the laptop, take out the battery, unplug the AC adapter and press the start button to discharge the static. Then he had me turn the laptop back on and asked me if it was running cooler. I said no. Next he had me run a quick test on the hard drive to see if it would pass. It did. Then he had me update the BIOS (um, did that in December 08 and there wasn't a new version released since then). Started the laptop back up and he asked me again if the laptop was running cooler. Umm, no. The fan constantly runs. It's hot to touch. You can't even type on it because it's too hot.

They said it had to go in for repair and they thought it was either a problem with the processor or the hard drive and it would take 2 weeks before I'd get it back. This caused me heartache to hear this because how can one live without a computer for 2 weeks? From online banking, to online businesses, to keeping in touch with the world - I'll be lost.

However, after the call ended I did a google search and the first item that popped up was an HP forum where hundreds of people have documented the very same problem. That surprised me because I specifically asked the HP rep if others have reported this problem and he said no. WHAT? How could you not know this?

Further research yielded that nVidia released into the market defective chips from May 2007 until September 2008 and didn't acknowledge the problem until late summer of 2008. In August of 2008 they contributed $196 million dollars (to computer manufacturers) to fix these computers (both desktops and laptops). So my question is: why didn't HP notify owners of computers with these chips that they were defective? My laptop could have caught fire two nights ago! I almost burned myself on it. What, is this the Ford Pinto case all over again? It's cheaper to deal with the aftermath (pay of the grieving relatives) than fix the problem?

I called HP back and told them I was appalled that I got the run around about my issue when it's well documented on the internet. I requested that my laptop not be repaired as repairs are not working (evidence from the forum posts) and the fact that my laptop smelled like it was burning (other permanent damage could have occurred). My case was elevated to a case manager and now I'm just waiting for someone to call me.

Stay tuned...we will see what happens.