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?
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
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.
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.
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.
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.
Friday, July 3, 2009
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 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.
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
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!
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