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.

Bait and Switch at AirTran?

Dear AirTran,

Here is the flight I tried booking on AirTran’s website this morning. As you can see on the first page it said it was having difficulties with the payment processing system and to call 1-800-AIRTRAN. I called and was on hold for about 20 minutes before someone answered the phone at which time they wanted to not only charge me the higher fares (for what their computer said because they couldn’t access the web specials) but also charge me an agent fee for booking over the phone.

I have been at this for over three hours this morning trying to book this flight via your website and over the phone. I was then given the customer relations number 866-247-2428 option 3, to call for help. That person promptly knew what the problem was with the website (apparently the A+ rewards number needed a nationality (even though it doesn’t ask you for that information). However, the first person I spoke with at the phone number given on the page had no idea that this was the problem. Your company should be able to promptly disseminate information to those who speak to customers having this problem.

Once the problem was resolved by the second person, the flight I was trying to book was no longer available at the price I was quoted. This is a prime example of bait and switch. I go to the internet site, try to book a flight, your site doesn’t work, I have to call, told to pay agent fee to book and that the flight is more expensive.

Please see the attached documents (2 pages) for the flight details and price amounts for what I was purchasing. I am not a crazy customer – just trying to keep the system fair and honest.

In addition, due to the fact that this has been a 3+ hr ordeal to book a flight I would appreciate a discount in addition to getting both flights at the quoted cost on the attachments. No one should have to go through this in order to book an airline ticket in this day and age.

Sincerely, A First Time Passenger

Circuit City Frustration

I went online looking for the best shipping deal when pre-ordering a Wii game coming out in September and found Circuit City had free shipping. Awesome, right? So then I redeemed points for a $50 gift card to pre-order the Wii game. Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture? It turns out you can't pre-order a Wii game using a gift card. Not that it tells you that. It tells you that you can't pre-order music or movies. Is a Wii game music or a movie? Not the last time I checked. How was I to know? So I called their customer service and I told the person I wanted to pre-order a Wii game using a gift card. If this was really their policy she would have told me right then and there. But no instead she took all my info down and set up the order and then told me that the system won't let you pre-order a game using a gift card. I asked if there was any way around this and she said no, the computer won't let her. I asked to speak to a manager. She said I would have to call back and press another number to speak to someone higher up. She kept apologizing. How does apologizing in every sentence make things better?

Why did I waste my points on a gift card for a store I don't shop at? I guess I should have known better.

Airline Fees have you down?

Check out this msnbc article about how to complain about the outrageous fees are now charging - from checking first and second bags to getting a drink while on a four hour plane ride.

"A complaint letter is a good start. There’s evidence that airlines count the number of grievances about a particular fee. They may even read the letter you’ve sent. In the past several weeks, I’ve had a chance to review several airline responses (they’re all form letters) which suggests the carriers have no intention of lifting these new surcharges. One way to underscore the seriousness of your complaint is to copy the Transportation Department, which compiles these grievances in a monthly report. Airlines pay attention to those numbers."

Petco no more

Today I attempted to return kitty litter to Petco and was disappointed that they wouldn't accept it because it had been more than 30 days.

While back I bought some expensive kitty litter made out of corn that is flushable. I have been trying to come up with a method to eliminate plastic bags (from stores) in my home. Mostly I use them to throw away the kitty litter. But with this corn type you can flush it down the toilet. The price for a 30 lb bag was $46, which is personally just outrageous. But, I thought I would give it a try and see what happens.

Let's just say it wasn't accepted by my cats. Instead of using the litter box, they used the floor. Totally disgusting. And this was after I attempted to wean them off of the regular kitty litter by mixing the two together.

At first the answer at Petco was no returns accepted after 30 days. I tried to explain to them that this good earth friendly kitty litter lasts a long time and it took quite awhile to wean the cats off of the old stuff before using it alone. Nope, nothing from the store manager. She called the district manager and he said they'd refund half my money. Well, that'd be fine if I had used half of the product. But considering I hadn't used very much at all I thought that was a bad deal.

My next attempt is to contact the manufacturer and let them know that my cats were dissatisfied with the product. Which is true. And thus so was I because I had to keep cleaning up the mess.

Home Depot's Green Attempt

In this morning's home depot advertisement they stated they were giving away free reusable bags this morning and quantities were limited. You see stuff like this every year around Earth Day, a company's attempt to look "green" without actually implementing any sustaining changes.

I went to Home Depot this morning and found out that they only had 150 bags to give away and they were given away as you checked out. So one person theoretically could have left with 10 bags. 150 bags barely counts as trying to be "green".

Home Warranty (Beware)

Dear National Home Protection & Nationwide Home Warranty,

I found your company's website to be very misleading. In your contract terms it says that each item is limited to $1500 to repair/replace. However on this page of your website your company provides the estimated cost to fix things if you don't' have a warranty, but state if you had a NHP plan you simply pay the annual contract price and the per visit trade service fee which is listed as $60.

That's what is misleading. Where some repairs could cost $4000 to $7000 your only going to cover $1500 and the homeowner has to cover the difference. Other warranty companies pay for the full cost of the repair and don't cost much more than you for the annual warranty plan.

Very disappointed in your company for mis-representing this information.

Sincerely,
A frustrated homeowner

Has Target lost their mind?

Here is Target's reply to my friend's incident I reported recently. They want you to jump through hoops to return a 1 year old's birthday gift.

Love Lost (Target)

This is from a friend.

Dear Target,

I don't even know how to do this. I know that breaking up via blog is so childish, but I feel like our latest spat was also childish (on your part), and I'm pretty peeved right now. My little Claire got the cutest bathing suit for her birthday, but I'm afraid it won't fit her in a few months when we're actually able to swim outside. I don't have the receipt, as it was a gift, and apparently you no longer give gift receipts with every purchase. But I thought I could at least EXCHANGE it for the next size up. I mean, it has the TAG on it still, which is CLEARLY marked Circo (a brand carried exclusively by you), and it has never been worn. The nice lady at customer service looked me up in your computer system using my driver's license, and noted that I had already used my 2 (TWO!) non-receipt returns/exchanges for the year. I quickly did the math, and came up with the fact that it is still January of this year, and I am pretty certain that I have not returned anything yet in 2008. She pointed to her paper where she had written down two dates:

1. 1/08/07
2. 6/24/07

She pointed at the last date and said that she would be glad to accept my return after June 24th of THIS YEAR. So it's not a calendar year thing, nor is it even a within-12-months thing, or I would have been able to return this bathing suit because today is later than January 8th. This makes no sense to me.

So. I called my friend Rae, who gave us the darling bathing suit in lime green and white stripes with the cutest ruffle you ever have seen, and asked her if she had by any chance kept that darned receipt. Maybe it was the tone in my voice, but she started in on a rant. "Oh I KNOW! It is so annoying that they won't let you exchange anything without your license, and you only get 2 per year! I once had to give them my license for a Match Box car return!" She told me she does still have the receipt, because she was concerned that maybe we would need to exchange the gifts, and then she launched into her experience trying to get a gift receipt from said store which does not accept returns without a receipt. She had already been cashed out, and when she looked at her receipt, she noticed there was no gift portion on it. She asked the checker if she could have a gift receipt and he said it was too late! "Just give them the actual receipt." This is not an acceptable answer, Target.

Now. If you are going to require a receipt for such silly things as EXCHANGES for the EXACT SAME ITEM, and people without their receipt may only have 2 of these exchanges per non-calendar year, PERHAPS you should include a GIFT RECEIPT on EVERY SINGLE DAMN PURCHASE.

I do love you, Target. You have fun things. Your prices are reasonable. You are so close by. Your stores make me happy, and even my oldest daughter loves to go to "the big red ball store". But I think we may need to take a break for awhile, and hope that each other's absence will repair the damage that has been done. Perhaps you should seek therapy. Until then, I will have to drive all the way to the BX, or even to *gah* WalMart. Please make a change for the better.

Sincerely,

The owner of a very cute too-small child's bathing suit

AT&T's proposed filtering policy is bad news

AT&T’s big plan, which CEO Randall Stephenson shared this week at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, is to monitor traffic over its online network in what he claims is an effort to stamp out theft of copyrighted material. He failed to mention that such a plan is also unethical, impractical, insane, and given the CEO’s explanation, probably more than a little dishonest.

“Do you guys want AT&T to read your e-mails?” Johnson asked the Thompson audience, when he should’ve been talking about gadgets. “Do you want AT&T to like, open up your instant message conversation and look and see if you maybe said something that they didn’t like or maybe the government didn’t like? Yeah? No. I don’t think anybody wants that.” A chorus of “Noooos!” echoed from the audience before producers shut him down.

Ulta - So much for help

The other day I went into an ULTA store to pick up some hair products. I asked one of the ladies for help in locating a specific hair product and she told me they were all too busy to help me. I couldn't believe that was the response I received. I then got in line at the register to ask for help and was told there was one girl working the floor to answer questions. Since the one girl was busy helping a customer I tried to wait around to get her attention next, but after 10-15 minutes I gave up and went home. So much for customer service.

HP - What a surprise!

I called HP today because as I've been slowly getting my new laptop up and running with my software I've come to learn (as I've been told) that most of my software and hardware is not compatible with Microsoft Vista. I've contacted the various makers of the software/hardware to see if they have drivers and upgraded utilities so that the versions I have would work with Vista, however, no such luck. So this means, I need to replace my software at a cost of hundreds of dollars.

After talking with two different case managers (apparently the one who handled my situation is no longer working there) I was kindly told that no, when I agreed to the replacement laptop that meant I realized that my software wouldn't work with it. But, the told me, as a gesture of HP's goodwill in recognizing the difficulty I've had with getting my laptop replaced they would offer me an extended warranty. Turns out...they gave me a 4 year warranty such that if anything happens, they will fix the laptop. Not bad, not bad at all.

HP Printer Driver Resolution for Vista OS

Since I received my new laptop loaded with Vista I (of course like everyone else) am having difficulty loading the correct drivers (if they even exist) for my printers and other external devices to work with the laptop.

HP's website gave the incorrect information for what driver to load for my specific printer. I tried it two different times. I scoured the web looking for someone who had a solution, but they were quite difficult resolutions requiring a second computer running XP. I finally decided to contact HP's printer group to ask for help and they responded in about 6 hours with a solution that worked. Why the correct information isn't on their website is beyond me.

For those of you trying to install print drivers for HP Photosmart 7350 on Vista, here's the solution:

1. Click Start, Control Panel, Hardware and sounds
2. Click on Printers
3. Click on Add a Printer
4. Click Next button.
5. Click to select the option "Local Printer Attached to this computer"
6. Click Next.
7. On the Port window select Dot4, click Next button.
8. On the Manufacture & Model page,select the HP and select the Deskjet 990c from the List.
Click on the Next
9. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the installation.

After installing the driver, now download and install the HP Photosmart Essentials software from the below HP website: HP Photosmart Essential FREE Download for Windows Vista O.S

HP finally delivers

After 7 weeks of waiting, the HP replacement laptop finally arrived yesterday. A true miracle has occurred. The laptop has lots of upgraded features, plus they threw in an air/car adapter. Even though resolution did finally occur with HP, I still rate them as poor in customer service because it should not have taken 7 weeks to resolve my situation. And it shouldn't have taken over 3 weeks to get to talk to someone in the U.S.

Laptop Update # gazillion

Well, 6 weeks and counting and my laptop is still dead. HP said they were going to order a new laptop to replace it, but that seems to be a point of confusion. Personally, I'd rather just have a new hard drive to put in my laptop because I'm not ready to deal with Windows Vista. The lady who's been assigned my case at HP keeps calling me to ask if I have received the hard drive (which is the confusion because she's the one who said she was going to order a laptop instead). In her voice mails she says if she doesn't hear from me then she will assume I received it. I leave her a voice mail every day telling her I haven't received anything in the mail and ask her to call me so we can discuss the next step and she must not get them because she repeats the same voice mail the next day.

Frustration. 6 weeks is unacceptable for replacing a hard drive under warranty.

But, we might finally be getting somewhere. I was able to get in touch with the person at HP today and she was shocked to find I hadn't received the hard drive. When she checked the status of the order she realized it was still pending delivery. Of course it is, she ordered the exact same hard drive from Comp USA that HP doesn't even have in stock and is on back order.

However, with that said she did finally give up on the hard drive and custom ordered me a new laptop (with a few snazzy upgrades) and hopefully it will arrive by the end of the month. I'm keeping my fingers crossed every which way they can be because I really miss having a computer at home.

Another laptop update...

After numerous phone calls to HP (and being on the phone for over 1.5 hours each time) I have yet to receive my hard drive. Another delivery date has come and gone. It's absolutely ridicoulous the way they have their system set up. I don't understand why no one can explain to me why they can't ship a replacement hard drive for my computer.

I finally was able to get transferred to the complaint department in the U.S. which really helped (they were no longer reading from a script for one). Supposedly they are building me a new laptop and it will be here in 2-3 weeks. Since it has now been a month since my laptop hard drive failed, it's too bad they couldn't have done that first. I'd be up and running again!

HP - will they come through?

Almost 3 weeks ago my HP laptop's hard drive failed. Luckily (or not) it is under warranty. At first HP told me I'd have the replacement hard drive within 3-4 days. Those days came and went. When I called HP, they said it was backordered and I'd have it in 3 business days. Yeah, that didn't happen either. Now it's been 2.5 weeks and I can't get anyone at HP to tell me what is going on. Why don't I have a hard drive by now? When will it come? No one knows. Yesterday I was on the phone for 1.5 hours trying to talk to someone, I was transferred 4 times. They say it takes 24-48 hrs to send a request (and receive an answer) about the status of my "order". Why does it take so long in this day and age?

AT&T: Will it ever end?

I logged into one of my AT&T/Yahoo email accounts this morning and saw my list of email in the portal, but when I clicked on inbox, all of my mail disappeared. Yes, all of it. ARGHHH!!!

I was on the phone with AT&T for over an hour as they had me do stupid stuff that had no bearing on recovering the email. I was passed off from Level 1 to Level II, then told that a yahoo engineer would be in touch with me in 24 to 48 hours and that they are very busy and it could take quite some time.

I was informed that I do not pay for the email service, it's a free courtesy of ordering DSL. This was said in response to asking for a credit since this was my home business email account and they just lost my messages. I'm most worried about the new ones that were in the inbox that I hadn't read or downloaded yet.

This is the very first instance I've experienced where the inbox just disappeared. I find it very interesting that they can't just pull the emails from a server. I would assume they back up their data. We will just have to wait and see what happens with the yahoo people. Ugh.

But, I do have some good news. After months of trying to sort out the $10 DSL mess, the lady in the business office I was transferred to was able to credit my account $19.99 (the last bit required to make up for the difference between $10 and $14.99 DSL over the course of a year. And - she even credited my account $10 for the email snafu that has occurred. I guess it takes losing all of your mail to get some response. I'm thankful for the response, just missing my email, and not quite trusting the service anymore.

Delta - failure to disclose

When the grandfather of my friend's husband died just recently they were quickly figuring out how to fly (without spending their daughter's college tuition money) from Washington D.C. to Austin, TX for the funeral. The first thing they did was check various airlines for bereavement fares.

Southwest - "We treat everyone equally. All last minute tickets are sold at last minute prices."

Delta - "We don't sell bereavement fares. Then, why do you have on your website to call this number to ask about bereavement fares?"

Finally, my friends decided to cash in credit card miles through American Express in order to get their airline tickets. The American Express lady was so nice that she even made the phone calls to various airlines to determine what flights were available for immediate departure to make it to the funeral. It turned out Delta had the best schedule that met their needs. One ironic thing though, delta refused to be tied into a conference call so the American Express lady was the go-between. She would talk to Delta, then repeat the information Delta said to my friends. Once the miles were transferred, my friends called Delta directly to process the transaction and were quite surprised when Delta told them there would be $200 in fees and a credit card was needed. They were not informed by Delta of the high cost in fees prior to transferring the miles over to Delta. And now, that the miles were transferred, there was nothing that could be done about that. Other airlines has fees that were much less than $200 to process late last minute frequent flyer travel.

After a much heated discussion, the ticket agent reduced the fees to $50 and my friends made it to the funeral.

Why? Why do companies insist on sticking it you without fully disclosing increased prices, fees, etc? I'm shocked that so many people are willing to put up with this and not take the time to fight against it.

Update: October 4, 2007

It turns out that Delta charged my friends the complete $200 and when they called to inquire about the full charge the lady refused to reduce it back to $50 even though the notes on the account said that $50 would be charged. My friend's husband promptly wrote a letter to Delta's management about the situation.