HP Laptop, I'm going to spend a lot of money here
Back in 2008 I was searching and reading trying to find the best laptop to price ratio I could. I was done with desktops and knew that the laptop was the direction I wanted to go. At the time I wanted something loaded, and large screened. Now I'm not going to go into specifics and how you should be your machines so I'll get down to the brass tacks.
At the last minute I found this monster laptop from HP, it was the largest screen at the time (20.1").I wanted blueray player, HDMI, 4 USB's, and the biggest display I could and this one had it. I was buying direct from HP (employee discount) and my total damage was $2175. Needless to say a hefty price tag for the time.
I got my computer in, excited to play some blueray on my mitsubishi 61" that I just fixed and payed 400 dollars for and wanted to hookup the HDMI so I can have a 61" display! Everything was working great until I tried to play a BlueRay movie. Now it was working just watching it on my computer screen but when I hooked up to HDMI it stopped playing. Odd I thought. Called customer service, after talking with people out of my hemisphere and doing various updates, they came up with the solution that because I was trying to play BlueRay through my HDMI the software from BlueRay stops the player. Its because it thinks you are trying to copy the movie to a recording device rather then a display. Now I was quite irrate at this point and knew not of such security measures, not to mention I payed an extra 200 dollars for the BlueRay drive. HP gave me no solution. Fine no Ironman on my bigscreen. Later on I did experience some windows problems and needed to recover. I had no disk. I called C.S.R (Customer Service Rep) and requested one. I actually talked to an older lady from the US, it was a fairly easy exchange of information. I told her my address which includes my street name "Nashville St". I always do my best to annunciate every word when I speak especially by phone, and this was no different. So I wait. Have a tracking number from FEDEX and 2-3 days later its in Tulsa. Tracking says its back at FEDEX, status saying could not be delivered. Went to FEDEX (not conveniently located in my city) after spending some time there, it turns out that the street name was way off. OK so can I pick it up? " No sorry it was sent back to HP because of the wrong address". Huh. No I know some may say I should have called to hold it but it was a pretty quick instance. And I didn't know the address was wrong but w/e. So now we are into the weekend, and no computer, and at the time it was my primary computer. Great.
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Now we have several problems that are happening simultaneously, at the time very overwhelming but in the end it helps build a case. At any one time you call CSR or tech support with extenuating circumstances, you simply ask for supervisors, floor manager, or help desk or simply keep asking for a higher authority until you get to the top. Using these terms will make the operator do something. I stated my case, I was transferred to a higher Rep. Now in this case I started building my case with the BlueRay debacle, telling them that the only reason why I bought blueray was to play it on my tv, which I can't, and that it was their fault for not giving a disclaimer of such operation. I then stacked with the fact that they failed to send me my recovery disk and now it was going to be over a week on a downed machine. All happening within a few months of my purchase. Not to mention this was HP's flagship line at the time. Its good to not just play a victim when speaking to companies but rather also balance it with accountability. Letting them know that failing to satisfy a customer is not proper business ethic. These actions may require multiple phones calls to one, build the case and keep an open log, and 2 updating. In the end they should make their adjustments.
My results, they refunded me $200 dollars, and extended my warranty for 3 years all parts and labor a $250 dollar value. Recovery disk were also free. Later I did need new ram on my last year having the warranty and replacing my Harddrive. It did take a lot of phone time, but you gotta be in it to win cause it does produce some resolution. Tips: Speak slow enough to be clear and concise, like when you accuse somebody I.E. How-dare-you -steal my fries! Get as high as you can in the CSR floor. Let them know your brand loyalty and that there are other options out there.
Hope this helps. More to come!