Computer Woes

Do not bother calling DELL tech support. Never purchase from Best Buy. Never, EVER buy a Hewlett Packard

For the last three months, I've had nothing but trouble with technology.

It is bad enough being an author whose documents get *lost* when computers, thumb drives and external gigs fail. My day job as a Web producer depends on my faithful electronic friends working.

They don't.

It started off not long after I bought my Dell. I had incredible problems with it. I kept getting these weird screens with CMYK, or lines or a black screen with a CMYK box. At least five phone calls to Dell techs in India - who could speak English but not communicate in it, or understand anything not on their little cheat sheet notecards - and I finally bit the bullet and took it into a local fix it shop. What did they find? Nothing. Turns out, it is the ATT air card, which only works on signal half the time (and ATT won't be reduciing my bill for their piss poor service, either). I repeatedly asked the Dell techs if the air card could be the problem, but they did not know what this was, or how it worked and were determined to tell me I had to mail the PC in to be repaired for what they could not pinpoint.

After several months, I finally had the time to stay on hold for an ATT wireless rep. Nearly two hours later, I got a real person. Yup. They still have them. And bless it, this one spoke English, knew the problem immediately and set me up with new software - vendor software, not the crap that ATT developed to work with it. I now use it on both my Dell and new HP (the story of which follows).

Still, with my Dell going to the shop for a week, I realized the need for a back up unit. I went to Best Buy, found one I liked and bought it. I don't drop $800 lightly. I found a PC with room to expand, a 17 inch screen that rocked my world. I was willing to overlook Vistacrap, which is THE most horrible operating system ever invented. Even though I hate Vista, no way could I afford a MAC with it's more versatile platforms.

But I digress...

I bought the PC and even paid the extra $30 for the Geek Squad to take off the ads and *extra* programs like AOL off the PC so it would be ready when I got home. Please note that this took three times as long as they said. They mentioned nothing about the PC operating slow.

I get it home and immediately notice how slow the PC moves. At a snail's pace - almost as though I'd already loaded the hard drive to the max with weighty programs. Strange. I thought it was this stupid HP Advisor program that runs when you start up. I also thought it was those *extras*, which Best Buy did NOT uninstall. I DID. A waste of $30.

The hard drive crashed the first time two weeks later. I took it to the same repair shop as the Dell, since I wasn't sure I would trust the Geek Squad when they couldn't even handle removing those *extra* programs. They did a repair and sent it home with me. Less than two weeks later it crashed again, this time for good, and taking the only updated copy of my novel with it. (Yes, I am a dork for not updating right away.)

After doing a thorough scan, the PC company discovered the hard drive was crap. They didn't do the scan the first time, thinking the repair would do it. They did not charge me a dime to deal with HP for a new hard drive and installation. I was happy. That was good business - which does not happen any other time.

Now since I'd purchased this item, the WiFi card had NEVER WORKED. That's right. I didn't notice at first, because I was using the air card, but when I tried to get online at Panera, Hastings and Dunn Brothers, the unit practically started smoking. After another evaluation, they said it would have to be mailed in to HP for a new WiFi card.

This pissed me off. I called Best Buy to find out about returns. Turns out, according to the snotty little Geek Squad "person" who picked up the phone, their return police is 14 days PLUS return fee - no matter if the unit is crap or not. I could not believe it. I have never heard of anything less than 30 days. My mistake. I was dumb enough to believe a 20th century policy was still in effect at a big dollar business. I told him this PC was crap (in much nicer words) and he told me that was my problem. I hung up, immediately emailed everyone in my address book telling them my experience and to never buy from there. I got several responses from people who won't - or who had similar experiences.

I was still angry about this *new* PC. My PC repairman asked me if I'd purchased it used when the hard drive crashed. That was all I needed to hear to know I'd gotten a piece of crap. Once my anger cooled, I decided to email HP. Of course, I could not find the email I needed to send a complaint, so I tooled around and found the CEO email - which he never checks directly, but someone else does. The first lines of my email were:

"I am never buying an HP again. EVER."

Within two hours, I had an email back. Within two days I had my first call from a Customer Escalation Team member (wow, it's DEFCOM 7 there), who asked a few questions and was obviously unable to do any dealing when I said I wanted a new PC since this one was still under a one year warranty and it had proven to be a lemon. She wrote this down and a day later, ANOTHER CET member called. This one wasn't quite so nice, likely burned out by crabby people who aren't quite as friendly as myself when they have PC issues - or pretend to have them to get a new unit. I told him I wanted a new PC. He said THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE. Apparently, a crappy hard drive and non-working WiFi card are not enough. Nope. This sucker has to be in the shop AT LEAST three times before they will even consider a new unit.

I had to mail back this unit, have it gone at least two weeks to have the card replaced, but luckily for me (ha ha) I did not have to pay FedEX shipping. YAY. At least the guy who talked to me and made arrangements could speak AND communicate in English. That was a plus.

I got it back quickly and it worked. They also updated the BIOS, which slowed it down. But overall, it seems to be working. Now, I'm just sitting here, waiting for the next thing to go out. (UPDATE: The internal mouse is not working properly. The PC does not want to read any mice I install half the time.) Will it be a USB port? Or the web cam that seduced me in the store? Will the keyboard explode on my fingers? Gosh, whatever it is, I cannot WAIT! Maybe I will get lucky and it will happen AFTER the one-year factor warranty is expired, so I will have the pleasure of paying for it. What a lucky woman I will be if that happens!

I am sure there are people who try to take advantage of the system. But I was up front. They have records of the PC issues. Yet, all this aggravation nets me... more aggravation? Whatever happened to a company honoring its customers by providing a working unit if the one you bought was defective? I have receipts. I have logs. This unit, with its sleek look and tantalizing features, WAS BROKE! And instead of trying to honor ME as a customer, I got more headaches than this unit was worth.

I should have bit the bullet and bought a MAC. Not only would I have avoided these issues, but I could have burned all copies of Vista while running naked through the moonlight honoring the Apple gods. I won't even begin to tell you about the Vista issues I've had over the last year. It's too depressing and too long to put into this post.

The moral of this story? Not only do I get to vent, I urge every consumer to boycott Best Buy and HP, and demand to speak to someone from America if you have a tech issue that needs fixing.

As for me, well, I have an old Royal typewriter upstairs. As soon as I find ribbons for it. I'm typing my novel on it. I'm tired of being a slave to crappy computers and Microcrap's militant regime.

Angela Wilson
www.wickedwordsmith.com
angelawilson.net