Rodent Regatta

Be assured that Volume 12 of this mess is far more pleasant than what you’ve been reading. I finally worked up patience enough to call HP last evening. They had my laptop for over two weeks, didn’t fix it and couldn’t provide information about it along the way. Read about the entire train wreck here.

They returned it changed but not fixed. I was ready to solve this once and for all. I dialed the phone at 5:07 p.m. After holding briefly a bot announced that the number I dialed was no longer in use for HP’s support calls. I was told to call 800.474.6836.

I dialed the number and held until 5:45 p.m. when Glenn picked up. Under no circumstance could anyone have been more professional, informative, concerned and helpful than Glenn. He was fantastic.

Glenn picked up on The Saga quickly and without being patronizing, he continued the call with an understanding that many things had been tried, many calls had been placed, etc. He asked great questions and his attempts at some high-level troubleshooting were relevant.

Concluding that the PC really did need to go back to Milpitas, CA for service, Glenn entered the order, provided the information and explained clearly what I should do when repacking the beast.

One note of alarm – this time the hard drive is going back with it. I spent the evening doing all the backups I could think of so that I could be productive. The machine is now packed, labeled and sitting next to the front door for this afternoon’s pick-up by FedEx.

Glenn’s helpfulness uncovered one interesting fact. HP apparently has a policy or unwritten rule that a product must be returned three times for repair before they’ll call it a ”lemon.” So, if they don’t fix the machine this time, they get yet another chance. If it’s not repaired, Glenn said they’d send a factory-refurbished replacement.

Oh, and Glenn asked for an email address. In this morning’s inbox is an email with a link for tracking this product on line. I’ll keep you posted.

Our call concluded about 6:30 p.m. Now we wait and see if HP is able to deal with this correctly this time. Current score: F2/C27/P22.