Community Newsletter: Q&A forum: Computer manufacturers are fairly equal, but what about their customer service?

Just a few months old I tripped over a bug in the laptop and after over 8 hours on support calls HP agreed it was broken. The box arrived and I sent it off. A week later the laptop came back but would lock up in minutes.

Back on the phone and HP's support said "Sorry but we've done all we can." I called in many times and fortunately for me my office had already supplied me another laptop so it sat there with me calling and filling in response forms for months.

After 6 months of that I disposed of the laptop because it was clear to me that HP had written me off and I have done the same to HP.

Another 3 months later and some "social rep" of HP heard about my story and offered to make good but could not because the laptop is no more.

Would you keep a dead laptop around? I don't and see no reason to deal with this company again.

There are stories about companies walking out on the customers and my advice is tell your story and learn from the experience.

--> Another lesson I learned from this problem is that HP buys almost everything to make their laptops. If you discover a design flaw, HP at this time appears to be unable to correct the flaw. In my case it was a BIOS flaw. It's a well known one (once you learn about it) and to this day HP has not responded that they corrected the flaw.

What more did HP destroy? My faith in their products and service.
Bob

I am not suggesting that anyone start a class action suit. I am saying that I was notified that my computer was part of one. By joining in, the final judgement was a $25.00 discount on another HP purchase. I also at one time had an HP officejet all in one printer. It too was poorly made and nothing but trouble. No HP is worth the headaches I put up with.

I currently own a Gateway laptop and a Gateway desktop. I've never had any trouble with either so I couldn't say how tech support is since I've never needed them. I have a Dell laptop. Never needed support so I have no stories to tell there either. It is an old laptop but still works like a charm. The OS was wiped and Linux put on it and it works great. I have a Toshiba laptop that is dead (hard drive failed long after the warrantee expired). While it was working, it worked great and no calls to tech support were needed. I have a monochrome laptop by Bell-older than dirt with Windows 3.1 on it. Works just fine other than the battery not charging any long. No support calls needed. I have another old laptop with Windows 95 on it. I can't recall who made it, it was an off brand. It STILL works great. I'm very familiar with computers and if these old models can still plug away and work like a charm that says a lot. Not having to call tech support because the equipment is good is even better. What speaks volumes on this forum is the common offenders. When people have bad experiences that are not addressed by the manufacturer, they can expect those people to speak up. It is well known in the business community that if a person has a bad experience they will tell 10 people but if they have a good experience they will only tell one person. It is my opinion that HP and Dell make tons of money off of business and corporate contracts so the little guy who is the consumer is relatively meaningless to them. That is just food for thought.

A few years ago I was standing on a train station and 2 men in front of me were discussing the rollout of new machines in their individual companies. One guy asked the other if they were going to use the latest Dell equipment and the reply was astonishing -
" No , Dell will not let us have the latest equipment. They said they don't roll it out to corporates until it has been tested through the general public and all the faults fixed. They don't want to be sued etc by corporates for supplying sub-standard or faulty equipment!"
Being an IT manager thay really pricked up my ears - and put me off Dell equipment for business and personal use for a long time.

I've got a client's machine just out of warranty that is newer, and we are trying everything to get that thing stable; no luck so far, but I notice the more x64 updates we get for Win7 the better and longer it lasts. I think it is a Dell driver issue myself, but Microsoft doesn't offer any of their own, or we would try them.

I had a similar experience from HP. After reporting an issue HP sent me the laptop 'duly' fixed, but the same issue was still there. When it was reported again, by this time its warranty was lapsed.

Then they charged $260. to fix the same. The laptop went dead within 1 week of 3 months warranty on their fix. They refused to entertain and tried to fix the laptop again at a discounted price of $260... I wrote off that laptop and HP too.

Unlike Bob, I still have that laptop lying at home. I have purchased 4 new laptops in last 2 years and none were HP. I have also convinced each and everyone of my colleagues to 'never buy an HP product again'. At least 4 of my friends bought laptops in last 1 year - and none were HP thanks to HP messing up on their promise.

I understand that DELL treats its customers in a similar fashion. I had one purchased 5 years ago for my family members and when the keyboard gave error, it was just 10 days over the guarantee. I stopped using Dell except for the professional one supplied by my office. That machine too has a lot to be desired in terms of quality.

We also have a couple of Apples but we never had any need for customer support. Exceptional general quality of their hardware.

Compared to that I have had Impeccable responses from Lenovo even in cases where the errors were on my side for after sales service. The quality of product is way better than others.

I'll put my response here because I own an HP also.
I've been very satisfied with the quality of my 6-yesr-old HP computer.. If computer manufacturers are fairly equal this doesn't count for much, but I question how true that is.
Technical support is available through online chats (and other means too I think). The quality is so-so but I don't expect a lot - tech wizzes aren't likely to occupy those jobs. Still it's a place to start and I did get some answers.
But HP and I got off to a bad start, and I'm happy to complain about that.
Initially I intended to upgrade the software on my old Compaq - from Windows 98 to XP. I placed the order then, while on the phone with the HP guy, changed my mind, deciding instead to buy a new computer. They could have said "Okey dokey" and canceled my software order, but instead I had to talk to someone in some other department and justify the canceling of the order. Irritating.
I wound up buying an HP - with rebates. I loathe rebates, but they were sizable - $200, maybe more. I was meticulous in following the rebate instructions - dotting all my i's and crossing all my t's - and still they gave me a hard time. After too long they claimed not all information had been provided. I resent the entire packet (which I'd meticulously made copies of) along with a letter chewing them out real good. I eventually got my rebates, but they'd tried to finagle out of it which I still see, not as a mistake or oversight, but as just plain dishonest.

I bought new hp tower through Costco. One major reason was US customer service centers. After 6 months had unfixable problems. Granted I had to go through the hoops; after 3 failed attempts to repair the tower. HP replaced my tower! Granted no company has perfect customer service; I was very pleased with my HP experience. Costco has a conceriege service that can help with software issues; plus once I had to start dealing directly with HP; Costco would check back with me to be sure my tower was being fixed properly and that I was happy with the process. I hope that helps you make a decision.

I bought an ACER laptop at Costco, it had a problem with a Jumping Curser.The Costco conceriege service ,was reliable ,and once i was past their service they did check back to see if getting the service I neeeded, and i did , So so far so good.

Everyone I know has problems with jumping cursors, including my boss who uses an IMac with an Apple mouse. It doesn't seem to matter what operating system since XP, or what kind of mouse or mouse software.

deebeefc

You are lucky that you bought it from Costco. It is only because of Costco that you got service from HP.

Carroll:

I have been using computers and building/repairing them since the early 1980's. During that time I have seen computers by the "big names" rise in fall in quality as well as customer service. Dell, Gateway, Toshiba, HP, Compaq as examples have had excellent PC's, and good manufacturing and customer service, and have fallen to what I would call not good computer design and assembly, or have bad customer service response. (Not that any of these example companies are currently in that spot.). Fortunately, they learn, and come back to their higher standards.

What I would recommend you do is look at the computer reviews for the current models and select the ones you think you want to purchase. Then do a "my computer failed" search on them through the Internet to see if there are problems currently with a model or manufacturer. Then, maybe a trip to a local computer store to chat about it with a technician or two. Make your decision, and it is likely to be a good one. By the way, sometimes there is a manufacturing run where a bad capacitor or other part gets in the run. Pay attention to the speed and response to the issue to see where the Company is on their customer service, but don't judge it's overall quality by a single happenstance.

I have never had any luck with any major manufacturer especially Dell. Had a problem and they wanted me to take my tower apart and install something myself. Everytime I called I got a foreigner whom I could never understand even though I asked for someone in the USA. I spent 10 hours one day calling, getting transferred, getting disconnected, etc and almost having a heart attack over their service.
Never again. Last computer I bought I purchased a warranty through the store so that they furnished me my tech support. I will never buy another computer that is Dell, HP, etc. Next one I will be sure they have tech support in US or I will have someone build me one and supply tech support.
We do not need to have our product support located anywhere else but in USA as there are plenty of people here who need jobs. Why give it to foreign countries????? This is BS!!!!!

With Dell you have the option of upgrading your support to a higher level for $200 and you will always talk with someone in the U.S. I've had great customer service ever since I paid the extra $ for the support. I have used Dells for 10 years and been very satisfied. I hear the low end Dells don't last, so I only buy from the small business group...all my desktops are Optiplex and have lasted until I'm ready to upgrade and then some. I don't prefer the Dell laptops--although I have one that's 9 years old and still working well.

Glad your Dell experience was good. Mine, not so much. First, I got a customer service rep in India who had such a thick accent that my call took three times as long as it should have because we couldn't understand each other. Then my laptop made a trip to Dell's repair center due to a faulty touchpad. It was returned to me in the same shape as it was when I sent it in, with a non-functioning touchpad. I gave up and bought a wireless mouse. Apparently Dell didn't even test the machine before they sent it back after their so-called repair.

I too had a very bad experience with Dell. My brand new laptop died within couple of months of purchasing it. Dell reps were not at all helpful. Each time I called I was put on hold for 40-60 minutes, and was bounced from one department to another. BTW, my calls were answered by reps here in the US. I sent it to their repair center but my machine was returned to me without being fixed.
Finally, Dell replaced my laptop with a refurbished machine, much cheaper than what I had paid for my original machine. It was a very frustrating, and I or my family swore off Dell. I am happy with my lenovo thinkpad.