I had all but admitted defeat on this one. That's because of the unbelievable attitudes with that company that I received across the board. Umm, excepting on individual, the manager from Denver.
The only thing I had definitively concluded was that I was NOT going to pay them $359 to have a new LCD screen put on the thing and if that mean voiding the warranty, who cares. If that was the price everywhere, it probably would not have gotten fixed. Instead, I had received quotes for $125 and $150 to replace the screen - screen included in that price.
Well, as one of my final attempts, I called the guy from Colorado who did not answer, of course, since it's his off days, and left a message. The message was plain and to several points. Why is your company wanting to charge me $359 to replace a screen on a computer that I bought for not much more than that? When I have found 2 places already, locally, that will do it for a third of the cost? And other things. I actually did not expect to hear a reply from him, but I will try all avenues available until it becomes obvious that I am wasting my time.
Again, this was one situation where I was throwing in the hat. I lost, they won. I have a great track record with the W's and VERY few L's. And frankly, to pay $125 to fix it really wasn't the end of the world for me.
So, it was with great surprise - really it was - to get a call from home today while I was at work and hear Lynnette on the other end of the phone telling me a man named **** had called from HP and told Mark, who had taken the call, to give me a message.
Ohhhh, and what message was that? I imagined being told to f*** off or something that says that without actually saying it. Lol. The man said that the computer was going to be fixed today, post haste and that they would have it sent back to me asap. Reeeeeeally?
Hmm, maybe putting up with all that BS from people in India and the Philippines was worth it after all. I was hung up on; interrupted countless times; attempts to belittle me after I would ask them to speak to their manager; on and on and on. I wonder if I am going to get the extended warranty as well - for free, of course. I'll wait until I have my computer in-hand before I attempt to even address that one. That idea came from the guy that was handling my case, not the dude from Colorado. However, it was the dude handling my case that came up with the $359 figure, according to the person in the Philippines whose accent was so thick, I had to ask her to repeat herself frequently.
I'm guessing that this won't ever happen again with this company, be happy that I got what I am getting for free and that is that. Yes, happy. Especially after being told that it will not be fixed unless I ante up the $359, to which I loudly laughed. Yeah, right. I'll go out and buy another laptop - from a different manufacturer - before I do that, I replied as curtly as the statement was made to me.
Let's just put it this way: HP has some serious customer relation problems. Allegedly, many customers have complained about the treatment they received from the call centers in India and the Philippines. If you're going to have call centers in different nations, you better darn well make sure that the people that are employed speak FLUENT English and that their culture and way of seeing things isn't going to obscure the way they treat us - HP's customers. The only thing getting an attitude from these people makes me want to do is not ever buy anything from their company again. I will rethink that now that I found out at least ONE person in that entire company agreed with me and actually had the juice/power to do anything about it.
