Part I
So, this is a good story. My father-in-law bought a Compaq Presario about two months ago and has all ready had a major issue with it. Saturday evening, he shut down the pc and Saturday night he booted it up again. The 'System Restore' screen came up and he was unable to get past the screen. He was willing to restore the pc since it is fairly new and he just uses it for games. Anywhoo, he brought it over for me to look at. I tried a new hard drive, cables, etc, etc. Finally, I started a live chat with a customer service rep. It took a little over an hour but finally we were in agreement that the pc had a major hardware problem and needed to be returned/fixed/whatever. So, when I gave him the address, the system refused it. My in-laws live so far back in the woods that the USPS actually hires contract drivers to maintain the routes. Still no problem, right? I will just ship it to my address and I will take care of it. Nope. The customer support rep gives me a phone number and is gone. No wait for a reply. I was irritated to say the least.
Part II
So, I call the number he sends me via email and go through the entire process again. I ask 'Do you have access to the chat transcript?'. Of course, she says 'No.' So I say, 'Can I send you the transcript?' and she says 'No.' So, 90 minutes later she agrees that the pc obviously has a problem. And what does she tell me? Take it back to the vendor. I couldn't believe it. So, I ask my father-in-law 'Do you have the reciept?' and he says 'No.' I tell the csr that and she says no problem, take it back to them and they will give you your money back or replace the pc. I called the local Wal-Mart this morning and they said that a reciept
would be required. I am shocked at this level of customer service. I don't understand the reasoning. At one point, she asked me to restore the pc and I did. When we rebooted it took 20 minutes to get into the bios. It doesn't take a genious to see that at that point it was obviously a hardware problem that the company would have to solve. I am sure that Compaq has some really good employees but why do I always get stuck with the turds?
This is why I buy only from Dell. I know others have had uncomfortable experiences with Dell also but not me. Until I do, I will not send my business anywhere else. I am ordering my father-in-law a Dell today, have it shipped to him, and I will take care of dealing with Compaq.