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The Adventures of HP Support
About 5 months ago I bought a refurbished HP desktop computer so I could have my own computer in college. I just barely got the computer back today from HP support, a week after classes started. Why did it take so long? It's a long story, and if you have the time and endurance, you can read through it all. It deals with my adventure of HP support.
To start off, when I first got the computer it wouldn't turn on. I would press the button, and the fan would start and things would start to turn on, but it'd just stop. What the cravitz? So, I took off the cover and unplugged some cables and plugged them back in a couple times, and it actually stayed on like a computer should. Alright! So, I used my computer happily for about a week. Then, while I was using the computer one night it decided to just turn itself off. How incredibly fun. I tried to turn it back on, and it was acting like it did when I first got it. Yay. Sometimes it would keep itself on longer so I could see Windows start to boot up, but it wouldn't stay on long enough to load anything. Me, being dumb, decided to try a full system recovery since I thought a problem might be with something in the operating system. You know, that bug that just makes the computer shut off on its own? No... that was dumb. And, of course, the computer started its little recovery dance, and while I was reinstalling Windows, the computer decided to turn off. I think that when the computer did that, it corrupted some system file so that when I finished reinstalling Windows (after many tries of the computer turning itself off), it would give me a message about some file not loading or working or something. My computer was useless. Awesome.
So, I went to the Fry's website (where I bought my computer) and looked for support contact. All they had was an address for snail mail. Sweet. So, I wrote a nice little letter, being as polite as I could asking about getting something done about my computer being dumb. (Said a little more eloquently.) I waited for about a week or two to get a response to this letter, and finally I just called the general number for Frys on the bottom of their website. Looking back on it, I should have called in the first place, but it didn't have that number listed for anything about warranties or support, so it didn't seem to make sense. But, whatever. I called. Oh, I'm sorry. Your warranty ended two days ago. So, they gave me the HP support number since they figured I still had a warranty with HP. So, I called that number. Yes, I do. A six month warranty. Good. I talked to someone for about an hour to explain that my computer wouldn't turn on. They kept asking about my monitor and got me to unplug it and plug it back in and tell them what it said. "No connection." I guess when your computer turns itself off, your monitor might shed some light, or something. Then she asked me to take off the cover, and she was getting me to do exactly what I had been doing: unplugging and plugging stuff back in. I said something about my fan not being on when my computer turned itself off, and she acted shocked. "Oh, so when you say 'off', you really mean that everything turns off." Umm, yes. Correct. Anyway, she arranged for HP to send me a repair box so I could send my computer off to their repair center at no cost to me. Now, that's pretty sweet. So, I did, and I got it there and back within a week with a new power supply and hard drive. I wasn't exactly sure why they replaced my hard drive, my only guess is that it's because I said that that one file was corrupted. If only.
I now have my computer and it's working great. It turns on, and even stays on. Awesome! So, I setup a network between my computer and the computer I used to use so I could efficently transfer a bunch of files (after a week of trying to figure it out... but that'd be for another really boring rant.) and while I'm transfering my video folder, my computer tells me that it's run out of space. Umm... that doesn't make any sense. My computer should have a 200 GB hard drive. I'm only transfering about 10 gigs or so. So, I go and look at my C drive and I see that it has about 15 GB on it. Well, that's pretty sweet. So, I went to the HP website and found their nifty little chat support system and decided to use it. I talked to a person and told them of my problem of having 10% of my hard drive space, and she guided me to the disk management on my computer, and it turns out that the other 160 GB or so on my computer isn't partitioned to anything. It's simply, "unallocated space." Well, ideally I'd like to have use for all of that space that I bought. I don't know why. She showed me how to make a new drive, drive "J", that I could assign all of that "unallocated space." Well, that could have worked out fine, but I was being picky and wanted all of that space on my C drive, like my computer was originally. I went and talked to another support person on their chat system (for some reason the chat window froze with the other support person I talked to) and asked if there was any way to put that space on the C drive. They told me that the only way was to perform a full system recovery because that would reformat the computer to factory settings. Well, alright. He asked if I had a D drive. I did. He told me that I should be able to do the system recovery without any recovery CDs.
So I attempt to do a system recovery, not bothering to back up anything since I didn't get the chance to put too much on the computer anyhow, and the computer gives me an error. "I/O Read Error" or something to that effect. I don't remember exactly anymore. So, I attempt to make my own Recovery CDs, and it doesn't work for whatever reason. I try over and over again and the same thing happens. I click on the button to start making the CDs, and then it says that it will pick up where it left off. Well, it didn't leave from anywhere. So, being dumb yet again, I actually went to the HP website and bought my own Recovery CDs after talking to another HP support asking if I should do so. I think I asked something like, "Is there any other way to recover?" I should have asked if it was possible to recover at all, but anyhow, they said no. So, I bought the CDs for my model computer and I got them in the mail. I attempted to use them, and lo and behold, I got another error. Or maybe it was the same error, I don't really remember anymore. The point is that it didn't work. I contacted another support person via their chat support about it, and they made me do all these things that did absolutely nothing. The chat thing froze again, and I contacted another person about it the next day. Throughout this whole dumb CD process I contacted about 3 or 4 people on their chat support, to determine that they sent me the "wrong" CDs, and they arranged to send me the "right" ones. The Build ID was one number off from the number on the internet. I still have no idea if that would really cause a problem, but when I got the free CDs that they sent me, they were the exact same CDs I was sent before. Same Build ID and everything. Well, what do you know? Those didn't work either.
I contacted yet another support person on their chat system about it and apparently there was some sort of ambiguity in the problem because the number that should have been with the CDs was on the plastic bag and didn't match the CDs... I don't know. It was dumb. They said that they would talk to their supervisor and e-mail me when a solution was reached. Well, I waited for about 2 or 3 days and there was no e-mail. I contacted another person on their chat system and they finally had some sense. They suggested that it wasn't the CDs fault! Well, I thought that it that might be it all along. When I ended up getting the free CDs I had even asked the guy if that would cause a problem with the CD's Build ID only being one number off, and he just responded with sending me free CDs. I don't know, but this guy with some sense in him arranged for another repair box to be sent to me. Alright! Well, by this time I was going to be leaving for college in 2 weeks, so I requested for them to send the repair box to my address at home and then when I send the computer in for them to send the computer to my dorm at college. That way I get free shipping. :) He said that it could be arranged. Well, sweet! Or so I thought. Can you guess what happened? Exactly. They sent the dumb box to my dorm at college. I didn't even know until I went and checked the tracking number and it said it was delivered at my dorm. So, just because I missed talking to HP Support for so long, I contacted them again on their chat system about it. They arranged to send me a dumb box to my house, where the computer is. Apparently this was difficult for the person to understand. We ended the chat with them telling me that they sent in the request to send the box to my house. A couple days went by and I didn't see any evidence of anything happening.
I contacted another support person about the request number and the status of everything, and I just had to explain the entire situation yet again and they arranged to send me a box to my house. Now I'm a little less than a week away from leaving for college. I'm hoping that I'll get it the Friday morning that I leave, but of course not. It ends up coming the following Monday. My dad had to package it up and send it off. He even included a note in it saying that they better send the computer back to my dorm or he would spontaneously combust. Honestly, he did. (He's kind of a strange fellow.) This time I'm following online tracking very closely and I see that the shipping address is back to my house. (As far as I could tell.) I talked to another support person using my roommate's laptop (since I'm without a computer that I bought 4 months previous) asking about where they are going to send it. Well, what do you know? They were going to send it back to my house, but I've learned and was able to prevent such a thing from happening. He changed my address so that they would send it to my dorm. Good times. I now finally have my computer and am in the process of putting everything back on it for the 3rd time.
The HP support system is overall done very well, but I was just fortunate enough to have a series of unfortunate events.
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