Compaq Customer Service/Quality

dragon300zxdragon300zx Registered Users Posts: 2,575 Major grins
edited June 24, 2006 in Digital Darkroom
So I will retype this cause the first time I did the browser lost it :wxwax .

Well I bought a new laptop last thanksgiving as my toshiba was going on 6 years old (it was one of the first laptops over 1ghz). I have said for years to all my clients that you do not buy compaq products. I have stood by that. But I saw a good deal, figured how bad can they be right, well like I said, DO NOT BUY COMPAQS (if you want the list of laptops I recommend just ask). So I got it home, started it up a couple times, and it lost driver files. No big deal right, takes me 2 minutes to fix. Two weeks later after using it only a couple times it happened again. Grrr I was in denial, I knew this was a hard drive issue, it's common on compaq's. I knew I had to send it in but I was in denial after all. So I keep putting it back together. I take it on the shoot out, and the first time I start it up once I get to the luxor it has lost windows systems files (I had used it at the airport before I got on the plane). So I do a dirty install after lots of fighting with it. I get it kinda working for a few days, then saturday the kernel self destructed cause of the hard drive (these hard drives have a tendency to have read/write failures). Figure 15 strikes against compaq at this point if I'm conservative about it.

So I call compaq when I get back (keep in mind compaq is actually HP now) and talk to the tech. I tell him everything thats happened and he say's "lets run some tests". :nah I don't think so. I explained again everything I have done to the laptop, and that I am a IT manager, Certified up the wazoo, even compaq certified, and again explained what I have done and tested on the laptop. He says "well yeah I guess your right it is the hard drive and it is a warranty fix, I will have them send out the box for you to ship it to us tomorrow, you should have it in a week" then I gave him the shipping info.

A week and a half later no box. So I call them again. Where's my box. The woman says please hold and let me check your file. Come's back and guess what, the box hasn't shipped. :rolleyes But it will ship monday and I will have it shortly after that. Well monday they shipped it over night so I had it tuesday and they paid to ship it back to them over night so thats 2 positive, 17 negative compaq.

They get my laptop thursday at about 1. I get an email at 5 (4 hours later) that they have shipped it back to me already. :scratch I'm not pleased cause they either tested the hard drive, replaced it, reloaded it, and retested it, super fast, or they just reloaded it and reboxed it. Reloading it wouldnt work long term. So I call them up again. This time I get a call center in india :uhoh . Well needless to say it took me 45 minutes and three "customer service reps" to get someone who understood english and could look up the tech notes. Turns out the techs were just fast. They did replace the hard drive, they did retest it, they did reload it afterwards, and surprise they also said the memory was bad and replaced that as well. Then they shipped it back next day air again... So thats 3 positive, 17 negative compaq.

Well I get it back today and so far so good it still works. The memory they changed, well I bought it with a 256 chip in it, I sent it back with that chip in it. Well they sent it back with a 512mb chip in it.

So far the repairs are good, we will see in two-three weeks if it's still working, plus I got a free memory upgrade.

Total score

Compaq positive 4, negative 17+.

I'm selling this laptop on monday and going and buying another Toshiba or an Acer. Have already had two buyers for it lined up for over a week in case one bails. DON'T BUY COMPAQ.
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Comments

  • claudermilkclaudermilk Registered Users Posts: 2,756 Major grins
    edited June 12, 2006
    Yikes. I have always said to avoid Compaq as well, here's proof. I don't think HP did themselves any favors with Compaq, but then HP isn't what it used to be either--it's pretty much gotten to 6 of one & half-dozen of the other with those two.
  • askme2flashuaskme2flashu Registered Users Posts: 33 Big grins
    edited June 24, 2006
    I owned a compaq once... just once.
    Chance favors the prepared mind.
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  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited June 24, 2006
    Man I feel your pain
    COMPAQ = SUXX BIG TIME
    I was stupid enough to fall for the old glory (remember times it actually was THE fastest PC on the market?) twice. Once desktop, once laptop. Both were cheap, and, yes, I got what I paid for.. Both were long time ago, though, I kinda learned on two strikes...
    Never again.
    Hope you'll get a better one this time:-)
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
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