I've heard from three or four people in the past few days wondering what ever happened with the Hewlett-Packard lap top computer I was having problems with (read the whole story here). I did receive the new system recovery discs from HP and I immediately put them into my computer to put Windows on my new $375 dollar overpriced hard drive. The computer whizzed up, started to go through all the installation paces, then got to a point and shut down again. I was ready to throw it out the window.
That was all a couple Saturday's ago and I knew that I was going to have to call Hewlett-Packard again to see what they could do to resolve this situation. It couldn't be that two system recovery discs were corrupted. I decided to wait until the following Monday to give them a call.
After the usual hoop jumping and other misdirections they try to put you through on Hewlett-Packard phone technical support, much to my relief I was able to talk to a guy - Pierre (probably not his real name) - who was going to help me with the latest problem. I told him right off the bat, "Look, I'm so exasperated by this whole experience that I'm going to apologize to you in advance if I lose my shit during the course of this conversation."
He was sympathetic to my plight and looked through the service tickets that had gathered into a mini-novel in HP's technical support computers. I told him that the second recovery disc had done the same thing as the first - shut down my computer during the installation process. He immediately said, "Well, from just looking at the notes here, it's apparent that it's not a disc drive problem as much as a mother board problem."
I told him that I bought a hard drive from HP for $375 bucks and found later that I could have gotten one much cheaper from another source. He said, "Well, actually you paid $379.20 for the disc drive. And, yes, you could have very easily found a cheaper one elsewhere."
Pierre said that he'd be happy to take the disc drive back for credit on my card. He then said, "However, it's sort of ironic that a new mother board for your computer runs $399."
By this time, I'd had it with HP. I said, "You know what? $400 bucks is about half of what I can buy a new lap top for these days. I think I'm just going to cut my losses and get a new one."
Pierre said, "Would you like to speak to someone in our sales department about a new notebook computer?"
I said, "Pierre, look. You've been overly helpful and sympathetic to my problem. But when the lady insisted that I had to BUY a system recovery disc for $15 bucks to replace what she said was a corrupted system recovery disc that came with the new computer when I bought it 18 months ago, and after I just spent $375 bucks on a new hard drive that I could have gotten cheaper, I thought it was time to end my association with Hewlett-Packard."
Pierre said he fully understood and was sorry to hear my plight. He got me an RA for the disc drive. I sent it out and should be getting a refund sometime soon.
In the meantime, I went to the local Best Buy to look at new lap tops later that morning. The head of the computer department was helping me and I told him, "No HP's!"
He said, "What? Really? That's too bad because the HP's are all really hot right now."
Before I bought my HP notebook 18 months ago, I talked to a few computer savvy people who gave me their opinions on what to buy. A couple of them strongly suggested the Toshiba brand of lap tops. I'd gone through a Sony, a Dell and an HP in the last six plus years. It was time to look at a Toshiba.
To cut a long story to the chase, I found a Toshiba with a 320 gig hard drive, 4 gig of RAM, and the Intel 2.1 processor for $849 bucks. My old HP I bought 18 months ago was $1249, with an 80 gig hard drive and 2 gig of RAM. It did have Windows Office 2002 on it, while Windows Office 2007 did not come with this computer. That will be another $250 bucks when the free 60 day trial ends in about six and a half weeks.
All in all, I like it a lot. It's much more quick than the HP and I didn't realize how many problems the HP was having compared to how slick the Toshiba opens up programs right away, compared to having to double click the icons on the HP a couple three times for a program to open up.
I still haven't written that letter to Hewlett-Packard just yet, but I'm in the office all week long and I'm sure I'll find the time in the coming days to do just that. And I'll be sure to let them know I'm writing it on my new Toshiba notebook.
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