stupid waranty customer service quote

[Phelsumania]

a month a go i bought a new hp laptop and withing a month the harddrives completely failed (the very same day as my external drive turned up for backing up the files, amazing timing)


so anyway i phone the customer service and explain the problem and read of the diogs test i managed to run. And the reply i get is well your well withing your waranty so if you like we can send you out the parts that you will need so you can replace them yourself.???


ok nice and easy fix i know, however i then ask the question how will this affect my waranty for future issues if i am unlucky enough to have it break down again?


"well sir unfortuinatelly because you would have opened the laptop and made the repairs yourself you would have voided your waranty."


Just me or does this not sound like a horendous advice. Sounds to me like they are actually encouraging customers to void their waranty

 

[WizardStan]

Of course. Fixing things is expensive. If they can find a way to only have to do it once, they'll take it. Someone probably got a promotion for coming up with the idea.

 

[craigix]

In the UK it would still be under warranty unless you broke it somehow while replacing the part.


Most of these big companies make it up as they go along - want to see them squirm? Ask them to write it down on company paper.

 

[Halcyon]

I worked in customer service for a while (and I'm not saying this is what happened but if you want to believe that man is a good creature it might help) the customer service personal thought they were doing you a favor. Ok if I get this customers Laptop back here I know those bozos in shipping are going to fart on it for 2 weeks and the repair center is staffed with idiots so they will be out a laptop for 1 month. He sounds like a competent person I can mail him a hard drive. Then when pressed what comes next they realize that the paper trail would be found out middle management would get involved and likely take it out on them and you (the customer) ie you lose your warranty.


In my job we had a product that was poorly named sold through distributors that didn't know their ass from a hole in the ground and would almost work for most applications but in the end didn't. As tech support I knew a code that would let you get into the software of the product and change the settings so that it would work for the customers needs. However I was not allowed to do this, I was supposed to tell the customer sorry tough titty go fight with your distributor who is going to call my sales man and is going to then call me and in the end we will cave because you (customer) get upset and we can't have that. So trying to be a nice guy I would give this code out from time to time and get the customer up and running but knowing that it is a possibility if it came back for repairs for a non software related problem then the boobs in repair might realize the software is adjusted and screw with them. So what do you do? I guess you can either have the customer pissed off now or later?


I'm not trying to say your story isn't anything less then silly but maybe there is a perspective we are not seeing. Maybe i'm just an optimist.


If I were you though, I would see how much longer your warranty lasts and if it is only another 6 months or a year, i would say the hell with it just give me the damn hard drive and blow my warranty I don't feel like going a month with out a computer just to keep a warranty i'm not likely to use. IMHO


Craig,


Oh yeah if you talk to 3 members of tech support you will get 5 answers to the same question nobody is going to put shit down on a company letter head

 

[Phelsumania]

i thought at the time that doing it myself would save alot of time and he was probably tying to help us out. But what put me off is that the laptop less than a month old at best the waranty is until october 2012 so as much as i wanted to change the hard drive to save time. The thought of loosing a years waranty didnt seem worth it when i only got the laptop for a better download time than the pandora gives me. I use the pandora for absolutelly everything and just turn the laptop on if i need to download large files. And playing a few pc games. So if i lose for a month i wont even notice its gome

 

[Asmo]

Bloody HP. Although most of the big companies work by the same template now, HP I have a personal grudge against.


Back when CD recorders were an expensive new toy, I bought a HP one for around $1000. 1 year warranty. 14 months later it began to fail consistently, and I eliminated every possibility other than the drive itself (tested new cables, SCSI cards, different PC, many brands of disc). Satisfied that the drive needed attention I called HP and detailed all this. Guy at the other end says no problem, send it in and the service dept. will see what needs to be done. By the way, there is a handling fee (approx $50) that is discounted from whatever course of action follows.


I send drive in and wait. And wait. 2 weeks pass and I manage to get hold of them again. Yes, he says, we have looked at your drive. It's faulty. We can offer you a 'discount' on a refurbished same model, - $700.


At this point the current, faster model was available new for less than $500.


I had already established that it was faulty. They could have told me no actual repairs would take place and saved me $50 (+postage) to wait 2 weeks to be told that all they'd offer was a vastly overpriced 2nd hand unit in lieu of 'repairs'.


I've never bought another HP product since.

 

[Prometheus]

@Phelsumania - You're UK-based, right? My understanding is that your contract is with the retailer and not the manufacturer, anyway. Can the shop you got it from sort you out?

 

[Christoph.Krn]

As tech support I knew a code that would let you get into the software of the product and change the settings so that it would work for the customers needs. However I was not allowed to do this, [...]

Many people I know who call customer support tell them that they do not want to have their calls recorded for similar reasons.

 

[Phelsumania]

hey promethus yes i am currently uk based in the uk, however i actually got the laptop itself from an online store because they were having a sale (i just sold some lizards so had the extra cash and made a bit of an impulse buy). So when the hard drive failed i just called the number which was in the waranty section off the hp user manual.

 

[Prometheus]

I'm pretty sure the same applies even if the store is online, but I would have to look that up. Anyhow, good luck getting it fixed, whatever route you feel is best.

 

[Phelsumania]

well the guy on the phone kinda sold it to us when he recogned i would have been voiding the waranty if i didnt get it shipped out, so i arranged to have it picked up tomorrow. I can live without it for a month or so.


just seemed a little odd that the first suggestion he had suggested supposedly would have been voiding the years waranty. which acording to craid wasnt the case anyway.

 

[WizardStan]

Officially a year, but practically only six months.


Under UK law, you get a year of warranty from receipt: if it breaks in the first 6 months it is the manufacturers responsibility to prove that the damage was caused by you or to fix it; in the last 6 months it becomes your responsibility to prove that the damage was not caused by you in order to get them to fix it. Try proving that the blown capacitor on the motherboard wasn't your fault after you've already opened it. It's not easy without a fairly extensive electrical background. Further, even in the first six months they could say "you opened it, obviously you must have touched something that caused it to go bad" and you'd basically have to take them to small claims to get them to justify it.


To be fair, that's just how it COULD go. Whether companies are generally that evil or if they oblige and replace your device up to the very last day depends greatly on the company.

 

[chosen]

How many lizards did the laptop cost?

 

[Halcyon]

well the guy on the phone kinda sold it to us when he recogned i would have been voiding the waranty if i didnt get it shipped out, so i arranged to have it picked up tomorrow. I can live without it for a month or so.


just seemed a little odd that the first suggestion he had suggested supposedly would have been voiding the years waranty. which acording to craid wasnt the case anyway.

Right on man, make sure you are doing what is best for your self. Remember the scenario i painted is only the best of all possible worlds. If it is anything less then, you are dealing with some very strange business and you should probably keep your warranty intact if it is all the same in the end for you.


Good luck

 

[craigix]

Sometimes the law works in a bad way towards businesses.


We once sold a company car (a crappy Astra) and the person contacted us 5 months later saying it had broken down,


now we sold them this car 'as seen' as second hand with high mileage, and I just happened to mention it belonged to


the company when we solid it to explain the V5 registration to (probably, gbax ltd).


This woman then used trading standards laws to make us pay for the repairs on this car, which came to more than the


car was worth, as she had bought it from a 'company', and indeed, trading standards confirmed we would have to


repair it.


Absolutely ridiculous. If I ever sold a company car again I'd transfer it in to my own name first.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

Sometimes the law works in a bad way towards businesses.


We once sold a company car (a crappy Astra) and the person contacted us 5 months later saying it had broken down,


now we sold them this car 'as seen' as second hand with high mileage, and I just happened to mention it belonged to


the company when we solid it to explain the V5 registration to (probably, gbax ltd).


This woman then used trading standards laws to make us pay for the repairs on this car, which came to more than the


car was worth, as she had bought it from a 'company', and indeed, trading standards confirmed we would have to


repair it.


Absolutely ridiculous. If I ever sold a company car again I'd transfer it in to my own name first.

That sounds utterly mind boggling.Laws arent always rational.

 

[Phelsumania]

How many lizards did the laptop cost?

I sold three gold dusk day gecko juviniles each with around a years worth of multi vitamins, pollens, MRP´S, D3 powder, and calci drops and a small woodlouse and spring tail culture. and a selection of bromailiad, novi star, ferns and moss cuttings from my main tank. Each one was sold in small (cheep) tanks suitable to house the juvinile geckos for aprox 3+ months until they would need something larger.


Good value for money in my opinion £150 for each.

 

[Nintendo]

How many lizards did the laptop cost?

More info on the awesomeness below.