What's even better about this story, though, is how it ends.

The other day my laptop quit working. I noticed the LED display that shows that it is plugged in was not glowing. First I tried plugging my cell phone adapter into the outlet just to see if the outlet was working and of course, there was nothing wrong with the outlet (hooray for paying my electric bill), next I tried plugging the laptop into a different plug and still no luck. Through this basic troubleshooting I realized that either my AC adapter was bad or the problem was inside my laptop! Off to Best Buy and their Weak Squad, I mean Geek Squad.

When I got to Best Buy I told the Geek Squad / Mormon impersonator about my problem. I even suggested that all I needed for them to do was plug my laptop in with a different cord and/or check my adapter with a multimeter. The Geek told me that they did not have an adapter for my computer (an obvious lie, I have had my laptop worked on twice by the Geek Squad and both times they used their own adapter); however he did agree to check it with the multimeter. He then looked around for about 5 seconds and could not find the multimeter, so he did the next logical thing, he picked up my laptop, stared into the AC adapter receiver and then told me "It is definitely going to be a problem with the computer, we are going to need to send it in for three weeks."

Obviously I was shocked. I told him before I sent off my computer for 3 weeks I would like to make sure it is not a problem with the AC adapter, could he please check it out first. "It is going to take at least 10 minutes for me to get the multimeter or another adapter, it's going to be a problem inside the computer, lets just send it in."

I thought for a second... 3 weeks vs 10 minutes... 3 vs 10... well, 3 is less than 10 (Shel Silverstein showed me that in his economy-based poem "Smart")... Despite Shel's frugal advice I decided I would wait out those ten minutes and see what happens.

Turns out, when plugged into a different adapter my computer turns right on! Now, I know all I need to do is buy an adapter, but to be honest I was pretty angry at the Geek Squad's lack of effort in troubleshooting my computer, so I did not purchase the adapter from them.

Instead I went across the street to "The Shack" and started to explain my troubles to the employee there. Before I was done with my story he had already pulled out a multimeter and another adapter. He first plugged in the other adapter and it worked, so then he took the multimeter to my adapter and checked it in two places, before the transformer (from the wall to the plug was 110v) and then post transformer to plug (3.5v, when it as supposed to be putting out 19v). Not only did he confirm (by using science!) that the adapter was bad, he then told me "I'll be honest with you, the universal adapter we sell here is more expensive than the one across the street at Best Buy." To me, his willingness to do the right thing (and not send my laptop away for 3 weeks) was worth the extra 10 dollars.

RELATED
"Radio Shack Sales Staff Unfazed By 2,400% Markup"
Approximately every third Geek Squad post on Consumerist
(Photo: shlala)

"Free WiFi for the Holidays" [Google via IntoMobile]
(Photo: quinn.anya)

He has to buy another part if he wants to use the drive. He's also facing issues with authentication. He writes:

I purchased a Dell Latitude XT several months ago. It shipped with Windows XP Tablet Edition and Windows Vista. Today I found myself trying to install Tablet XP from the installation DVD.

The XT does not include an internal CD/DVD drive. It's not a netbook but it is designed to be used as a tablet. The irony is that Dell did include a CD/DVD drive. It's not exactly an external drive- it requires a "Media Base" to use (a separate purchase). They couldn't simply include a cable.

I found a way to install Windows XP from an external hard drive here.

I already had an external hard drive install setup for Windows 7 so this looked simple. I followed steps 12-20 and everything seemed fine until I was presented with product key prompt. The "start here" book that the DVD was delivered with stated "The Certificate of Authenticity label has been removed by your PC manufacturer and should be attached to your PC." No such label was attached to the PC.

I spent the next two hours on the phone being bounced between Dell's Technical Support, Customer Care, a "Resolution Specialist," and eventually a technician. Customer Care had originally diverted me to Microsoft who quickly informed me that Dell would need to provide the product code for OEM software. Total time on the phone with Dell: over two hours. Total time on the phone with Microsoft: about ten minutes.

The technician basically told me I had to use the DVD to install XP. Apparently the product code is embedded on the system board or something.

Dell sold me a computer with an external CD/DVD drive that I can only use after spending more money. They included a DVD with documentation stating that the Certificate of Authenticity label is on the computer even though it isn't. I found a way to work around the first hurdle they put in front of me but I'm stuck on the second. I'm hoping a Consumerist reader could help me out here.

Any advice for David?

(Photo: Ron Dauphin)

Unfortunately, Dell didn't quite see things that way. He writes:

Last week I called Dell Technical Support about my Dell Studio 1537 Laptop and a DVD drive which was making loud noises and ejecting all cds. I had the basic "mail-in" warranty which required I ship them the laptop back. After my phone conversation with overseas tech support I received an empty box with a prepaid packing slip to mail the laptop back. A couple days ago I received both an automated email and phone call that my laptop was coming back to me. This morning, Fedex delivered a refurbished hard drive - yes just a hard drive.

I began my calling spree this morning and spoke to 7, yes 7, different Dell reps who transferred me between technical support, customer service, and back to technical support. After about 90 minutes of phone calls, hold music, and redialing I'm stuck with a 250gb hard drive but no laptop. Who do I call for help?

Adam could start by shooting off an email to michael@dell.com. The address goes to a Dell executives relations team and has helped people solve problems before. Any other suggestions?

(Photo: 60 in 3)

So he fought back by filing in small claims court—and won $900, just over 75% of the computer's original purchase price back in 2007.

I bought a DV6000 laptop from HP in February of 2007. A little after a year of owning it, it died - no boot up at all, just a black screen and a series of beeps.

I called HP to see what they could do. You've probably received lots of emails from people with horror stories about this particular model. If you Google "DV6000," you'll see hundreds of people with complaints about the shoddy make of this model.

Because of all the problems (and to avoid a recall, I'm sure), HP extended the warranty on several models, including mine, to cover this specific problem. I think it was a motherboard failure - all I know is what the symptoms were. Long story short: HP fixed the laptop for free and were very, very good about it. Quick and easy - I loved HP a lot then.

Flash forward: July of 2009. The computer is a little under two and a half years old. Still a good laptop, what with Vista, a dual core processor, and 2 gigs of RAM, so when it died for a second time, I was dismayed. I spent $1,150 on this laptop expecting to get at least four full years of use out of it. I tend to overspend on computers because I want them to last. In fact, I still have a working laptop I bought in 2000 for $2,000, though it's so obsolete it's never used, and a desktop from 2005 still in everyday use. I called HP hoping they'd be as good as the last time the laptop died, especially since the symptoms were exactly the same. No dice.

Moving up the chain of customer service reps, I started at the lower rung. I was told the computer was out of warranty and it would cost around $300 to get it fixed. I questioned this, considering it had already been fixed for the exact same problem once before and back then it was free. Nope, I was told, the warranty is expired.

I asked to speak to a manager, who told me the same thing. I asked for the corporate number and, the next day, called in and spoke to someone at, quote, the "highest level" of customer service in HP. I could go no higher, I was told, after first being told there was nothing they could do: the fix was $300, despite it being the second round of repairs needed.

Well, this torqued me. I don't like getting ripped off, so the next day, I printed out and mailed in a small claims filing. I considered an EECB, but I was really steamed at the abruptness of the people at HP I talked to. North Dakota small claims are very simple and only cost $10 to file. The crux of my complaint: HP fixed the problem with the computer before, which from my research showed to be something endemic in the hardware of the system itself, a ticking time-bomb the computer shipped with straight off the factory line. By refusing to fix the problem they caused, after having admitted guilt before by repairing it, I was going to be damned if I paid them $300 to fix their own mistake.

The filing took a long time to process and mail because of a mistake I made. Looking up HP's registered agent in North Dakota (CT Corporation System), I served the papers through registered mail to them. Unfortunately, I put the name of their client, Hewlett Packard, on the envelope. CT Corporation Systems refused to sign, so I had to send the declined envelope back to the Clerk of Court in Burleigh County, where HP's registered agent has their address. The clerk of court sent me a letter saying I had to serve the papers to CT Corporation Systems instead of Hewlett Packard, meaning all I had to do was change the name on the envelope.

(I didn't really understand this, since CT is HP's registered agent and I'm suing HP. Wouldn't CT sign for something addressed to HP? But whatever... I readdressed the envelope and sent it off.)

Flash forward to this week: I received a call from Francesca from HP, who wanted to talk about the filing. She asked me about the computer and a few general questions. I mentioned my sister was using the laptop when it broke - she's a teacher and also used the laptop to talk with her husband, who was serving in Iraq when it quit working, leaving her without a computer for a week. We rush-ordered a nice Gateway computer later in the week after HP refused to help us out.

The most memorable part of the conversation involved Francesca mentioning (and I'm paraphrasing here) that, well, the computer is over two years old, you know? The subtext: laptops aren't going to last forever - why are you going to so much trouble over an old laptop?

My instant reply, which I'm very proud of: "Are you telling me HP's laptops are so crappy they won't last more than two years and I should just throw it away?"

That got her attention, and minutes later she offered to settle for 75 percent of the purchase price. I accepted, since that seemed fair - I had gotten use out of it, after all. Francesca even offered to round up to $900 even to cover mailing and filing costs I'd incurred.

She was very professional and polite and a credit to the company. I'm not sure how likely I am to buy another HP computer anytime soon, but the way she handled herself on the phone makes it much more likely. I know people with other HP laptop models that work fine, so I think the trouble associated with the DV6000 line and its brethren is a fluke. Still, HP screwed up by not fixing their own mistakes.

Right now, I'm waiting for the return shipping box Francesca graciously offered to send, as well as the settlement agreement. After I sign the papers, I'll send in a dismissal notice to the Clerk of Court, ending the matter for good.

Thanks, HP, for finally doing the right thing.

Barely a month ago, Consumerist suggested that an owner of the same exact model laptop file in small claims court, so it's great to see another reader who used this method with some success.

RELATED:
How To Take Your Case To Small Claims Court
So You Want To Sue The Company That's Screwing You Over

(Photo: wlodi)

Dan writes:

My roommate is a grad student who recently moved to the area and upon his arrival, purchased a laptop from Lenovo. During the online-checkout process, he attempted to pay with his credit card but the web site rejected his credit union's credit card. I offered my credit card in exchange for a personal check from him (free cash back points!) and he typed in my credit card info, but forgot to change the billing address. It turns out that was his second mistake; the first mistake was opting to deal with Lenovo in the first place.

The attempted purchase started on September 19th, 2009 (a Saturday). On Tuesday the 22nd he was notified via email that the billing information was incorrect, that the order had not been processed, and that he needed to call his credit card and/or bank to correct his billing address. Together we called Lenovo's customer service to explain to them what had happened, that the billing information needed to be changed on their end. It took three different people transferring the call around until we hung up with mediocre confidence that the reps from Lenovo now understood the situation.

On Thursday the 24th my roommate received an email from a Lenovo Inbound Sales representative named Michael who was "assigned to personally manage the order." It seemed like a nice courtesy, a phone number and email address as a point of contact should any more problems turn up. He didn't indicate any problems in the introductory email.

On Friday the 25th Michael wrote again, saying "The order is messaged that phone number does not exist and ship to address on not on credit card account. It states order will be cancelled in 2 days if not corrected. If your friend does not call credit card company and fix it will be cancelled. I also need the phone number on the credit card bill to address. Please email when corrected and I will try to prevent cancellation."

Apparently, the three people on the phone didn't understand the situation after all, and Lenovo still thought that the incorrect information typed in during the purchase now had to be made the truth and told to my credit card company? (I'm sorry if that sentence is poorly constructed, but I think Lenovo's suggested course of action is just as poor.) Luckily the "2 days" was two business days, since telling someone on a Friday that they had 2 days to contact offices that were closed over the weekend would be unfair.

My roommate wrote a concise email over the weekend explaining the situation. He ordered the laptop and wanted it shipped to our apartment. The credit card belonged to me, and gave the correct billing address (yet again). He gave both of our phone numbers to Michael. After an email with this much information so clearly laid out, only an idiot would still fail to move the order forward, right?

Michael didn't respond on Monday the 28th. My roommate and I both called and left similar voicemails in his office that basically repeated the information given in the email sent to him over the weekend. There was still no response from Michael. Finally my roommate called Lenovo's customer service department again later on Monday the 28th and found someone who seemed very competent and friendly who understood the situation and correct the order information over the phone.

On Tuesday the 29th Michael phoned my roommate and left a voicemail for me saying that we needed to talk about my billing information. My roommate emailed Michael and explained that the issue was resolved with the customer service department and that he didn't have to "help" any more.

It took from September 19th until the 30th to resolve the billing typo, but now things should be fine, right?

The laptop finally shipped (and my credit card was billed) on Tuesday October 6th. It arrived on Thursday the 8th. By Friday morning on the 9th my roommate had experienced over 15 "blue screens of death." It occasionally would boot up to the log-in page before it crashed, but was a completely useless machine (the OS was Vista).

After calling Lenovo's support team, they asked him to run a few diagnostic tests on the computer so they could understand how to proceed. The computer "blue-screened" during the diagnostic tests. They shipped Vista install disks so he could reinstall the OS and start fresh. They arrived on Monday the 12th of October and failed so fix anything (the computer would crash during the install process).

Today, October 14th, after another call to Lenovo support, Lenovo tried to send new Vista OS install disks, but they slowly became convinced that the disks were probably not the problem. They have now promised to ship a box in which my roommate can ship his computer back to Lenovo for them to "fix" it. If they somehow fix it and ship it back here in the next 4.5 days, it will still have been 1 month from the time of the original order until a working computer arrived from Lenovo, with nothing but headaches in between.

Between this and forgetting to charge their customers entirely, we're starting to wonder whether Lenovo really wants consumers' money, or they are some kind of avant-garde anti-capitalist prank.

(Photo: jonathansin)

Here's a copy of the EECB he sent to Dell yesterday:

Dear Dell Executive Team,

It is with great frustration that I am writing to inform you of how blatant lies given by XPS supervisors have ruined a trip, and put important aspects of my business on hold.

I purchased the most expensive XPS m1730 system and support plan you had available last May. Unfortunately, due to what should be by now a known issue (despite Dell techs denying this), one or both of my Nvidia 8800m GTX SLI cards has fried and forums confirm there is a huge replacement part backlog because of all the failures.

This alone would not be cause to write you, however the following chain of events will show why I was left with no alternative.

10/8 (Lie #1)

• Called for initial troubleshooting and escalated to a rude Supervisor named Andrew (ID#133212) who placed dispatch for replacement cards. Asked him multiple times about backlog issue and he confirmed it was not a problem and my machine would be serviced by the on-site tech no later than 10/15.
• I tell him I am very happy as I wanted to leave for a trip by the 18th. I confirm my travel plans based on this call.

10/10 (Lie #2)

• Called to confirm dispatch status and timing, again expressing concern over the backlog comments in forums. Supervisor named Nehl (ID# 153736) says cards will arrive by 10/12 and machine serviced by 10/14.
• Says she is taking ownership of the issue and will call on 10/12 at 11AM CST with an update.

10/12 (Lie #3)

• Instead of a call from Nehl, receive automated voicemail stating delivery delay till 10/15 due to backlog (SURPRISE!)
• Follow-up call has Brian (ID# 175307) telling me the card will arrive by Tuesday, but to call back if I don't hear from the on-site tech by Wednesday evening.

10/15

• No call. Am told when I follow-up that part will likely get in on 10/16 and check back then.

10/16 (TRUTH AT LAST!)

• Second-level Supervisor Adel (ID# 01130624) says that cards will not arrive in time for my machine to be serviced before my trip.
• Offers two unacceptable alternatives in the form of a temporary downgraded replacement card that wouldn't arrive in time, or a system replacement that would likely result in serious downgrades. Both options would lose my spot in queue for my original 8800m GTX dispatch order.
• Tells me that essentially, they have no way of knowing when the cards will arrive and there is nothing more they can do for me (completely unacceptable).

I now have a machine with graphics so jerky that I get nauseous using it, which is a problem as it is my business computer with all of my web development files and software on it which puts me at a full stop with that work.

I am also now stuck on a three day trip without anything more than the old borrowed computer I am writing this from, preventing me from doing any real work, all thanks to blatant lies from Dell tech support (supervisors no less) that could have been avoided had someone been willing to realistically set my expectations at the beginning.

The moral of this story? Either it's don't buy from Dell, or don't trust Dell to follow through on their promises, or simply don't throw good money away on a Dell support plan because it's low quality. Also, try to keep your dev files—or a current copy, at any rate—on a portable hard drive so you can access them on a second computer should the need arise.

(Photo: mind's eye)

c0crusader wrote this complaint letter to Sony:

Dear Sir/Madam:

I purchased a custom configured laptop from SonyStyle - the VGN-SR190. Before placing this order I called Sony technical support to inquire about the availability of an HDMI port on the SR190. I was told by the tech agent that the base model did not have an HDMI output but if I upgraded the graphics card to the ATI Radeon 3400 it would make an HDMI port available, as is the case when upgrading the SR290 to the same graphics card. I relied on this information when configuring my laptop and expended $99 on the ATI Radeon 3400 graphics card. Again, the only reason I made this upgrade was because of the information provided to me by tech support regarding the availability of an HDMI port with this upgrade.

You can guess what happened next. I received the laptop and found that even with the upgraded graphics card the computer still did not have an HDMI port. I called customer service to voice my dissatisfaction about being given false information by tech support and requested an adjustment. Owen R. from the Billing Department denied my request for a credit for the price of the graphics card. After escalating the issue to Beverly W., I was informed that because there was no record of me having placed a call to tech support prior to ordering, there was nothing that could be done. But why would I ask for a record when simply calling to inquire about a product. I assume the information a Sony tech provides about Sony products is accurate and thus verifiable without any extra records.

So I decided to make an after-the-fact record. I called tech support again to inquire about the availability of the HDMI port on the SR190 if you upgrade to the ATI Radeon 3400. No surprise, I was again reassured that the SR190 came with an HDMI port when upgraded to the ATI Radeon 3400, this time by John from Tech Support. I made sure to get an Event Number this time. I called the Billing Department to ask for the credit and again the request was denied. The agent, Daniel (ID# 4978), was very rude and refused to accept the new Event Number as proof. He claimed he had no "authority over technical support," and could not do anything because Owen R. had already made a decision. He said that issuing a return label was all that Sony was willing to do.

Not content with the free return label to settle the matter, c0crusader dropped da bomb on 40 Sony executives and found immediate success:

Not a day later I starting receiving emails and phone calls from the executives. Suffice it to say they immediately refunded me the $99 and promised to investigate the tech training issue. Moral, ask for a record when calling tech support and when all else fails send an Executive Email Carpet Bomb — it really works!

Oh, EECB, how unhelpful corporate underlings wish we could quit you.

(Photo: adam reker)

Yuriy writes:

Since receiving my brand new Dell Studio XPS 1640 at the end of July, the hard drive has produced a clicking sound every few minutes, followed by a brief freeze of the whole system. After doing a good deal of research on the matter, I found out that the cause is an incompatibility (with the shock sensor) between the Dell system and the ST9500420ASG hard drive included in the system. Seagate and (some) Dell representatives acknowledge the problem and agree that Dell needs to release a patch. After speaking with technical service representatives on a dozen separate occasions, I was finally put through to a Dell system engineer who explained that their department was not aware of the problem and that no ticket existed for the "bug". I pointed out that the technical support agent I had just spoken with was familiar with the issue, and that multiple others knew about it as well. He said that they would look into it and contact me with a fix.

Today marks 21 days since that conversation took place, so I decided to give Dell a call. This system was purchased through a business account and I have a full hardware warranty with "accidental protection". I called their business department, entered my laptop's "service tag" and was promptly greeted with "due to heavy call volume, you may experience a wait time longer than 10 minutes". The wait time I experienced was 2 hours and 14 minutes, at which point I hung up. At no point did a human pick up on the other end, but the hold recording reminded me to "visit the Dell community forums" every two minutes for the duration of the call. Dell should take their own advice, because there are an enormous number of people reporting this exact same problem on the Dell community forums.

Needless to say, I am very disappointed with Dell's handling of the situation.

Yuriy sent out an Executive Email Carpet Bomb but still can't get a suitable replacement:

I sent an EECB and received a call from their corporate unresolved incidents department. That was 3 weeks ago. They promised to send me a replacement system, but it was held up in production due to a backordered part. It turned out that they made a mistake with the specs, and the system that finally shipped 2 days ago is inferior to my current one. I am going to have FedEx return that package to the sender and do all of this over again.

Meanwhile, their own forums have people complaining about the same problem with their systems, so I have no reason to believe that the replacement system (if I ever manage to get one) is going to work any better. I filed a report with the BBB today asking for a refund and am hoping that someone will care enough to give me a call back. It has been over a week since anyone has contacted me.

If anyone has successfully navigated Dell's stygian process to successfully getting a computer fixed, please drop your advice in the comments.

(Photo: meormeor)

L951B951 says:

Thanks to your 9/28 article about Best Buy's "Optimization" service on new laptops, I went into my local Best Buy fully prepared and left without having to pay the $40 for whatever this service is supposed to be.

I just returned from purchasing a laptop from Best Buy. The guys working in the computer area were already with customers, but luckily another Best Buy employee saw I needed help and came over. I told him I wanted this particular laptop, but the 2 they had on the floor had been opened and had a paper taped to them claiming they had been "optimized" (the optimization forms at this location looked different than the one shown here these appeared to have been made in MS Word and were taped on with cellophane tape, but it was removed at the register so I don't have a picture of it).

The employee helping me told me he didn't work in the computer department but would go see if he could find an "unopened one" (his words, not mine). The interesting part is that he didn't understand what the optimization sheet meant; he thought it was an open box, and set about trying to find me an "unopened" laptop. After a few minutes of climbing the rolling stairs, he came down to tell me the bad news: of the 5 they had, all of them were opened. Luckily, at that point, one of the employees from the computer department came by to help. He explained that they weren't returns, as the other employee thought, but that a certain percentage of their laptops get "Optimized" by the Geek Squad (apparently that certain percentage is 100%). He was very friendly and offered to waive the $40 optimization fee since I didn't want it and was unwilling to pay for it. I would like to state again: both employees were very helpful throughout the purchase.

I am home now, and curious as to what kind of Optimization service Best Buy does. It's not listed under Geek Squad's services ( http://support.geeksquad.com/support/services ). Per your previous story about the optimization, I looked in the box for any recovery disks made - there were none. And when I booted my laptop up for the first time i was greeted by a Windows Error Recovery message (picture 1, taken with my phone). Once I passed that hurdle, and Vista booted up, I was greeted with 200+ MB worth of updates, some being authored in February (picture 2 below). So I'm stumped as to what the "Optimization" did beyond set my default language and timezone.

All the more reason to decline this silly optimization service. If Best Buy or any other store tries to pressure you into it, we suggest you call your state's attorney general.

The upgrade discs cost as much as $17 (reported by both Consumerist readers and Mouse Print) The cost includes shipping and other, more mysterious fees. Reader Seth ended up paying $17.03:

I recently got a Lenovo laptop with Vista Business and the promise of a free upgrade to Windows 7 Professional. Upon using the website Lenovo set up, I was surprised to see that the "free" upgrade actually cost $17.03 for shipping & handling. I am willing to pay reasonable shipping and handling costs, but I don't understand why the charges here should be so high. However, the laptop I purchased came with free shipping, so it would seem fairest to have the shipping for the Windows upgrade component be free as well.

I should note that the Lenovo Windows upgrade site said Lenovo Outlet purchases are not eligible, but according to the Lenovo Outlet FAQ they are: http://outlet.lenovo.com/faq

The question is, what is a reasonable shipping charge for an OS upgrade? $5? $10? Should customers who are helping vendors move computers with a musty, unloved OS out of their warehouses be paying a fee to receive their new Windows discs at all?

Hidden Fees Discovered for "Free" Windows 7 Upgrades [Mouse Print] (Thanks, Dirk!)

He writes:

Today we went shopping at Best Buy in [redacted], MO. We recently remodeled our kitchen and needed a laptop for internet access while cooking and eating.

Anyway, we found a cheap laptop with nice features and proceeded to pick up a box from the floor. When I looked, though, the laptop had been opened and a sticker placed on it saying Geek Squad had "optimized" the laptop and created the recovery disks.

I asked one of the floor guys why they do this and he explained, "Computers don't ship with CDs anymore, so we do this as a service."

When I asked about the optimization he shrugged.

I explained to him I was uncomfortable buying a laptop that's been opened and logged onto. While I have no reason to think poorly of Geek Squad, all it would take is one rogue employee to begin installing a key capture program or other malware. The staff member told me they would look for one in the back that was unopened.

Since I haven't bought a laptop or PC retail in over a year, I am unsure if this is standard industry practice. When I order from Amazon the computers always arrive unopened.

We've seen this complaint a few other times, notably at Staples where they claimed to have optimized all of the laptops in stock.

The consolation for Patrick, judging from Best Buy's other optimization practices, is that the optimizers probably didn't do all that much to the computer, other than possibly making it unreturnable unless a restocking fee is tacked on.

I bought a laptop off the shelf of a Tucson Best Buy last year and found it thoroughly un-optimized. Have any of you found these silly optimization stickers?

He is less thrilled by this turn of events than a less honest customer would be.

Last November I purchased a brand new laptop from Dell. This was around the time when a new model of wi-fi card was being shipped with the computers, that didn't yet have a driver for my intended flavour of Linux. I opted into an upgrade for a more well-known model using their online order form.

I can't say I was surprised when this addition was overlooked by Dell, and I was shipped the card that was not compatible. I can't complain though - I got a terrific deal, and a few quick calls to Customer Service had them shipping me the new card free. They even offered to send a technician to my house to get it installed, but I am an IT worker myself and said I could handle it just fine. The card arrived a few days later with priority shipping.

A whole crate of them.

Yes, they did not ship me a single wifi card - they sent me an entire box of them, a rough count numbering 120.

I'm sure about this time some of your more enterprising readers are proclaiming "jackpot!" and opening up an immediate eBay account, and I have to say I was tempted. This card in particular was a $80 upgrade on my laptop purchase! I decided to cash in for some Karma points and return the cards to them, and perhaps gain a thankyou note in response. This is where the story turns sour.

Since last November I have contacted Dell approximately twice per month in an attempt to get through to someone. It seems their customer service department simply does not have a pre-scripted response for "You mistakenly shipped me a crate of expensive parts." I've been shuffled around to countless new customer service desks, but it always feels like I'm being transferred sideways (to other departments) rather than upwards (to management).

I thought maybe in this new "financial climate" (I hate that phrase) there'd be some hefty bonuses in place for Dell reps retrieving a pile of valuable goods. Though, so much time has gone on now that I suppose they are probably only worth $10 now. :-/ Any tips on who I could contact at Dell to have them take their property off my hands?

Any ideas for Andy (other than "eBay, dude?") Or is it just painfully obvious that Dell doesn't actually want these cards?

He could always try contacting Dell's Customer Advocates, or maybe see what Michael Dell's office has to say about the situation.

He writes:

I'm been having a battle with HP over getting my laptop fixed. I have one of those dv6000 models that are totally junk.

It broke down, I sent it back. The day I got it back the laptop was still broken, so I haggled with HP. Finally they sent me a box to send it back.

They said the board has water damage and refuse to replace it. I've filed a complaint with the B.B.B. but so far this has gotten me no where. Could you recommend a good lawyer? Do a google search on the dv6000 and you'll see how many people are being taken advantage of over these models. I'm stumped at how a company can get away with ripping off its customers like HP is doing to me. I am considering a class action lawsuit if I can get enough dv6000 owners on board.

Filing a BBB complaint is good, because it helps build a record of customer dissatisfation with a company. The BBB is in no way a regulatory power, however, and can't force a company to do anything.

If you really want to try to assemble a class action lawsuit against HP over this, we suggest you contact a lawyer in your town and ask for a consultation. Maybe she can point you in the right direction. Remember, though, that frequently class action settlements benefit the legal firm more than the aggrieved parties, and barely nick the company. At least that's our take on it after posting so many stories about stupidly low class action settlements.

That's why we think small claims court is where it's at for things like this. It's cheap, you don't need a lawyer, and it's the one place in our court system where the odds are frequently in the little guy's favor.

Here's a post about a guy who took HP to small claims court an won. It's probably a good place to start.

And here is a post by a Real Live Lawyer on how to take your case to small claims court.

If you're really in an info-gathering mood, just do a search for in the box at the top of the page for the term small claims, which will provide a list of inspiring stories and tips on how to make it work for you.

And of course, if you go through with this and win, please email us all the details so we can pass them along to future HP customers. Good luck!

(Photo: kate.gardiner)

That evening, Krop spent hours watching the screen, taking screenshots and video captures as the other man wrote IMs, visited Facebook, and downloaded porn. He was eventually able to ID the user after he started a video chat and Krop was able to see his face. After calling the police, Krop got both of his laptops back the next morning. The porn fan had no regrets. "I didn't care whether it was stolen," he said. "I buy stolen stuff all the time. I don't care... If I can save $600, I'll do it." No word on what Krop did with the screengrabs he took, or the files that had been downloaded to the laptop the previous evening.

An Amazing Laptop Recovery Story [PC World]

I bought my wife a Dell Inspiron notebook with XP Pro (she only uses XP, can't stand Vista) and recently on a Facebook visit her computer got infected with a virus. After several attempts at cleaning it up, I was still noticing problems so I decided to reload the OS.

The laptop actually came with Vista (some Pro-like version) and XP, and I'm supposed to be able to switch between them at will - reloading of course, but the point is the notebook came with a license for BOTH OS's.

So I pop in the CD while Windows is still running, and was about to reboot, but auto-run kicks in and asks me if I want to reload Windows. Sure, that's what I wanted to do. So I go through the process, and it gets to the screen where you have to enter your product key - and lo and behold, I have no MS COA. Not on the box, not on the CD sleeve, not with any of the materials that came with the notebook. So I call up Dell.

I speak to "AJ" who goes through the motions of having me look at the CD sleeve, bottom of the notebook, etc and then says "You shouldn't have to enter the product key, if I started the reload procedure correctly. Then he asks, "Did you run it from the running version of Windows, or boot and 'F12' with the disk in the drive?" Hmm, I ran it the first way.

Now here's where it gets interesting. AJ tells me that he can walk me through the proper way to do it, but he says that I've called into the paid software support queue and that I will need to buy an incident in order to get the solution. We go back and forth a bit about why I should pay for a problem when it's the missing COA that's the root, but I know it's futile if I've called into the wrong queue, so I'm preparing to hang up and call a different support number.

Meanwhile, I think back to what he said earlier - which way did you start the rebuild process? Oh, right - reboot and F12. While he's got me on hold to find me the free support line, I try it - and Bingo! No COA required. The rebuild takes off while I'm still on hold. Eventually I hung up.

I guess on one hand, I'm happy - "RJ" "AJ" gave me a solution, although he mentioned almost accidentally and then wanted to charge me for it. Only because I was paying attention did I save having to "pay" for a solution, which consisted of "reboot your computer with the disk in the drive, and hit F12 to boot from it, and you wont' need to enter your license."

And THAT'S the part that they wanted to charge me for.

He wrote:

A weird thing happened to me on my recent ThinkPad X61 Clearance purchase. I got a letter from Lyons Collection services about a remaining balance for my purchase.

Surely enough, I went back into my records from March (date of purchase) and they had only billed me for shipping and then marked the transaction completed. I asked the Lyons rep, and he said that this would not go on my credit report and that they got a large number of similar collection requests from Lenovo.

I went ahead and paid since it seemed to match what I had from my records. I did get a Paypal notice that authorized payment, but ultimately I was only charged for shipping.

"A large number of collection requests," eh? Interesting. Should Bart have noticed that his card was never charged for the purchase? Yes, but it was an oversight on his part, and we'd like to think that it's not his job to make sure that he has exchanged money for a good or service. Optimistic? Maybe.

Before we had a chance to post Bart's letter, though, we received a message from yet another new Thinkpad owner. G. wrote to us:

I bought a laptop from Lenovo.com on August 10th. I checked my debit card online to see when the money will be charged to my account and something weird happened. It showed as if they charged me for it for 5-6 days after I bought it, but now I have all the money back in my account, as if they never charged me for the laptop. Oh, and I received the laptop on August 18th. I'm typing this on it actually. What should I do?

We've been hearing odd things about Lenovo's shipping and ordering since the very earliest days of Consumerist. For starters, G. should immediately call customer service, and escalate as needed in order to avoid being sent to collections.

If you purchased from Lenovo since, apparently, the beginning of 2009, you should make sure that the transaction has cleared your credit card statement or bank account.

Such was Xavier's experience when he searched for a replacement to his out-of-warranty MacBook battery. His feel-good story:

I realize that there are many positive Apple stories, but I would say this one is a bit above and beyond even for Apple, well, after a few hoops.

I purchase a 15" Apple MacBook Pro in September 2007. Around July 2008, I had an issue with my battery and had it easily replaced at the Michigan Avenue Apple Store. Fast forward to a year later, and my battery began acting wacky. Obviously realizing that the original 1-year warranty on my MBP had expired but thinking the replacement battery carried its own 1-year warranty, I took it into the Apple Store in OakBrook, Illinois. Unfortunately, I was informed that replacement parts carried only a 90-day warranty, and although the part was indeed defective, I was out of luck regarding any complimentary replacement. Annoyed, but realizing I am extended another year of warranty through my credit card, I went home to start the process. My credit card company required proof from Apple that my battery was indeed defective and not just 'out of juice'. I was out of the country for a few weeks, so I wasn't able to get to an Apple Store until Sunday. I arrived at my appointment to the recently opened Apple Store in (redacted) fully expecting to leave with something saying that the battery was bad and a new retail battery purchased by me so I could be reimbursed by my credit card company. I explained what I needed to Sam, the Apple "Genius" helping me. He performed a check on my battery and told me that even though I was outside my warranty, there was no reason my battery should not be able to hold a charge since it was 'so young'; it was indeed defective. He said as long as they had the battery in-store, he'd replace it on the spot free of charge. Luckily, they did, and he did! Very happy was I leaving the store with a new battery and all my money!

Maybe the Apple Store guy would still have replaced Xavier's battery had he gone into the store with an Apple chip on his shoulder and figurative guns blazing, but I wouldn't bet on it. It speaks to the old Wind and the Sun Aesop fable.

I run my computers into the ground. They hardly ever sleep, and parts inevitably break after years of constant use. Because of this, I buy AppleCare, which extends Apple's warranty on all parts to three years. It's one of the only extended warranties that's cost effective and easily worth the purchase price. Try repairing a busted Apple at your local computer shop. It won't be cheap.

Over the past two and a half years, Apple has replaced two hard drives and an optical drive on my MacBook Pro. When the optical drive failed for a second time, it constituted the fourth major hardware repair and, at least according to Apple's semi-official policy, made me eligible for a replacement machine. I called and asked for a replacement, and that's what I got.

The new machine was wonderful, except for the atrociously reflective mirror-finish glossy screen. I spend all day with my laptop, and I occasionally suffer from ocular migraines that are triggered, in part, by glare. Migraines are nature's version of waterboarding. They are torture, and most sufferers go to comical lengths to avoid their migraine triggers. I had seen the laptops in the store and somehow deluded myself into thinking that the reflections wouldn't be as bad at home where I could control the lighting. For me, Apple's reflective screen was utterly unusable.

I called Apple and explained the problem. Surprisingly, the wonderful customer relations administrator who oversaw the replacement, Anita M. in Austin, offered to overnight me an anti-glare film. Worth a try!

The films are notoriously difficult to apply, so I brought it into an Apple Store. A cheerful manager applied the film in about 20 minutes, avoiding the bubbles and dust specks that can ruin an anti-glare film. Still, the film didn't help and the screen was still blindingly reflective. Unacceptable!

Still, there was one final option. The third-party vendor TechRestore has a $200 service that replaces glossy screens with beloved matte ones. Though TechRestore claims their work doesn't void AppleCare, a monitor replacement is a very visible change, and Apple could have easily denied me any future repairs.

I called Anita and asked if I could return the new unit and hold onto my old MacBook Pro in the hopes that Apple would reintroduce an anti-glare option before my AppleCare expired in November. Anita said that so long as I called within the warranty period, I'd be able to request a replacement. I don't really use my optical drive, so living without one wasn't a big deal. Getting a replacement laptop that can spend the next three years running without sleep is much more important. I figured I'd use my capable machine as long as possible, and then if need be, request a replacement in November and void the warranty with the TechRestore replacement.

Today, Apple reintroduced the anti-glare screens as a $50 option on their 15" MacBook Pros. I called customer service, explained my case history, and again requested a replacement—this time with the newly available anti-glare option. Apple agreed, and upgraded me to the anti-glare screen free of charge. They even tossed in two free mini Display Port connectors so I could connect my external monitors.

Did Apple need to replace my laptop? No.
Did Apple need to send me an anti-glare film? No.
Did Apple need to install the anti-glare film? No.
Did Apple need to take back their replacement laptop? No.
Did Apple need to send me another replacement? No.
Did Apple need to waive the fee for the anti-glare option? No.
Did Apple need to toss in two free Display Port connectors? No.
Did Apple need to worry that I wasn't already a loyal customer? No.

Apple didn't need to do anything but repair my broken optical drive; instead, they repeatedly went above and beyond. This wasn't a fluke experience, either. Every single Apple employee I spoke with was efficient, helpful, and thoroughly professional. This was service worth paying for. Thank you, Apple.

The magazine called with two questions: how could they change their laptop's power settings; and, how could they switch their laptop's display to an external monitor?

Acer explained that the one-year warranty on their test laptop had expired in November 2008, even though the unit was manufactured in July 2008. Without answering the question, the representative said "we would have to provide the paperwork to prove it, and disconnected the call."

HP's representative "mistakenly told us that our notebook was 17 days out of warranty, and that we would have to pay for service."

Dell was the worst. Their representative "did not understand the meaning of a "power scheme." A second call to Asia was "full of static and hissing." The representative's "hard-to-understand accent made communication even more difficult."

By contrast, a call to Apple was promptly answered by a helpful unicorn, who, after quickly answering their questions, sent them a free chocolate cake for their troubles. Or something like that.

The full survey is chock full of the gory details of their encounters with every major manufacturer.

Tech Support Showdown 2009 [Laptop magazine via Lifehacker and Gizmodo]
(Photo: ardenswayoflife)

The Wall Street Journal reports that a small coffee shop in Brooklyn, Naidre's, is throwing out laptop users during peak lunch hours unless they eat while working.

You don't want to discourage it, it's a wonderful tradition," says Naidre's owner Janice Pullicino, 53 years old. A former partner in a computer-graphics business, Ms. Pullicino insists she loves technology and hates to limit its use. But when she realized that people with laptops were taking up seats and driving away the more lucrative lunch crowd, she put up the sign. Last fall, she covered up some of the outlets, describing that as a "cost-cutting measure" to save electricity.

She has a point. It's possible to stay and work for hours after buying a single cup of tea. Perhaps not great for business. One can't blame the owner of a dining establishment for making her own rules, but let's hope this trend doesn't spread to my own satellite offices.

No More Perks: Coffee Shops Pull the Plug on Laptop Users [Wall Street Journal]

(Photo: ercwttmn)

A Sky News hidden camera investigation finds computer techs snooping through and downloading to thumb drive private photo folders, and even trying to access an online banking account with the login information found on the laptop.

Remember folks, keep anything you wouldn't want a sleazeball finding on an external harddrive so if you computer ever goes in for repair, you're not also handing over your secret bits.

Also remember, when you've got a computer problem across the pond, don't take it in for repair AT THE SKETCHIEST-LOOKING COMPUTER SHOP IN WEST LONDON.

Computer Shops In Data Access Scam [Sky News] (Thanks to Michael!)

Last week, I called Verizon to set up a landline for my mother, who had gotten out of the hospital and had to move to a new apartment. I told the Verizon rep that my mother doesn't have a PC right now, so I was only calling for a landline. The Verizon rep offered a bundle including DSL, and would throw in a free netbook. The cost of this package was only $20/month more than the landline itself, and I thought this would be a great deal and signed up for it. I was told that a voucher would be issued, I'd have to fill it out online for her, and she's have the computer pretty quickly.

My mother, of course, was thrilled.

Except, of course, the deal isn't that good. After my mother had the landline installed, I called Verizon back to see about the status of the voucher. Turns out that you don't get the voucher for at least 60 days after internet installation (which isn't scheduled for another 10 days), and she'd have to pay for 2-3 months of internet service before being eligible for the netbook offer. In addition, there's a substantial shipping and handling fee for the netbook (I've heard $45). And of course, you must pay all bills on time.

So it's going to cost about $80 or so for this "free" netbook. I don't have a problem with the shipping fee, but paying for two months of service that she can't use unless I find another PC is galling. Unfortunately, Verizon is sticking to their guns. I talked to the customer service supervisor's manager for NJ, Gerri Maclosky, and she confirmed everything. Despite the sales rep's assurances, my mother's not getting a netbook from Verizon for 90 days.

I haven't decided if I'm going to cancel the service for my mother yet.

What do you think? Does Ray have a legitimate complaint, or should he have known better than to take a sales rep's word at face value? Or, to flip it around, is it actually okay to mislead customers or misrepresent a deal to close a sale? Even if it was ignorance rather than intentional dishonesty on the sales rep part, shouldn't that be Verizon's issue instead of Ray's?

FiOs Bundles [Verizon]

(Photo: warrenski)

The latest spot, featuring a law student in need of a laptop, mentions the premium prices paid for Macs, but doesn't mention any specific numbers.

In the original version, Lauren at one point comes upon an Apple computer and declares: "This Mac is $2,000, and that's before adding anything."

"Why would you pay twice the price?" asks Lauren's mom. "I wouldn't," says Lauren, who ends up leaving with a $972 Dell laptop.

In the latest version of the ad, that portion has been edited out. The original ad has been removed from YouTube and other sites by Microsoft, and replaced with a version in which Lauren doesn't talk about how much the Mac costs, but she does say: "It seems like you're paying a lot for the brand."

Good. Now that they've ended the legal quibbling, we can get back to our regular business of impassioned, fruitless debate about which operating system is superior.

Microsoft Changes 'Laptop Hunters' Ad After Apple Complains [Advertising Age]
After Apple legal threats, Microsoft quietly changes ads [AppleInsider]

PREVIOUSLY: Apple Tried To End Microsoft's Laptop Hunters Television Commercials

(Photo: Erik Charlton)

MIcrosoft Chief Operating Officer told the story in a speech:

And so we've been running these PC value ads. Just giving people saying, hey, what are you looking to spend? "Oh, I'm looking to spend less than $1,000." Well we'll give you $1,000. Go in and look and see what you can buy. And they come out and they just show them. Those are completely unscripted commercials.

And you know why I know they're working? Because two weeks ago we got a call from the Apple legal department saying, hey — this is a true story — saying, "Hey, you need to stop running those ads, we lowered our prices." They took like $100 off or something. It was the greatest single phone call in the history that I've ever taken in business. (Applause.)

It's only fair that Microsoft change the ads if Apple had subsequently introduced some different models at lower prices. However, there's some proof that the laptop hunter ads have actually changed consumer perceptions—particularly those of laptop-loving youngsters.

This blog post, incidentally, was written on a Mac.

(Photo: wrumsby)

Microsoft: Apple wanted 'Laptop Hunters' ads pulled [CNET]
In Mac vs. PC Battle, Microsoft Winning in Value Perception [AdAge]
Allison Watson, Stephen Elop, Bill Buxton, Kevin Turner: Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 [Microsoft]

It seems like a pretty simple transaction: purchase computer, leave computer overnight with the Geek Squad to have recovery disks made, bring computer home the following day. No, this is too difficult for Best Buy.

This is the letter that she sent to Best Buy CEO Bradbury Anderson yesterday:

Bradbury H. Anderson
Vice Chairman and Chief Executive

Best Buy Co., Inc.
7601 Penn Ave S.
Richfield, MN 55423

Dear Mr. Anderson:

Below please find a summary of events from my horrendous experience trying to purchase a laptop from your Yuma, Arizona location. While I researched my laptop purchase quite extensively, I never expected the real research should have gone to a store with proper equipment, employees who can return phone calls and some appreciation of customer service in any form; a store I have been loyal to for over 5 years.

July 8th 2009: My Boyfriend, Kevin insisted on a new laptop purchase to replace my '06 HP (which I purchased from Best Buy with a three year warranty). I happily began to research computers with him and decided upon an HP dv6 1260se. We made the purchase, bought a three year warranty and also asked to have your Geek Squad department make recovery software disks at an additional charge of $69.99. We left the computer overnight since the backup takes 3-4 hours and waited on a phone call to pick up the new device. A day had passed, it was now Thursday and I did not receive a phone call. Surely your company must be so busy in this economy it cannot return the phone call toward a purchase of $1385.89? So I called to check in and what do you know… the device was defective. Luckily, your employees caught this error. How horrible would it be to bring a defective computer home? Oh the disappointment.

July 10th 2009: More disappointment. We returned to your store and began to look at other laptop options. My boyfriend's aunt who had also recently purchased a laptop from your location recommended an HP dv7 1285 and we inquired on the model. Sure enough, Best Buy did carry the computer, but it was sold out. After speaking with several customer service reps we were told we could order the computer which would take 5-6 business days OR we could wait for the shipment arriving on Tuesday, July 14th. Obviously we chose the second option and again waited patiently for the computer to arrive. I left the store confident and happily awaited a phone call; more anxious than ever.

July 14th 2009: No phone call. I again called in to check up on the computer and what do you know? The order was ‘deleted'. Extremely anxious and annoyed, I again returned to your store and we were again informed the order was deleted. We inquired about other possible locations and miraculously ONE laptop was at a San Diego, Mission Valley location and would be transferred over for our inconvenience. Did I mention this computer with warranty is an additional $300 from our original purchase? My faith in your store was strong up until this point.

July 15-17 2009: I called in every day to check up on my purchase and inquire on the delivery.

July 18th 2009: Your store calls! The computer is in! The week wait is up! I again ask to have the recovery disks made as I am now well aware of the dreaded 3-4 hour wait time on these; however my anticipation is greatly outweighed by my inconvenience. I'm thrilled to finally have a computer!

Evening of July 18 2009: Geek Squad calls (yes they called!) to inform me that they accidentally placed a DVD instead of a CD to burn the disks. Annoyed, but still incredibly excited I patiently decided to wait until 10am to pick up my long awaited purchase.

10am July 19th 2009: Device is defective. I'm sure you can understand when I say this: your store has put me on more roller coaster of emotions than my own mother does. Can you please explain how after I again returned to your store on the 19th, absolutely no help was offered? I was absolutely thrilled and now I am reconsidering every purchase I have ever made from your store. Yes, I will still forge on but I am so annoyed that I refuse to even look at another laptop online.

Thank you for reading my experience. I truly hope this will avoid another mishap with another loyal customer. I'm sure you are well aware that mistakes are never truly mishaps unless you learn something from them and I have definitely learned something about the decision to purchase a laptop from your company.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth

Why so unresponsive, Yuma Best Buy? More importantly, why is the Geek Squad finding not one, but two computers sold in your very store "defective"? Is Elizabeth exceptionally unlucky, did you receive a few bad batches from HP, or is something else going on here?

Had Elizabeth sent us this letter before mailing, we might have had a few tips for her - remove the emotional appeals, and the irrelevant information such as her boyfriend's role in the purchase. The situation itself is absurd enough to make the case on its own.

Yes, most Consumerist readers wouldn't leave their computers with the Geek Squad overnight, but if Best Buy wants to encourage customers to use their services, why not make sure that "overnight" actually means "overnight?" and that the Geek Squad performs their services correctly?

(Photo: penner42)

As you can guess by the name, it's going to rely heavily on the browser as the starting point for most functionality. It'll be about a year before netbooks with the OS are available, but hopefully the cheap (free?) cost of adding it to netbooks will mean lower prices, or possibly better specs, when it comes out.

"Google Announces PC Operating System to Compete with Windows" [Wired]
"Introducing Google Chrome OS" [Google Blog]
(Photo: EverJean)

I spilled a bit of Snapple on the keyboard of my early 2009 Macbook Pro. The unibody design requires the entire top assembly to be replaced, $320. So I pay that, but they tell me the logic board needs replacing because one of the fans isn't working. They say [I] voided my warranty because of the liquid damage to the logic board. So I open up the bottom and see what the problem is and it's just a little jumper wire that wasn't seated all the way in.

I press it down and click it back into place and the 2nd fan starts spinning back up, CPU temp goes from 80C idle to 45C idle.

I call them up and they tell me that the only way they can reinstate my warranty is by sending in the laptop because I opened it and tampered with the laptop. What a crock, it was the technician's fault for not seating the cable into the board properly at the time of the repair and now I'm being held responsible. Smithhaven Mall Apple store in NY. Can we get some justice on this? I even had ProCare and they brushed me off, including the manager - falling back on the Terms and Conditions of my warranty.

(Photo: Christoph*B)

The Christian Science Monitor reports on notebook/netbook envy:

It looks easy enough on paper, but in practice, telling netbooks and notebooks apart can be quite difficult. So says NPD, a market research firm, which today released the results of a poll of approximately 600 consumers. According to NPD, "60 percent of consumers who purchased a netbook instead of a notebook thought their netbooks would have the same functionality as notebooks."

That's a mouthful, eh? Here's the translation: A whole lot of folks bought a bright and shiny netbook, only to discover the pretty little gizmo was a little… underpowered. Needless to say, these consumers were a little disgruntled. Only 58 percent of consumers who bought a netbook instead of a notebook said they were very satisfied with their purchase, NPD reports, compared to 70 percent of consumers who planned on buying a netbook right from the get-go.

For a refresher, netbooks are barebones devices built for portability and ease of use, most often lacking sizable hard drives or disc drives. Notebooks are plain-old laptops. Wikipedia, which knows everything, breaks down the differences between the two.

Netbook or notebook? A majority of consumers can't tell the two apart [Christian Science Monitor]
(Photo: DCvision2006)

I'm not sure if there is a normal means of me posting an issue that I've had on the Consumerist website, but I want to make people as aware as I can of the issues that I've had with HP Customer Service. To give you the short version of the story:

• Sent my laptop in to to HP to have the motherboard replaced due to a bad video card.
• The replacement motherboard worked for 12 hours before dying.
• Sent it in again, and they "replaced" it again. As which point they sent it back to the wrong city.
• Tried to get them to contact FedEx and have it rerouted to the correct city, but they refused to contact FedEx.
• Had to wait for FedEx to figure out that the street address did not exists in the city they were trying to deliver the laptop to, and send it back to HP. (What if someone signed for and stole my laptop!?!?)
• HP then took their sweet time sending it to me in the right city only to find out that they had not done a thing to the laptop (video still not working motherboard unchanged)
• They sent me another box to ship it to them a third time, but sent it to the wrong (mistyped) address. Took FedEx a week to figure out where to send it.
• HP Customer Service refuses to let me speak to a supervisor.
• HP Customer Service refuses to let me file a complaint against a service rep who told me "I don't care if HP has to buy you a new laptop, this isn't out problem" (referring to shipping it to the wrong city.)
• HP Customer Service refuses to let me speak to the technician who supposedly replaced the motherboard.
• HP Customer Service refuses to even discuss reimbursing any of the money that I've spent on this repair.

Tyler, here is the contact info for executive customer service. Perhaps you can try giving them a call tomorrow.

RELATED
"Reach Hewlett-Packard Executive Customer Service"
(Photo: S Baker)

Several readers also contacted us to point out that HP extended the warranties on a number of models recently due to motherboard failures, so John or other readers may have more options than they initially thought.

First, to satisfy everyone's curiosity, here are the motherboard prices John found. As some of you speculated, the $150 he originally mentioned was for one on eBay, not from HP:

Here you go. Actually, if I return the broken board they will sell me a refurb for $133 and a new board for $228.95. The $150 boards were on eBay. And you know they'd send HP the defective board for the "core credit". AND you know that Best Buy would NOT pay near what I'd have to pay for the board being that they are the only licensed HP reseller in my area.

http://h20141.www2.hp.com/hpparts/Search_Results.asp?mscssid=BB31E5F3F21343B380DA714B5C2DCD3A&SearchInc=PartNumber

A reader named Mark read the post and wrote in to tell us he recently had his own problems with an HP laptop, and discovered the extended warranty news:

My HP laptop just went down as well and after a tech support rep at HP told me it would cost $50 for ANY phone support, as my laptop is out of warranty, I did some searching online.

Please check out:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?&objectID=c01087277

It details a trend of motherboard failures and a two year warranty extension for this specific problem.

(Thanks to IT Insider, Erick, and everyone else who also sent in this info!)

Finally, we got some interesting inside info from John, a former CompUSA repair tech who offered an explanation to why Geek Squad's quote was so high:

I just wanted to let you know how it is from the service side of things. I worked on the repair side at CompUSA. Generally this is how it worked, we would order our parts from a third party. They would refurbish the parts and put a limited 30 day warranty on the part. When we order parts from them, Motherboards would generally cost between 500-1000 for laptops. I don't know how Best Buy has it set up, but I would venture it is similar. This takes the cost of doing the business of finding a part and knowing that it will work off of the retailer. And if the part was bad we could send it back and get another part at no additional cost to us. So if we were to go on ebay we would probably have to pay shipping for a part that we have no clue if it worked. It makes sense to me that this is how Best Buy does it too.

Remember, most manufacturers (including Apple) don't want customers doing this sort of stuff. It will void your warranty, curdle your milk, and make your fingernails fall off. However, if you're out of warranty and don't have an extended plan like AppleCare, it may be your best option.

Here's John's story. The first paragraph is really more about how Best Buy screwed up yet another easy sale by failing to offer the bare minimum of service. Paragraphs two and three are about the motherboard.

My wife's laptop died about a 2 weeks after the 1 year warranty expired. We paid about $1000 (including tax) for it from Sam's Club. We contacted HP on the off-chance that they'd be cool about it and cover it anyway. No luck. So my wife, desperate to get her laptop working, decided to take it to The Geek Squad. First, they told her that they couldn't diagnose it there that they'd have to send it away to do so. She uses this as her work computer, even though we bought it ourselves, and couldn't wait to get it back. So she said she'd buy a new one then and there and have them transfer the data to her new laptop. I'd already found one that would be good for her while she was at the Geek Squad counter and we went over to it. We couldn't find a store associate anywhere. So my wife went up to the counter to have someone come over to help us. We told them where we'd be standing/waiting and they said they'd send someone right over. We waited, and waited, and waited. No one. My wife was fuming at this point and she went back up the counter and demanded that they give her back her laptop, and told them that they just lost out on a guaranteed $1200+ sale then and there.

But it gets better.

So, desperate to get her laptop working, she had me take it back the them the next day. They sent it in ($89 just to look at it, btw) and 2 weeks later the diagnosis is that it needs a new motherboard. I looked online and a new HP motherboard for this unit costs $150 to a consumer like me. This means, they're charging $650 minimum to install a motherboard. Being a year old, I could buy a brand new laptop that's almost twice as good for that same price!

We found this "Ask a Geek" article from a year and a half ago that says you should expect to pay anywhere from $250 to $500 for a new motherboard, but that's including the cost of the motherboard, a new operating system license to replace the one your computer came with (which likely is not licensed to work on the new hardware), and 3-4 hours of labor to swap out the part and reinstall everything. Opinions? Advice? Suggestions on better places to go for this sort of computer repair?

"The Cost Of Replacing A Motherboard" [Ask a Geek]
(Photo: tarale)

Asus - Laptop with Intel® Centrino® 2 Processor Technology [Best Buy] (Thanks, Jeff!)

He was willing to give the company the benefit of the doubt. HP sent him a replacement hard drive, without including the prepaid shipping label he needed to send the hard drive back. Then...well, that's when things sort of all went to hell.

He wrote to Consumerist last night:

I recently purchased an HDX 18t Premium notebook. Spending roughly $1,200 of my hard earned cash, I had done my research and felt like the HDX 18 was a perfect fit for me. The sale process was easy-peasy! I figured HP must have their service act together if they take such great care of their sales customers.

About four days after my notebook arrived, the hard drive failed. No big deal, I figured. These things happen, and it's a good thing it happened inside my warranty period. I called HP support to let them know what happened. The service rep told me I'd be sent a hard drive with a pre-paid shipping label to send the old one back. And if the hard drive wasn't returned in a timely manner, I would be charged for the cost of the old drive. That seemed a bit hardball, but I can understand a company like HP trying to recoup costs for a bad drive from their vendor. I agreed.

Three days later, my new hard drive arrived, without a return shipping label. I promptly called HP and explained that I needed a shipping label sent to me. After the rep put me on hold for 10 minutes, he came back to let me know a label would be sent out in the morning. Great!

Fast-forward 4 weeks...

Still no labels. I received an email from my bank, letting me know that my checking account had been overdrafted, and funds had been transferred from my credit card to cover the overage... Uh oh. Why exactly? Had I made some accounting error with my bills?

Nope. I pop open my bank account online and there are two new charges from HP CUST SVC staring me in the face. One for $901.31 and another for $825.00. That's right, HP Customer Service charged me $1,726.31 for a notebook hard drive. Yep, over $500 more than the cost of the notebook in the first place.

I called up HP Tech Support. The nice woman (Jeanette) on the other end explained she was only in tech support and couldn't help me directly, but she said I'd be receiving a call from their Case Management Dept. Ugh... Another wait.

3 hours later, I received a call from a gentleman that sounded half-baked explaining to me that he was my case manager, Josh. After discussing the details of the problem, the best solution he wanted to offer me was for HP to cut me a check in about a week's time or so. UNACCEPTABLE, I told him. I explained that I needed the charges canceled since they still hadn't posted to my account. He said he'd look into it and call me back in the morning.

The next morning, I decided to be proactive and call HP to check on progress myself. A different case manager answered (another Jeanette) and she told me that my half-baked former case manager hadn't entered any notes about our conversation and said she'd takeover the case herself. Again, I explained my issue and she told me I'd get a call back in the afternoon.

Well, it's 8:46pm, the Case Management office is closed and the charges should post to my account by midnight tonight. Keep in mind that the moment those charges post, I'm responsible for service fees, PLUS the cash advance interest rate on my credit card. Throughout this entire process, the only person who actually spoke and acted with any sense of urgency was Jeanette in tech support. HP's procedures and bureaucracy are about to cost me some real cash...

Great job, HP. You walked away with over $1,700 of my money for a 250GB 5400RPM hard drive, and left me owing money to the bank.

There's not much that I can really add here. Punishing a customer who tried to be proactive and find out why he didn't receive a shipping label is not the way to invite return business.

(Photo: armydre2008)

...they sent Jillian a new adapter and had received her old adapter. HP said that the adapter cords were bent and abused and that's what caused the device failure. They also said that Jillian had further complained about her laptop overheating and they had said she could send it in but she did not want to.

Reached for additional comment, Jillian disagreed with HP's version. By email she said that her "laptop power cord was never bent, twisted, or pinched. My laptop was never used for travel. I'm an adult with no children, and it has only been used by me (quite gently I might add)."

She acknowledged that she received the replacement adapter but, since it was sent without HP checking out the first one, she felt uncomfortable using it, not wanting a repeat of the fire incident.

In addition, she said she had complained about the laptop overheating for months, that it would get, "scalding hot to the touch after only 10 minutes of use." It was only the morning that HP called Consumerist that HP told Jillian she should send her laptop in to have it looked at.

Despite HP's efforts, Jillian has given up on the computer maker. "At this point, I want nothing more to do with this laptop and the people at HP," she writes. "I would like to either receive an apology with a replacement laptop, or have them buy it back from me. This laptop is a safety hazard, and I have enough to worry about without wondering if my laptop is going to burn my house down every time I leave the room."

Well, apologies aren't worth the paper, or pixels, they're printed on so your best bet at this point is to send in your laptop to HP for repair.

PREVIOUSLY: HP Adapter Catches Fire, Burns Pants, Execs Ignore

(Photo: rust.bucket)

Pants pants, burning bright, in my house in the night, thanks to a malfunctioning power adapter for the HP dv2845se. It's no Blake but it is what happened to reader Jillian Madison. While she was using her laptop, her adapter started sparking and burst into flames, burning a hole in her pants and causing a welt on her legs. Now, after dozens of phone calls and emails to HP executive support and HP executives, and 6 weeks of waiting, she hasn't heard a thing back from HP, though she says some reps have given her an earful of rudeness.

On April 9th, 2009, the power adapter to my gently used, well cared for 11-month old HP dv2845se laptop randomly started sparking (where it connects to the laptop) and quickly burst into flames while I was using it. It was so bad that the sparks burned a hole in my pants, and caused a welt on my leg. I'm not exaggerating when I say had I not been at home to unplug the adapter from the wall, this quite possibly could have burned down my home and injured/killed my pets/family, etc.

You'd think HP would promptly react to such a safety issue and possible PR disaster, right? WRONG. During the first week after the adapter caught on fire, I made dozens of phonecalls to the Executive Customer Service number you provided, but was dismissed and blown off by everyone I spoke to. Reps Angie, Rochelle, and Kathy rudely told me there was nothing they could do, and that I had to sit around and wait for someone in their safety team to contact me. At one point, I even asked an INCREDIBLY rude rep named Yun-Sil to let me speak to a manager. She said he wasn't available but he'd call me back within 2 hours. I asked for the manager's name (Jeff Yutigard), but to this day, he hasn't called me back.

It took Harry Jeffery at the HP safety team almost 2 weeks to contact me. I immediately sent my burned power adapter back to them via FedEx, but have not heard back from anyone since that time. I've written dozens of emails and made 10+ phonecalls to Harry Jeffery and to other "executives" at HP, but they are all ignoring me. I even emailed executives Jon Flaxman, Shane Robinson, Ann Livermore, and Mark Hurd at the suggestion of one of your commenters, but have not gotten any reply. Harry Jeffery won't return my phonecalls and should be fired.

I certainly don't appreciate being sold faulty, cheap equipment - and then being mocked and ignored by HP employees after the fact. One thing is for sure - I certainly won't go away until this issue is resolved. And in the meanwhile, I urge all readers to use caution with their power adapters and unplug them when you're not using them. Because trust me, your whole house could be burned down by their faulty equipment and they wouldn't care. They have your money.

Jillian Madison

Sounds like HP might need to expand that recall.

(Photos: reversedecay, cag2012)

HP Recalls Notebook Computer Batteries Due to Fire Hazard [CPSC] (Thanks to The Fake Geek for the heads-up)
HP Notebook PC Battery Pack Replacement Program

(Photos: Markusram and CPSC)

Pedro writes:

In February I had a friend in Orlando ship me a large box of 5 brand-new Lenovo R500's I had him pick up for me. He insured the shipment for $3,000 and sent it parcel-post to me in San Diego. They told us a delivery time of 7-9 days would be an approximate timeframe, which came and went without a package in sight. All the while I'm tracking the package and its status was never changed from: PACKAGE ACCEPTED ORLANDO, FL. I called several times before the 7-9 days and was only told to wait the 7-9 days. After 9 days had passed I was told it could take up to 14 days. I spoke to several agents at the 800-ASK-USPS number, my local post office and the Orlando, FL post office and got different information from every single place. After 21 days my friend was allowed to fill out an insurance claim, which he did, which was supposed to be processed immediately, yet took another week to be sent from the Orlando PO to their insurance department. Another four weeks later we received the gift of the attached letter stating that they decided to award us $112.14 of the $3,000 we insured the package for. We're in the process of appealing but I'm appalled at the $112.14 price-tag for my lost computers. It's unreal.

Pedro included scans of the receipt showing he bought $3,000 worth of insurance on the package, as well as the letter from USPS offering him $74 for the package and $38.14 for postage.

We hope your appeal works out, Pedro. If it doesn't, consider alerting the leadership at USPS. We couldn't find their email addresses (maybe they view it as competition) but we're guessing a letter would reach them. Unless they lose it.