The Best Buy where Toni bought a laptop earlier this month has no record of the sale, and it won’t collect the funds that have already been released from her account. This sounds like a fun problem to have—$1500 extra dollars, free laptop, woo hoo!—but it’s actually pretty annoying. Toni doesn’t want this phantom $1500 messing up her balance indefinitely, and she doesn’t want to feel like she’s stolen a laptop.
laptops
Office Depot Employee Claims He Photoshops Price Tags
By 3.17.09
Who needs to lie about inventory when you can inflate the price directly? LAPTOP has uncovered more dirty secrets of Office Depot employees being dishonest to customers, this time by altering price tags on clearance items to incorporate the cost of an extended service plan.
Office Depot To Employees: "Don't Lie About Inventory"
By 3.13.09
An anonymous Office Depot employee sent us this internal reminder from HQ that addresses this week’s allegations that associates and managers lie about inventory depending on the customer. Now the next time you’re told by an Office Depot associate that the laptop you want is out of stock, you can say, “Are you absolutely sure? Because I know you had a Sales Practices Reminder on March 12th about lying to customers.” And if a manager tries to get all up in, uhm, your grill area, you can say, “Don’t you have some tasks to go check off in your Task Manager?”
HP Makes Up For Sending Reader "Repaired" Laptop Filled With Viruses
By 3.13.09
Aaron is happy to report that he has gotten resolution with his complaint about HP’s repair center sending him back his laptop filled with viruses. Good thing for HP that Aaron is honest, otherwise he could probably have three laptops right now, as three different HP reps contacted him about his story. On March 9th he wrote us:
Office Depot Employees Claim They're Told To Lie About Stock If You're Not Buying Extras
By 3.11.09
According to LAPTOP mag, Office Depot has implemented such a stringent sales quota program that the company has essentially broken the in-store laptop buying experience. If you don’t buy accessories and extended service plans, many associates will tell you the laptop is out of stock. Of course, this doesn’t happen at every Office Depot, but LAPTOP writes that they were surprised by the number of similar reports they received of it happening at multiple locations.
Watch Out For Payment Date Errors—And Related Finance Charges—From Chase
By 3.4.09
Mike used an Office Depot Visa card issued through Chase to take advantage of a pay-no-interest deal through 2008. He paid off the remaining balance a couple of days before the offer period ended, but Chase still slapped him with a nearly $40 interest charge. Why? Because they’ve been “having problems like that” with Office Depot cards.
After Massive Runaround, HP Sends Your Laptop Back Filled With Viruses
By 3.3.09
HP is known for its incompetent repair process, but what makes Aaron’s case special is that at the end they decide to kick it up a notch. When he sends his computer in and gets it back from the repair center, HP has so ever so graciously filled it with free spyware and viruses.
AT&T Mobility And RadioShack Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Over $5,000 Overage Bill
By 3.2.09
A woman in Oklahoma bought a 3G netbook from RadioShack for $100, subsidized by a two-year data plan from AT&T Mobility. That plan comes with a 5GB monthly data cap, which she exceeded, and as a result her first monthly bill was over $5,000. Now the two companies are facing a class action lawsuit that alleges they are not clearly disclosing to purchasers that overage fees could be “astronomical.”
Dell Takes Four Months To Replace Broken Trackpad
By 2.7.09
The trackpad on Jim’s Dell laptop hasn’t worked since September despite a new motherboard, new hard drive, and four replacement trackpads. One Dell technician managed to dent the laptop’s speaker grill. Another, dispatched to replace the hard drive, brought a drive that was slower than the model in Jim’s laptop. Dell promised to send the speedier drive, but instead they sent a box labeled “hard drive” containing only a screwdriver.
Update: HP Laptop Runs 200°F, Support Says "Buy A Cooling Mat"
By 1.29.09
The boy whose HP was running 200°F and was told by tech support to “buy a cooling mat” used some of the higher-up phone numbers readers posted in the comment on the original post to get in touch with a Senior Case Manager. Despite being out of warranty, they reopened the case and had him send in his laptop. Lo and behold, they fixed it! “It is running great now,” writes Travis. Huzzah!
Reach Hewlett-Packard Executivce Customer Service
By 1.22.09
Expedite a quagmired Hewlett-Packard issue by calling their executive customer service at 1-800-756-0608 option 7. A guy named Tim Metcalf might be the one who helps you, or Dan or Yunsil. Their lines open at 8am, PST. (Photo: orangegeeky)
“Dell No Longer Believes In Compensation For The Purpose Of Customer Satisfaction”
By 1.18.09
After waiting 56 days for his Dell Mini 9 to ship, reader WantMyDellMini asked Dell for a little compensation, only to be told: “Dell no longer believes in compensation for the purpose of customer satisfaction.” The Mini 9’s shipping status has already changed at least ten times, but Dell claims that our poor reader has no choice but to keep waiting.
Acer's Secret Business Model Somehow Involves Envelopes
By 1.5.09
To date I’ve received one batch of five flat pacs [and] one batch of seventeen flat pacs. Each flat pac has three restoration discs (for a total of 66 discs), none of the flat pacs I’ve received has contained the promised system disc.
Staples: Give Us $80, We've Already "Set Up" All The Laptops In Stock…
By 12.22.08
Here’s a “set up fee” or “optimization” complaint we’re seeing more and more involving a wide range of retailers.
Error-Ridden MacBook Gets Free Replacement After Nice Letter To Steve Jobs
By 11.25.08
After umpteen attempts to have his multiple MacBook Pro problems fixed, only to be told each time the laptop was working perfectly fine, Jordan wrote a polite email to Steve Jobs. He affirmed his Apple loyalty, laid out what happened to him, and asked for help. A couple of emails later and he was able to walk into an Apple store and swap his jalopy for one of the brand new MacBook Pros that just came out. You might analyze how the letter was written for clues to his success but really what it came down to was that he had gone in for repairs of the same problem more than three times, qualifying him for a refund or replacement under what is known as “lemon law,” and he got his issue under the nose of the guy at the top. Or at least the assistant who opens his email. Same difference. Jordan’s success story, inside…
Apple's Customer Service Kick Dell's Ass, Empirical Evidence Shows
By 11.19.08
Are you a PC or a Mac? If you’re enjoying great customer service, chances are you’re a Mac, based on some new data released by VocaLabs.
Email Michael Dell
By 11.18.08
If you would like to contact the CEO of Dell to tell him how much you enjoy his company’s products and services, his direct email address is Michael@dell.com. We’ve previously posted michael_dell@dell.com, and that, while it arrives at his office, does not go to him personally.
