Friday, September 5, 2008

Why won't the Powers That Be make it legal to kill the free range stupid???

This is how my Labor Day Week-end went:
My brand new (6 wk old) PC monitor (HP vs19e) just up & died Sat. morning. I tried to turn it on & NOTHING...no picture, no sound...NOTHING!! So I called HP & explained the situation..csa ran me through a check list (is it plugged in? DUH!!).The csa told me that my monitor was defective....yeah, no shit Sherlock, tell me something I don't already know!! He told me it was still under warranty (DUH! Again!) & HP would ship me out a replacement monitor free of charge on Tuesday, to be received no later than 9/11. I said it was too long to wait for it, so the csa told me I could pay $20 for FedEx & have it by Wednesday....That sounded like a better deal, so I agreed. He told me a credit card was needed to use as collateral/deposit, just in case I didn't return the defective product. When I asked how much would be charged to said credit card, the csa said between $100-300. I tried to get an exact amount, but he just continued to be vague. I told him I didn't have that much money to let be held for ransom for almost a month & I certainly wasn't about to give my cc# to someone so they could pick an arbitrary amount to charge to it!! He stated that this was company policy for warranty returns/replacements. (Free of charge doesn't really mean free anymore) An argument ensued. I asked for a supervisor & was told they don't work on the week-ends! So, what, the inmates run the asylum on Sat. & Sun.???!!! He said a supervisor would call me back on Monday. (Mon. was a holiday)

Did I mention that the call center for HP that I was connected to was in New Delhi, India?? They may speak English, but they sure don't understand
it!! (Not our version, anyway)

So I decided to take the stupid thing back to Fry's Electronics, where I originally bought it. I paid for the extended warranty, which also gives me "loaner equipment" while mine is being repaired/replaced. I was promised the "loaner" would be comparable to the one I have (the dead one) with all the same capabilities...THEY LIED!!! I got the monitor (Vison 20 in. Widescreen) home & connected it, only to find out it is a wide screen (which I hate) & it has no speakers (they were integrated on mine). I was so pissed I almost started seeing red!!! The store manager got an earful from me the next day!

Part 2.....Fry's is very sorry for the inconvenience & if I bring back the loaner monitor, they will then give me yet another, truly comparable loaner, with speakers & everything! YEA! Now I get to drive another roughly 32 miles (one way) to the store to get what they should have given me in the first place. This is why it should be legal to kill the free range stupid!!

Part 3....a supervisor fr
om HP contacted me Tuesday to say how very sorry he is that I had that experience over the week-end with their agents. (hear violins playing in background) He told me that they DO NOT charge your credit card, they just take the number in case you don't send back the old product within 15 days. Gee, I sure wish Rasheed had had this knowledge when I spoke to him on Sat., maybe I wouldn't have yelled so much! This supervisor, Edward, also informed me that I could have (and can still) gone to any Best Buy or Radio Shack (they are authorized service centers) & exchanged the monitor there. Again, knowledge Rasheed should have had on Sat. (it would have kept me from ripping him a new one). I could have gone a whole 3 miles down the street & gotten a replacement monitor on Saturday instead of the 64 mi (round trip) to Fry's. OY!!

Part 4....The Finale.....I called the Best Buy "geek squad" and was told that I could not exchange my defective HP product at their store (even though it is still under warranty & they are an authorized HP repair center!). I called the HP supervisor back and guess what? He was so disappointed about this whole situation that he is sending me a replacement monitor sans credit card and a set of external speakers (with subwoofer) for FREE!! My faith in humankind has been restored...at least for today...



BUT, THIS AGAIN, I
S A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF WHY I WANT TO KILL THE FREE RANGE STUPID!!!!!!! (see steam coming out of my ears) This is also why I hate NAFTA, Bill Clinton for approving it, & the outsourcing of American jobs.

Sometimes I wish I was President......

So how was YOUR Labor Day week-end?


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1 comments:

Erin said...

Okay, now I'm scared because we just bought a widescreen computer screen. I'm going to start praying right now that we don't have problems!

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