Do ALL Computer Makers Suck?

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By JLP | July 11, 2006

I’m a wee bit ticked off right now.

As you know, my daughter pulled three keys off my laptop last night. I ordered a new keypad last night and received a confirmation email stating that I would get next business day delivery. COOL! We are leaving for vacation on Saturday so I everything would be fine. Then I find out that the ESTIMATED SHIP DATE IS AUGUST 4TH! What the heck?

Normally, I wouldn’t care about this. I mean, it is my fault that I left my laptop in a place where my daughter could get to it. My beef with HP is the fact that THEY DIDN’T MENTION that the part was out of stock and on backorder when I placed the order. And, to top it off, my credit card has already been charged.

I swear that CUSTOMER SERVICE is dead!

Topics: Miscellaneous |

Comments to “Do ALL Computer Makers Suck?”

Vlad Says:
July 11th, 2006 at 1:34 pm

I dont know what it is with these laptop keyboards. I was cleaning mine the other day when a couple of buttons popped out, so I thought, no biggie–as easily as they came off, I’m sure I can “click” them back into place. WRONG! I had to have my whole keyboard replaced!!!

I’ve gone through four Dell, one HP, and three IBM ThinkPad laptops, and my most fond memories are of the Dells. Not a single issue with either one of the three. Even when they took a beating: falling onto the pavement with the screen face-down (!), dropped into a puddle of water in the rain, sitting in a bag full of Diet Coke (I had no idea the bottle had leaked!), spilled orange juice … though the orange juice made the keys “click” funny.

Financial Freedumb Says:
July 11th, 2006 at 1:34 pm

Ouch! Go to a store and buy an HP swap the keyboards…at least u’ll have a temporary fix.

Noel Says:
July 11th, 2006 at 2:16 pm

Just buy a wireless usb keyboard for now. It’ll make you life easier at any rate. Other suggestion would be to get an old keyboard for you child to play with. They like to act like the adults anyway and it’ll keep ‘em occupied an away from your laptop keypad.

Steve Says:
July 11th, 2006 at 3:41 pm

The answer to your question is “Yes!” Customer service has been dead and buried for years, even at the supposedly superior Dell. Contrary to Vlad’s experience, I’ve had trouble with Dell desktops and laptops. I can handle glitches here and there but their customer service put me through Hell — multiple times. I had one issue with a laptop that NINE different techies couldn’t handle but the 10th one caught the problem immediately. It turned out to be changing a simple setting on my machine. I must have wasted 2 or 3 days total time finding someone at Dell who knew what he was doing — not counting the down time when I had to send it back once only to have the machine returned and told there was nothing wrong!

I’ll never buy another Dell. Hope you have better luck with HP.

Flexo Says:
July 11th, 2006 at 4:32 pm

For what it’s worth, I have a Fujitsu notebook computer (vintage 2001). The keys can easily be popped back on (but only come off when I pull them off — why I do that, I do not know).

Adam Says:
July 11th, 2006 at 7:36 pm

I’ve had the same laptop for the past few years without any problems. It’s just an old VPR Matrix back from when Best Buy had their own in-house brand. But then again I do tech for a living so I’m quite used to pulling them apart and fixing things. As for Dells, I’ve had nothing but good experience with them. However I always get the business grade systems and stay away from the cheaper ones as I have heard of problems with them.

Foobarista Says:
July 12th, 2006 at 12:18 am

I’m enough of a geek that I build my own computers, although this doesn’t mean that I don’t have issues when the motherboard arrives DOA, the CPU fan croaks two days after plugging it in, etc. But I don’t bother with phone support; the only time I ever called I had to tell the guy how to set up the clock speed jumper on his company’s own motherboard…

Brad Says:
July 12th, 2006 at 9:31 am

Short answer is - yes. Customer service seems to be a dying art.

Someone could make a killing if only they offered superior customer service.

nick Says:
July 12th, 2006 at 12:51 pm

IBM Thinkpad, always good. Ah, my latest one is Lenovo Thinkpad. Still good.

sam Says:
July 15th, 2006 at 2:09 pm

To answer your questions, no - not all computer makers suck. My current home desktop (a local “White Box” unit)has performed quite well for a couple of years now. The monitor and keyboard are from the previous PC (another white box), and still work great. My work PC is a Dell desktop and has been trouble free, but my wife’s work Dell laptop has been a near constant source of problems. Luckily, we have an IT guy to work on it, or it would have long since been chucked out a window - and her HP IPAQ as well.

John Says:
July 24th, 2006 at 9:57 am

JLP,

I know this is a little late, but I thought I might mention it for future use. Here’s a way to fix keys from a laptop. Don’t know if this one was broken the way yours was or not.

http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000277073803/

You’ll have to click on the link in the paragraph to get to the actual directions.

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Do ALL Computer Makers Suck?