Compaq Tech Support

This summer I got a job at a company that sells computer networks and tech support to businesses, my job was fixing the PCs that weren't worth their time to talk to tech support about. Over the summer I called Compaq and many other OEMs several times under the business partner account, all of them quickly ending with them sending me replacment parts under warranty.

Then today I go over to a friend's house. She has a Compaq Presario 6000 with an Athlon XP processor. The computer wouldn't boot and the HDD made a very loud clunking noise, so I thought "easy fix, I'll just have her call and get a new HDD from Compaq. They got the computer in June so it's still under the 1-year hardware warranty."

Wrong.

She calls them, gets a guy that hardly speaks english, and tells them the problem. They have her read off the serial number, then the guy tells her that it isn't under the 1-year warranty! I'm sitting next to her, and hearing this I pick up the phone. I state my name, and then explain the problem. He tells me he can't help because it is out of warranty.

At this point I'm pretty angry, and tell him that I can't be out of warranty because the Athlon XP processor has hardly been AVAILABLE for a year! After hearing this the guy asks "You know computers?", and I respond "Yes, that's my job". He then gives up on the warranty issue and had me run through the regular hardware tests.

The computer won't boot becasue of the bad HDD, so he has me go into the BIOS. The BIOS takes a few minutes to load because it is trying to communicate with the broken HDD. The tech support guy cannot grasp this concept and insists that it is a software problem and therefor not under warranty. Then the BIOS loads, proving the guy wrong once again. It says that there is no HDD present, which I then tell the tech support guy.

He is finally satisfied that it is a HDD problem, and tells me that I have to take it to Radio Shack to get fixed.

Now, I explain that usually they just send me parts and I install them. He says that I have to bring it to Radio Shack. Then I explain that the warranty booklet specifically says that they can send me parts to install. He says that I have to take it to Radio Shack and have them fix it. I agree and hang up the phone.

I hope you enjoyed my rant, please feel free to comment or add your own experiences. If your going to ask why I didn't ask to speak with a supervisor, then please, read this: http://www.bbspot.com/News/2002/10/supervisor.html

Amusing Article.

But yeah back to your tech support story, that is really rather common in my expereince. I have dealt with Compaq on a few occasions for business purposes and if I call early enough in the day and make a big enough of a deal about it, they will same day a needed part.

Most of this stems from Compaq (and other manufacturers) being under the assumption that either the person that is on the phone or the person that requested that the call be made has already developed some lvl of trouble shooting proficiency and there is no real point in running them through the lvl. 1 gauntlet.

While when you get to the Home Market the assumed lvl of intelligence is zero. I can remember a few time when I had to call Gateway on behalf of my mom and I would just sit on the phone and throw out answers, because they would want me to run a guantlet of tests that I had already done 2 or 3 times. It got to the point were I would stop trying to sound like I really knew what I was talking about and just played half smart to make the process go by quicker (i. Forgoing the "My harddrive is crashing and i would like a replacement." and just say "I thnk my harddrive might be broken because it does this..."). Overall it saves me about 5 minutes per call, and makes life easier for the person at the other end of the line.

The business computing and home computing divisions of Compaq might as well be separate companies. The same things applies to HP, IBM, and a lot of large computer companies. Their business systems (i.e. Deskpros) are generally engineered and designed better, as well as supported better, and that's why they cost a bit more to buy than home systems (Presarios). The reason is that the average home consumer will buy the cheapest system available, while a good I.T. manager will buy the machine with the lowest TCO (total cost of ownership).

When a home user chooses a cheap system, they're getting the bottom dollar treatment across the board: Their system is built from cheaper parts, based on a cheaper design. When they call support, they talk to low-wage entry-level "technicians" who were hired because they're cheap, have a pulse, can answer a phone, and walk a customer through a script or flow chart to diagnose a problem -- not because they have any technical expertise. The tech support call centers are often outsourced to companies who locate them in impoverished areas or overseas to cut down on labor costs.

In contrast, when larger businesses buy systems, they consider more than just the cost of the initial purchase. They look at things like failure rates, technician time dealing with the computer company's support, turnaround on parts, etc. The time that administrators and technicians spend dealing with broken computers is money, as is the time of the user whose computer is broken. Businesses demand less down time and better support, and they'll pay more for it than the home consumer is willing to spend.

Bottom line: HP Pavilions, IBM Aptivas, and Compaq Presarios are cheap, and there's a reason.

Some companies are better than others, though. Dell sells the same systems to home users and businesses, and the quality of those systems is on par with or better than most business offerings of their competitors. Their support has a good reputation as well, but I can't tell you first-hand because I've never used their home user support.

Dell support is pretty good. Of the two Dells I helped friends order both had freak part failures and they were extremely good about it. In one case they just shipped a new computer and box to send the broken back in, and in the second they sent a competant tech to the guy's house at no charge.

The support for Compaq's REAL product lines is amazing. My SCSI u160 cable frayed and it took me 3 minutes to talk to someone, state my problem, and be off the phone. I spoke with them at 4:15pm and I received the replacement cable at 8:30am.

Of course now they're owned by HP, so its going down the drain I'm sure.

About 3? years ago i didn't know how to start a computer. My wife has been building for years but i wanted MY OWN computer. I went to radio shack got a compaq got it running and spilled coffee in the keyboard. Off to R.S. was told i would have to buy a new keyboard while repair was made. I said OK i have 30 days to return this whole set up if i don't like it. So i did and they gave me a complete new setup ( with keyboard). WHAT??? Are they for real???

BTW: $1899 for a k6-2 533 with 19" monitor and all in one printer. My wife has hardly never talked computers with me since. Then i bought a dell and that did it for her. LOL. Then i met SHARKY FORUMS .:D and saw how stupid i was not to let her build me one.

I always had a great time with their business side, especially govt contracts. Suppose they like playing with the larger figures. But if you talk with them about items in research forget it... of course my director was a little overkill to get such items for a half *** necissity that he couldnt evaluate efficiently. Your, and my, tax dollars blown for what he 'felt' we needed... than what was actually necessary for the job, yesh. /rant_over

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Originally posted by sandyshorts
I always had a great time with their business side, especially govt contracts. Suppose they like playing with the larger figures. But if you talk with them about items in research forget it... of course my director was a little overkill to get such items for a half *** necissity that he couldnt evaluate efficiently. Your, and my, tax dollars blown for what he 'felt' we needed... than what was actually necessary for the job, yesh. /rant_over

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It could be worse...right?