As some of you may have noticed, I've not been online much in the
past 3 months. In Nov, about 10 days AFTER the one year warrantee
expired on my laptop, the screen quit working and I couldn't get the computer
to boot - so I called tech services, who told me 1. the contract had expired,
2. sounded bad, too bad, and 3 their hands were tied. So I asked to
speak with a supervisor, who got on the line and informed me they were tired
of me calling them with problems with my computer - they kept getting it
in, fixing it, and when I got it back, and started using it, something
else would show up in the next month. I agreed with her assessment of
the computer, and told her I was pretty well fed up myself - in the
first 12 months I owned the computer, it spent 5 months in their shop - and
still wasn't working. She said since the year was up, it sounded like a
personal problem to her. I sent the computer to Radio Shack to be repaired
- Radio shack spent the next 2 months arguing with Compaq that they should
fix the computer since the warrantee was so close - to no avail. Today I got
a call from the tech - parts to fix the computer came to over $1000 - on a
$1400 computer (what I paid for it) With labor, I could easily end up
spending more this go round than when I bought it. Janine could tell
how upset I was, and she talked to the tech - who gave her another number for
Compaq. I don't know how many people she talked to, but none were
helpful, and not too damn sympathetic either. When she asked if we
could get a discount/rebate if we bought a new one, they said no. I
noticed in tonight's news, that Compaq put a rebate on their laptops last
Sunday - but their people didn't mention that (NOT a problem, I'm gonna buy
another Compaq product right after the devil goes ice skating ) I stopped
and shopped for laptops tonight on the way home - the current equivalent to
my old computer is about $800. I don't know how much Compaq makes per
computer sale - but if you are interested in buying a laptop, let me
suggest Dell, Toshiba, HP....
sorry to vent, and I did like the
computer, just wish they could keep it working for more than a month at a
time. Anyway, there is no way I can replace it for now or in the
foreseeable future, so to all I owe a note - sorry. bob aka
tex