It’s Dead Jim #4c

So I got confirmation today that HP is sending me a new HDD. If I had given them enough info yesterday I’d probably have the new HDD already, but alas I didn’t, so I had to send them some more info today. I expect the HDD to arrive Monday.

Anyway, I just want to take a moment to say this is the reason I bought an HP laptop. I’ve dealt with many vendors over the years, and all their support departments, but so far I’ve had the best luck with HP IF I got a business class system with their professional warranties. Now the cheap crap you buy at Best Buy is cheap crap, and you get cheap crappy service to go with it. But their business class systems and the warranties that come with them I have been very satisfied with. The main reason is that they let me do my own troubleshooting and repair. Sure I could take it somewhere and have it done under warranty, but I would rather do the work myself. So anytime I’ve had trouble with a business-class HP system I’v troubleshooted it, then filled out a form online describing the problem and what I’ve done and what the problem appears to be. If I’m thorough enough they overnight me a new part, if I may have missed something they email me back with suggestions.

For example, this laptop, I ran PC-Check and the HDD failed. I filled out a form and told HP Support that, then they replied and asked exactly what failed, and asked me to try another HDD in the system to make certain it wasn’t a controller problem, then get back to them with the resultes. I should have done that anyway, I was just in too much of a hurry I suppose. So I did as they said, then replied and told them it was the HDD Non-Destructive test that failed and that sometimes my Windows Setup I tried to run would say it couldn’t find a HDD to install to. Then I replaced the HDD and everything worked fine. So half an hour later I get a response saying a new HDD is in the mail. That’s what I call service!

Again, I would like to remind you that anything you buy at Best Buy is junk. And Best Buy’s service is laughable. My wife bough an HP laptop from Best Buy and the mobo died within 6 months. We took it back, they shipped it off and it was 6 weeks before we heard anything. It turns out they had it for awhile and accidently put it out for sale! Luckily they caught it before it sold because it still had all our personal info on it. Pluse when we got it back they had lost the battery, so they had to order another one which took another week.

The moral of the story is…

Don’t buy anything from a local retailer. Don’t buy anything from a major manufacturer if it’s listed under their “Home and Small Office” section. Either build your own or get something under the “Small & Medium-Size Business” or the “Enterprise” section.