Gotta love warranty claims
Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 11:16 am
Monday night I get home from another great night of 888PL action (nice plug old-man daryl) to find my lap top is in sleep mode, which is odd. I wake it and discover that battery power is low. After some investigation I work out the charger is on the fritz. It aint charging and it's making a bizarre beeping noise, almost like it was a bomb. I'm house sitting at the moment so it's been a saga just getting home to get my warranty documentation. Anyway, that got, this morning I start the fun. The documentation says for any problems ring the Harvey Norman warranty number, it's a 1300 number so it's going somewhere I presume can help. WRONG. I'm instructed by a robotic sounding recording of a woman, that if my product is under 12 months old (so under warranty?) then call the store you bought the product from. Great, luckily my receipt has the Harvey Norman store number on it. I call that and get a ditzy chick, not a Dixie Chick, otherwise I wouldn't have minded her stupidness. I start to explain I have a lap top issue, she cuts me off and says she'll put me through to that department. Great I'm thinking, she's not mucking around, this could be solved soon. Phone rings for a bit and she comes back on the line, she says, "He's not answering, would you like me to try again, or hang up?". Seriously what kind of question is that? My computer is broke, I want it fixed, but because you because they guy is not answering you think I'm going to give up??? Nope, please try again. It rings again and no luck, she then askes if I would like to make an announcement over the PA for him to pick up, and you didn't think of this after the first time??? The phone rings twice and my computer dude answers, now that wasn't that hard was it? A quick call to him and what does he tell me?? I need to call the HP people and they will fix it, but he does warn me, that even though it's a simple thing, it could take from 1 to 6 weeks to replace, I might just want to save myself the heart ache and buy myself a new one. I appreciated his help, probably the most helpful yet. Now I'd like to point out at this point I'm in my car on the way to work. I have with me my documentation, I have written down the model No of the lap top, the model number and replacement part number of the charger, in order to save myself further heart problems. So I call HP and after making the appropriate selections, I'm placed in a queue. One second I have an Aussie bloke telling me I've progressed in the queue and a customer service officer will be with me shortly, then the next second I have an American bloke telling me I have progressed in the queue. In between, I have some funky music with some scratchy interference overlaying it, all leading me to believe my phone is dropping out, who creates this hold music???? Finally, my call is answered, takes nearly 9 minutes, but it's answered. Now the real test begins. It is of course and Indian fellow attempting to "help" me. He asks if I have tested another charger (because I carry spare HP chargers with me all the time), have I taken it to a store and used one of their chargers? (haven't we invented the telephone to save us going to the store?) Then he asks if I have the serial number of the lap top? WHAT? the charger is f*cked! I have all the info for the charger and model number of lappy so you can send me the right one and he wants the lap top serial number! Now I have to wait until I get home, and then wait until tomorrow orning to proceed, because they shut at 5:30pm Sydney time, which makes it 5pm here, which means I'll be at work. YOU'RE IN F*CKING INDIA! YOU'RE NOT EVEN RUNNING ON THAT TIME! Oh the joys of warranties!
