My Story:
It was a crisp day in March, as I walked into my office that morning. I was very excited because we were receiving a new HP desktop replacement laptop for our project manager. I was assigned to set it up (ie: play with it) first. I was picturing all of the performance test I would needt o run (ie: playing WoW and Halo 3 while simultaneously burning last nights tv shows to a DVD). Delivering new laptops to employees, is easily one of the high points of my job. I feel like a super hero, saving employees from their old slow machines with bright shinny new ones. The smile it brings to the face of the employee is thanks enough...well that and the performance testing part.
The smile flew off my face as I hear loud knock on my door. It was our Engineering Manager. His face was flushed, his breathing was heavy, and he was clearly distressed. Just looking at him made my heart skip a few beats. "HELP!", he screams, "IT'S DEAD...IT'S NOT WORKING..HELP!". I could feel the lump in my throat as I thought to myself, Ugg, it's going to be one of those days.I calmly asked him what was wrong.
It was his laptop [which we will herein refer to as the *other* laptop. NOTA HP]. It would turn on, but it just would not start up. I suspected a motherboard/CPU problem.
At this point, you need to understand, I am a big geek,but my geekiness is somewhat limited to software and configuration. The thought of taking a laptop apart makes me shiver. I just know there are some tiny parts inside. Very special sabotage pieces designed to spring out upon opening and instantly camouflage with the ground beneath me.
Luckily, his laptop was under warranty, so I could pass the problem on to some other qualified sucker person . I called the support number of the *other* manufacturer.
The call center employee offered me the usual friendly greeting. He then proceeded to ask the 100 or so questions they are trained to ask each and every person who calls regardless of what specific problem they hear described. Finally, I convinced him we needed a tech person out here immediately to fix the laptop. He told me someone would be out within the next 2 days. I remember muttering under my breath a few profanities and hanging up the phone.
Of course, now, I am in the wonderful position of having to tell our engineering manager that I can't get his laptop fixed for at least two days. By now, the day was pretty much shot. I sighed, so much for my "performance testing". Luckily, I keep a few old spare laptops ready to go for such emergencies. They are slow, but they get the job done.. well almost.
Three days later a technician shows up to fix the laptop. Heveryfast. Within 20 minutes he had it apart, replaced the motherboard, and put it back together. He handed me a slip of paper and began walking out the door.
"Wait a minute", I asked, "Aren't you going to turn it on and see if it works?". To which he smiled and replied. "Sorry, I'm was just hired to come in and replace the motherboard; you have to test it yourself". My blood pressure was quickly rising. "Well, hang on a minute I turn it on and see". "Sorry, I can't", he shouts, now halfway out the door, "I have to do another job". If you have a problem, call the help desk, and they will send me back out if needed. Then in the blink of an eye, he was gone. [One can only assume this disappearing act is taught in school, but I guess I was out sick that day]
I turned the laptop on...and Surprise...it still wouldnotturnon! I called the support help desk and gave the nice [new] lady on the phone. I proceeded to give her a very big earful. After eventually getting to the supervisor, I was politely told that they subcontract technicians from local companies, and therefore, they cannot control the quality of these subcontracted workers. They did promise they would send out a different subcontractor, and assured me he/she would test the work that was done before leaving.
I am very un-accustomed to this poor level of service. Our engineering's manager's laptop was purchased according to his specifications. My normal purchasing policy has always favored HP desktops and laptops. I have found them to work wonderfully, and I have always received excellent warranty and technical support. But, our engineering manager wanted the *other* manufacturer, and although I tended to favor HP, I figured what could it hurt?
It is now day 7 since that faithful day in March. I can now hear the engineering manager sob in his office about his slow temporary replacement laptop. It almost brings a tear to my eye. Just then, the latest *other* subcontractor walks in my door. I must say this new subcontractor worked quite tirelessly trying to solve the problem for several hours.
Finally he turned to me with a somber look [not unlike that of a doctor on TV]. I'm very sorry", he says, "This laptop is beyond repair, you will have to get the *other** manufacturer to ship you a new laptop". I really believed he tried his best, so I did not give him a hard time. Within 24 hours, the support desk called me back to say they received the subcontractors report, and they would ship me out a new laptop, but first I would have to ship them back the broken one for their analysis. The whole process took about 3 weeks and left me very disillusioned, to say the least.
Today, I am happy to say, all of our employees are now using HP laptops, and whenever I hear the name of the *other* manufacturer mentioned, I just cringe and I tell this story.
We now all have plenty of time to watch our dvd's, play our video games, and still finish our projects by that 9pm deadline. and me?...well actually I work for a different company now. Each night I tweak my old 486 one more time, trying to squeeze enough juice for Folding @ Home. Then I head to bed and drift asleep. I dream of my superhero, the person that will bring me a bright shinny new HP Pavilion HDX Desktop replacement, ...someday, ..waiting, ...hoping, ..for good Karma to come my way.
This is a true story, albeit, somewhat dramatized.
[ ** THE END ** ]
* * -> Hey, you're actually reading my footnote ! Good for you. "Other" is a code for the other competitor which should remain nameless [cough]Dell[cough]
