Tell of your frustrating repair/warranty experience gone bad.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This can be a repair or warranty experience of any variety. Auto, computer, appliance, etc…

I’m in the middle of what I expect to be no less then a fiasco by the time it’s done.
My laptop’s USB ports stopped working about a month ago so I called up the support center at Gateway and since there was a week left on the warranty they were obliged to send me a carton in which to return the computer in. Good, free shipping to and from the repair facility, so far so good. Send it in and get it back a week later with no repair details (like which part was replaced, MB, loose connection, etc.).
Turn it on tried the USB ports and they work, so far still so good.

Surfing the internet, go to Youtube, try to play a video…

BSOD!!*

The thing restarts by itself, or tries to, and locks up. Press power button for 5 seconds and can’t even get to the post screen. Remove battery, disconnect from power supply and hold power button down for 30 seconds to clear capacitors. Restarts OK, then locks up again. Let it sit overnight, then try again in the morning…actually starts up normally so I take this time to do a format re-install of Vista. Goes through the whole 2 hour process flawlessly so I’m thinking that it’s cured, right? Go back to Youtube and it BSOD’s again. Shit.

Call the service center and they give me the run around about it being out of warranty and I tell them that I’d rather have the USB ports awol then the BSOD and random lockups it has now. The service tech, being taught this very tactic in advanced service tech school, then says “Well, let me put you on hold while I see what they repaired on your computer because if they replaced the USB ports and didn’t replace the MB then we can’t service this under the warranty since this would be a NEW problem and likely a MB issue.”

I actually saw that one coming.

I also, while on hold (and while the service tech frantically changed the repair ticket - I’m sure), I predicted that he would come back and say that they didn’t replace the MB and instead did some other menial task that fixed the USB ports.

I was right, except he threw me a curve ball when he told me that the wireless card was the culprit and that’s what crossed up the USB ports and that’s the only thing that was replaced/touched. Even though the USB ports are likely soldered to the MB and the wireless card is PCI.

That’s were I’m at now, I have to contact the escalation dept to duke it out with them. I’m sure it won’t be pretty.

*Blue Screen Of Death

2

My first IBM compatible computer a 33 MHz 386 SX had a bad IDE cable that shorted out the motherboard. Warranty repair had me with a new motherboard and CPU almost a year to the day after return of the computer. How can I elaborate on the wrongness of this. The computer was about $1500 when purchased and worth about $250 when I got it back. I bought a Pentium two weeks after the first died, so I actually had a computer to use. Bastards.

I spent an hour waiting on a toll call to send back my in warranty HP printer. Cost to me for call was over $50. HP screwed me a few times until I wrote them off forever.

3

Three that stand out in my mind…

Years ago, we bought a GE refrigerator. The thing always sounded like it was trying to pound itself to death. We played the ‘call and complain, someone comes out and diddles with something so it’s quiet’ game many, many times. The problem was that every time, the thing would start banging within a couple days. Eventually, we lucked into a repairman that actually knew what the problem was and how to fix it. Naturally, he was retiring in two weeks. Fortunately, his repair did fix the noise permanently.

We had tons of trouble with an HP DeskJet printer - think it was the 660c - the thing would get hung up and start grinding. They shipped out three replacement printers, and each one was bad. We eventually gave up on it.

Dell gave me fits with a case fan. Brand new (and expensive!) computer with a fan sounding like some unoiled part of a cement mixer. They shipped a replacement fan, which lasted about a week before a blade broke off. The second replacement fan was just as bad as the first. At this point, I gave up on Dell and bought a five dollar fan from the local computer shop.

4

A week after the warranty on the HP printer was expired the printer died again for the exact reason of the original printer. The reason had to do with the gear stripping grinding those pieces of shit all eventually start to do. I had the same series but different model as gotpasswords. The HP computer that didn’t have drivers that worked for 6 months after I bought it was the final straw. Too bad if your program wanted to use direct X. It would crash within two minutes, or hang when starting up.

5

The very laptop I post from here, was bought from a company called CyberPowerPC. When I first got the thing, everything ran fine–slow, but otherwise fine. Then the screen would act up (as in, would fail to act at all) intermittently. I could boot up the thing fine, but the screen wouldn’t work at all. I could plug an external monitor into the side just fine, but the screen just wouldn’t work.

So, I sent it in. “Eddie” said it would be just a few days and they’d have it all fixed. Two weeks went by, and “Eddie” wouldn’t return my phone calls. I kept calling back, and finally got a live human. “Eddie” didn’t work there anymore, and a new guy, “Mike” said it was a problem with the motherboard :rolleyes:. “Mike” said he didn’t know how long the motherboard would be on backorder, but as soon as it came in, they’d get it back to me.

Two and a half months later (after every-other-day phone calls), this ‘craptop’ finally comes back, and it appears all they did was scratch a few stickers off of the lid. I booted it right up and it exhibited the same damn problem with the screen. So, I call 'em up, get an RMA, and send it right the frick back. Again with the phone calls. . . and three weeks later, the damn thing comes back.

Third go around, it worked fine for a month. Then started acting up again. . . CyberCrapperPC said it wasn’t under warranty before, even though they failed to fix it the first two times. I ended up taking it to a local place, who at least fixed the screen so far (that I can tell).

After doing some research, I found that CyberPowerPC habitually fails to doesn’t do sh*t for their warranty work, and in fact puts together crappy laptops and really doesn’t function or quality check them. Had I known then what I know now. . . :smack:

Tripler
:smack: :smack: Always check into companies first!! :mad: :smack:

6

I had a Pioneer receiver with an extended warranty. Later, I wished I hadn’t bought the extended warranty b/c receivers don’t have moving parts, but then when I had a problem, I was glad. Until I went to get it fixed.

Short story long, the warranty people required me to go to a particular shop. These guys claimed they’d ordered the part, so I called Pioneer. They claimed they’d shipped it. The extended warranty people tried to intervene. This game of three way phone tag went round and round for about six months.

Finally the shop said they had the part. “When can I pick it up?” “Oh, next week, two weeks at the most.” “So I’ve been waiting six months and you’re not sure you can get to it?” “Right, we’re kind of backed up.”

I called back the extended warranty place and they threatened to take ALL their business away from the local shop. Ring. “Ah, yeah, you can pick that up today.” Gee, thanks.

Driving over there, I got “lost” twice. I was so unbefuckinglievably mad that it was like I was wearing red sunglasses…the whole world just went red. “Lost” means I missed the turn that I knew was there and I was so busy swearing that I drove past it…then doubled back and missed it again. I’m a nonviolent person but that day I was on the verge of making an exception.