Manufacturer Warranties and Protection Plans

[Admyers]

Well, so far, this is not Best Buy's fault, or the Geek Squad, or HP, according to them. Isn't it amazing that everyone concerned is defending themselves, and I, the consumer/customer, is just supposed to suck it up and shoulder all of the responsibility and cost.

The good news is, I just got a call from the kid who took my tower home with him to take a look at it, and he got it up and running again -- something the Geek Squad was not able to do. I have lost all respect and trust in each of them. 

[SoMeAm]

Hello Tara (Admyers),

Thank you very much for purchasing an HP computer two years ago.  We do apologize that you have experienced
challenges with your two year old computer. We do abhor upselling when a resolution can be provided.  Being very
objective, I followed the discussion and must say that the experts on this Best Buy Forum have given you valid
feedback that would apply to most retailers and computer manufacturers. And if I were the customer with a
nonfunctioning, out of warranty computer without an extended warranty or protection plan that covered virus removal,
it would be difficult to accept some of the facts offered. I do not want to repeat what has been offered but would
like to ask some questions and make a few comments.

1.  What is the model of your two year old desktop computer?  You also claim that it crashed because of defective
motherboard capacitors.  I would like to check our HP system to see if our engineering team issued an alert for
defects in your model.  When there is a well known problem with a particular model, HP stands behind its product by
issuing product alerts and/or recalls. Customers will often receive notification via email or in a letter. I do not
see any recent recalls for any models regarding capacitors.   

What is especially baffling is you state in your last response that a kid "got it up and running again".  If the
computer is up and running without motherboard replacement, I doubt if your motherboard has defective capacitors.  

2.  If you can provide me via private email the case number of your discussion with HP or the serial number, I can
review the notes to see if the HP staff with whom you spoke responded accurately, caringly, and professionally.  If not, we appreciate your bringing this customer service event to our attention, and we will use our formal internal process to bring the issue to the attention of the staff's management team.

3.  I see that you referenced previously having Norton, and you were told to wait until it ended before loading the
new virus program. I am concerned about the reason for not renewing Norton, instead, being sold a new program. If there was some delay in loading the new program, your computer could have become infected.  Another concern I have is about the removal of your Norton program.  I am not trying to undermine your intelligence, but a number of customers have found removal of the Norton anti-virus program very challenging and have often had to seek assistance from Symantec to get it removed successfully.

Once again, we apologize for your experience.  We are also pleased to see that  your computer is not "dead" after two years but is up and running.

Regards,

[Admyers]

The name of the Geek Squad tech who called and told me that the problem with my computer was a swell at a capacitor on my motherboard, is Colin. I still have this message on tape. This was the Best Buy in Wyomissing, Pa. My HP Pavilion desktop computer info is as follows: Product Type: A6720YX49550/614. Model # NP200AA#ABA, SKU 9249495, Serial # MXU91506WG. 6 GB memory, 640 GB hard drive, Windows Vista Home Premium. The service order # 00580-967394118.

At this point I have lost all trust in the Geek Squad and would not allow them to work on my computer ever again. I will also never again ever do business with Best Buy. They have lost a very good customer.  The man I spoke to at corporate headquarters @ HP told me that he does not buy any HP products himself, and he just works there. Here is some of the information I found when doing my research about the problem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague  and

http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/capacitor-failures-plague-motherboard-vendors-2003027/  http://www.dashdist.com/1u2u/company/capacitor.html   http://news.cnet.com/PCs-plagued-by-bad-capacitors/2100-1041_3-5942647.html%22

[Bagman]

My IT person told me to stay away from HP, Used to be really good, but quality has really been bad past 7 or so years.

[Admyers]

THANKS -- I DEFINITELY WILL STAY AWAY FROM HP, BEST BUY AND THE GEEK SQUAD.

[SoMeAm]

Hello Tara (Admyers),

Thank you very much for the information you provided.  Using it, I did find a record of your call to HP.

1.  You talked with one of our long-time and expert Executive Customer Advocates who, in case there was an issue with the product, escalated your issue to a case manager.

2.  The case manager is also one of our distinguished case managers who explained the upper management policy regarding your request for a replacement desktop.  I doubt if any computer company would automatically replace an out of warranty unit for which there are no known or documented issues. Furthermore, units are not normally replaced for virus issues as there are known steps to resolve such issues.  The fact that your unit is now up and running illustrates that our case manager exercised good judgement by not replacing the unit.

3.  Our HP support system nor does the HP Forum show any alerts for your desktop which was one of our top performers. 

4.  The Wikipedia link you provided indicates that this capacitor issue was appliable to the major computer companies in 2004 and 2005:  "Major vendors such as Intel, Dell and HP were affected.[5] Circa 2005."  And solutions were provided to impacted customers.

We do not see where HP's support nor your reliable HP model failed you. Neverthless, we thank you again for your feedback. Although it is still unclear why you did not renew your Norton subscription, we appreciate the professional feedback you have received from the Best Forum members.  As they have informed you, no virus program provides 100 percent protection against viruses.  We hope that your unit will continue to run successfully. 

[Admyers]

I think you are confusing two different issues. First of all, I do not have the computer in my possession, as a friend has been trying to get it up and running. He thought he did have it working, but it kept freezing for him and shutting down. He is ordering a new hard drive, since that is the message he received when running diagnostics on it. So, as of today, the compute is NOT fixed. He just thought it was.

Secondly, my first thought, when the computer went blue screen for the Comcast technician, was the fact that the Kaspersky Anti-Virus Program had somehow contribued to this, if not the direct cause, since it had not functioned correctly since installed. I did not install the Kaspersky program until my subscription to Norton had run out. There was never a time that I did not have an anti-virus program on my computer. I just did not realize that the Kaspersky Program had a bug in it until the Geek Squad @ Best Buy told me this.

Thirdly, the IT person that the operator put me through to there @ HP Corporate just told me that I had not purchased an extended warranty, so there is nothing he could do for me. When I explained that this was an expensive computer that was only 2 years old, he told me that he never buys HP products himself, and only works there. I certainly did not feel like I was talking to someone in administration, as I had requested to speak to the President at Corporate Headquarters when I called Palo Alto, Ca. I feel strongly that HP should stand behind their products, if in fact they are the quality products they say they are.