Well I just had to blog this . . .
Last week I called HP about my laptop again, just to update you:
1st send-in for service: replaced a fan but did not solve audio noise problem
2nd send, solved audio noise (was a software issue) but packing material fell apart on send back and dvd drive was damaged and top cover was banged up.
3rd send, they replaced the broken dvd drive and replaced the whole top of unit but didn't put it on right, now it won't close.
so i called them up to fix this latest problem.
here is the verbatim (except for cso #) chat transcript regarding sending it in to them:
Priscilla
Do you have the box that you received the notebook last time when you received the box.
justin
yes
Priscilla
Since you are sending the box for re-repair, send the notebook in the same box. Paste this CSO number on the box FGJxxx-01 and this service center address on the box:
Priscilla
HEWLETT-PACKARD REPAIR CENTER 45225 NORTHPORT CT FREMONT ,CA 94538 800-474-6836
justin
ok. i assume i ship fedex and it's prepaid?
Priscilla
Paste this service center address and CSO number on the box and send to the fedex.
Priscilla
Yes.
Priscilla
They will not charge you.
justin
othanks ok i can do that. will ship it monday. happy thanksgiving! that's it- jl
Priscilla
Thank you.
*************
okay, this converstaion occurred the monday before thanksgiving. The next day I found a fedex slip on my door which made no sense, something about an expresstag shipment. I figured maybe fedex had come to get the laptop (not expected) but I hadn't gotten it erased/ backed up/ passwords removed/ packed up and taped up yet, as that is a big deal, also i wanted to use it over thanksgiving.
well long story short, last night I finally followed the shipping instructions from the chat, put the cso number on the box, went to fedex late night service center (7 miles away, closes at 8:30) and went up to the counter lady and she said, "sorry, can't ship it using that number."
now bear in mind i had just had a very long day, I was very much looking forward to just dropping this off and going home and watching monday night football.
I used fedex's lobby phone (how great is that, to have a phone to use!) to call HP help. I was on hold for 10 minutes, listening to fedex ads, standing in the fedex place with my coat on and nowhere to sit. I finally got someone in marrakesh on the line. I had to give him my serial number, height, weight, etc etc, and finally told him i had a problem shipping. (why don't they have me in their database? why don't they just use the serial number to identify me, as that is always pasted on the unit, instead of some other fancy number?)
the fedex lady was watching me go thru this. she told me to solve the problem by getting HP's fedex number. great idea. but this guy from HP did not, as far as i could tell, know what fedex was. just kept saying "hang on a moment please" and then saying stuff that made no sense. Thoughout our conversation I kept telling him "fedex closes in 15 minutes . . . fedex closes in 6 minutes . . . " I figured i was better off hanging on the phone than going home and coming back and losing a day in the repair schedule.
finally the fedex lady took pity on me. She came over, looked at the box, said "hang up on india," and said, "this is not technically legal but i'll ship it using this number." (the number was from the time HP shipped the unit back to me.)
i had found a kindred spririt. also someone who valued perfromance over process.
Not real sure what HP had in mind in their shipping instructions but they sure ruined much of my night. Now I can only hope that they will fix this current problem without causing another one.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Thursday, November 23, 2006
thermostats need work
i spent many years in the music business, and in that world, life is very much like that of an olympic athlete, you have to constantly challenge and test and push yourself all the time. Pity the rest of the world doesn't work this way.
Like most folks, I have a thermostat in my house. Like every other modern electronic thermostat, it has various timed settings so it automatically turns the heat up and down at different times of the day. You can get different thermostats that have slightly better this or that but basically they all operate in this manner.
Here's the thing: if I want to REALLY save energy, at bedtime I will (like many people) turn the heat way way down, to like 50 degrees. It takes a few hours for the house to get down to that temperature. Then, when it falls to 49 degrees, (usually at 4 am), the thermostat says, uh oh, time to bring the house back to 50 degrees.
So what happens? because the house and all the water in the heating system has become stone cold, the furnace has to run like mad to bring the house up just one degree. It does that, of course, but to do so it has a to run a long time. the house reaches 50 degrees, but by the time the heat gets to the thermostat, the system has built up a huge amount of residual energy. that huge amount of heat has to dissipate, which quickly brings the house (or some rooms in it, like my bedroom) up to 70 degrees.
It would be simple enough to solve this problem by having a time limit on how long a furnace would run in the early am hours, thereby making the rise in temperature more gradual and efficient. this is easily programmable. but the engineers have only thought within the box and said "the thermostat will turn on the heat until the thermostat feels heat." To the engineers who make and sell these things, i say, Sorry guys, you met your own standard of performance, but compared to what is possible to do, it's not much.
as we say in the music biz, "thank you-- NEXT!"
Like most folks, I have a thermostat in my house. Like every other modern electronic thermostat, it has various timed settings so it automatically turns the heat up and down at different times of the day. You can get different thermostats that have slightly better this or that but basically they all operate in this manner.
Here's the thing: if I want to REALLY save energy, at bedtime I will (like many people) turn the heat way way down, to like 50 degrees. It takes a few hours for the house to get down to that temperature. Then, when it falls to 49 degrees, (usually at 4 am), the thermostat says, uh oh, time to bring the house back to 50 degrees.
So what happens? because the house and all the water in the heating system has become stone cold, the furnace has to run like mad to bring the house up just one degree. It does that, of course, but to do so it has a to run a long time. the house reaches 50 degrees, but by the time the heat gets to the thermostat, the system has built up a huge amount of residual energy. that huge amount of heat has to dissipate, which quickly brings the house (or some rooms in it, like my bedroom) up to 70 degrees.
It would be simple enough to solve this problem by having a time limit on how long a furnace would run in the early am hours, thereby making the rise in temperature more gradual and efficient. this is easily programmable. but the engineers have only thought within the box and said "the thermostat will turn on the heat until the thermostat feels heat." To the engineers who make and sell these things, i say, Sorry guys, you met your own standard of performance, but compared to what is possible to do, it's not much.
as we say in the music biz, "thank you-- NEXT!"
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
IE7-- what were they thinking?
well i saw the update to IE7 . . . yes, i admit it, i use Internet explorer, and yes, i am ashamed. I'm just used to it. so i did the update, as they said i could uninstall, and thank goodness. I installed it, went to find my favorites, and even tho in IE6 there are 2 ways to navigate to favorites, in IE7 there are only bookmarks in the tool bar. true, it invites one to import one's favorites, but once done there is no easy wasy to get to them, nor are they in their old order. what a pain. I uninstalled IE7 as soon as i could figure out how to do it. why is it people are always so eager to improve things that they lose things that work? if it ain't broke . . . i'd like to have the security improvements but not to the point that i can't get anywhere or have to relearn the whole thing. yeesh.
whatever happened to HP?
I have been a big fan of Hewlett-Packard over the years. I bought (for $1100 in 1993, when that was a lot of money) a laserjet IIIP printer, which is still running great. (thanks to moe at fixyourownprinter.com). Now I own an hp 1012 and 6122 printer. both work great.
so when i saw an hp laptop, even tho it was pricey, i jumped at it.
but from the get-go-- first, the salesperson told me it had lightscribe-- he was misinformed, it didn't. then it had this weird audio problem, noise from the hard drive and fan motors bled through to the speakers, sometimes very badly.
so i finally shipped it in via their mail-in warranty service, and they replaced the CPU fan and shipped it right back, but-- same problem. also the packing material they provided fell apart, so it got bumped a lot in shipping. I complained and they sent me another shipping box and back to california it went. this time someone else in the repair dept got it. they left some weird chinese websites and other software on it but i don't care as they fixed the audio problem -- apparently a system software upgrade. unfortunately, the packing material fell apart again, damaging the hinge covers and breaking the DVD drive. So i sent it back a third time. this time it came back with dvd drive fixed and new lcd / top cover to fix the broken hinge, but . . . the packing material fall apart again, and now I can't close it, as the top is no longer aligned with the latch holes. was this an error in the fix or caused by bumping in shipping?? also this time instead of sending me a box they accidentally scheduled a pickup, i told them this and they asked me to ship it back in the box i last received.
sigh to their credit they gave me another year's warranty for free, and i bought another year at a discount rate, which i thought was a good idea given that this thing is having so many problems. it's not so much that the unit is faulty, the problem is, they have this packing material that simply does not work. their poor packing materials and the hurry to get it out the door have resulted, not in faster better service, but a loss of the unit for almost 2 weeks total. i would have preferred that they kept it for 3 days the first time and fixed it and packed it right.
who is running this outfit, and what hurry-up mangement credo is making them so unaware of common sense?
HP, if you're reading this, I am happy to do a presentation on the importance of pacing in the workplace, and awareness of the customer being more important than process. :-)
sigh i miss the old HP where everything worked the first time.
--jl
so when i saw an hp laptop, even tho it was pricey, i jumped at it.
but from the get-go-- first, the salesperson told me it had lightscribe-- he was misinformed, it didn't. then it had this weird audio problem, noise from the hard drive and fan motors bled through to the speakers, sometimes very badly.
so i finally shipped it in via their mail-in warranty service, and they replaced the CPU fan and shipped it right back, but-- same problem. also the packing material they provided fell apart, so it got bumped a lot in shipping. I complained and they sent me another shipping box and back to california it went. this time someone else in the repair dept got it. they left some weird chinese websites and other software on it but i don't care as they fixed the audio problem -- apparently a system software upgrade. unfortunately, the packing material fell apart again, damaging the hinge covers and breaking the DVD drive. So i sent it back a third time. this time it came back with dvd drive fixed and new lcd / top cover to fix the broken hinge, but . . . the packing material fall apart again, and now I can't close it, as the top is no longer aligned with the latch holes. was this an error in the fix or caused by bumping in shipping?? also this time instead of sending me a box they accidentally scheduled a pickup, i told them this and they asked me to ship it back in the box i last received.
sigh to their credit they gave me another year's warranty for free, and i bought another year at a discount rate, which i thought was a good idea given that this thing is having so many problems. it's not so much that the unit is faulty, the problem is, they have this packing material that simply does not work. their poor packing materials and the hurry to get it out the door have resulted, not in faster better service, but a loss of the unit for almost 2 weeks total. i would have preferred that they kept it for 3 days the first time and fixed it and packed it right.
who is running this outfit, and what hurry-up mangement credo is making them so unaware of common sense?
HP, if you're reading this, I am happy to do a presentation on the importance of pacing in the workplace, and awareness of the customer being more important than process. :-)
sigh i miss the old HP where everything worked the first time.
--jl
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