Sunday, November 05, 2006

Shout out to HP:

I wanted a to tryout the new Media Center PC's so I could have a PVR to record shows, so I got an HP Pavilion dual core and everything. It's been fantastic and I like the way it's entertainment software is being designed. I think it is the future where we will see computers built around taking all of the information on the internet and making it easily accessible. Where you just ask for some info and your computer knows where on the internet to find it, knows how to classify it for later use, and knows how to present it to you when you ask for it. No more hunting down add-ons, or obscure programs to aggregate between and then finding another program to play it.

Anyways, in all of my twenty some years playing with all kinds of computers I've never had a harddrive go bad on me (knock on wood). I've had crashes and system failures but never an actual harddrive die. Well I spent all last week (hence little posting from me) doing just that. Thanx to HP service personel what could have been hell (since I also got the flu last week...headache season for a diabetic like me) was actually a pleasant experience. When my system first crashed hard I recovered only to find half my system files gone. I went online and found HP's online chat service with a tech. In five minutes I was typing away with Radmund from HP. He cooly detailed my problem and ten minutes after I got offline with him his pleasant spoken manager called me on the phone and approved sending me Recovery discs to try to reinstall my system. Two days later I had the disc in hand only to discover with the recovery discs that the harddrive was "in immiment danger of failing please replace harddrive" This time I called up HP and another "cool customer" Krish gets on and with a few quick test authorizes me a new harddrive. In no time Fed. ex. is at the door with a fresh new drive and here I am up and running again...so again thanx to the cool cats at HP...

5 comments:

Russ Sheath said...

It's great when you get a customer support service that does exactly that, supports the customer. Here in the UK we, more often than not, have to pay a premium rate number and pay a fortune to get second rate service only to be told to return it to the store. Thanks for the advice guys, I am in the market for a new machine and will aim for an HP based on your experiences.

Whilce Portacio said...

Hey Guys,

Yeah, in twenty years I've bought Amiga, PC, MAC, SONY, COMPAQ, Toshiba, Ipaq, and others. With HP this is the first time that customer service was just that service...quick and helpful...

Whilce Portacio said...

Russ,

Yeah, I know what ya mean. I lived in the Philippines for five years and did some consulting work and because of that would never recommend MAC's because even to replace a faulty video card would take two weeks. What business could wait for two weeks.

Also yes comparitively here in the States it is easier to return things...again remembering life in the Philippines my wife would test every bit of electronics we bought. Even light bulbs, yeah they had sockets in the store just to test that the bulbs were working, just because it would be a hassle and an arguement to return it.

Russ Sheath said...

Thats great about returning the light bulbs. A friends PC, about a week old recently caught FIRE and with two young children, I dread to think what could have happened. The store of course exchanged it but offered no compensation for loss of data etc, no explaination and we far from apologetic.

Shocking when you think this was a national chain of PC retailers and when you think of the negative press any kind of accident might have caused.

I have been tempted to buy Dell, but they only sell via mail order in the UK and they seem to charge an extortionate amount for their machines when you could build a same spec machine for two thirds of the price.

Are you a gamer at all Whilce?

Whilce Portacio said...

Russ,

I use to be a gamer, not much time anymore...you need alot of time to game especially now with online gaming.

I still keep up with news and am temted to get an Xbox 360 just for gears of war...but for now am sticking with my geforce card and playing Ghost Recon Advanced. I remember playing the original Ghost Recon all nite long. I could play each level over and over again coz they'd always end up differently. I also remember the first Rainbow Six and how scary it was to have to storm that room with two hostages held by two terrorist, took me so long to correctly plan my guys moves and execute them. I think a Wetworks game would have to be more like Rainbow than Recon, tho' I just love leading a squad in Recon.