A mad man is me sighting.

[Rahmota]

Ok this one is about me today. Since I musty confess I did blow my top and loose my composure just a bit today at the big blue box electronic store (BB) "repair" people.

A little backstory: Last fall my wife bought a discontinued clearance laptop for me for christmas. She got the service plan in case anything happened to it at all our fault, their fault or an act of the gods the laptop was supposed to be repaired.

Well last week she accidentally dropped it and broke the screen. No problem we think take it to the store and go through the hoops. Well earlier today we get a call from the repair people. They said they are not going to be able to repair it but we can go get a new one to replace it that is equivalent.

Here is the bad part and where things start getting ugly. We get there and they tell us that they cannot repair my laptop as its a discontinued model and it would cost more to repair it than the laptop is worth. SO I kinda lost it at that point and shouting so that I'm sure the ricer boys in the car audio heard me I said "This is BS you're effing me over because you are refusing to repair my laptop even though we bought and paid for the service plan? Justt cause you wanna cheat us out of some stinking money?" Or somethign to that affect the exact language was a bit more verbose I think. And then we went round and round for about 45 minutes with me at one point being basically thrown out of the store where I went out and punched the side of our van dislocating my pinkie finger in the process.

Well putting it back into place did kinda help calm me down enough to where the rest of the aggressive negotiations went somewhat more subdued. The end result of all of this is that I am going to get my laptop back either witht eh monitor fixed or with it busted but I am not going to have a vista machine. I dont care if they give me a brand new 12grand gaming machine I'll take a fragging sledgehammer to it and sprinkle it with holy water and bury it on sanctified ground to keep the evil stench of vista from polluting the world.

Planned obsolecence is all this is. Fraud villany and skullduggery. It should be outlawed. I mean we pay for a service plan to reapir the laptop we want and we get told to suck it up you dont get want you want. BS! I am still quite peeved about this but I did want to come to confessional here and admit that I lost my cool. IMO deservedly so as being that close to the spawn of evil vista would tempt anyone to the darkside.

[Boozy]

Probably bad news for you: Somewhere in the small print of your service plan is a clause stating that if the cost of repairs is greater than the cost of a new laptop, you have to accept a new and different laptop. I'm sure of it.

My sympathies, though. It sounds like you really liked this particular laptop.

[Mark Healey]

What's the big deal. Just wipe it and install the older version of windows from the disk that came with the old machine. Of course I haven't used a commercial OS since OS/2 so Micro$oft might have done soething to tie it to the old machine that I don't know about.

[CancelMyService]

When I sold computers (and warranties) we always had to point out that the screen wasn't covered if the damage was from "abuse" which they considered anything not a manufacturer's defect. Now granted that was a million years ago in computer years, but I'd wager the screen is still the most expensive part of the unit.


Despite there being a chance you were sold a bill of goods on the warranty, your reaction was straight up SC, sorry to say. Dude, you made such a scene over a laptop you bought on clearance that you got thrown out of a store. There's really no excuse for that.

What's the big deal. Just wipe it and install the older version of windows from the disk that came with the old machine. Of course I haven't used a commercial OS since OS/2 so Micro$oft might have done soething to tie it to the old machine that I don't know about.

Not so much Microsoft but PC manufacturers now don't include Windows discs anymore, rather "restore discs" that only work on the PC they came with.

[Rahmota]

Boozy: yeah I took the contract out and reread it. At the very least I may be able to get my money back from the cheating bastards if they continue to refuse to fix it. The way they act you would think the very future of the compnay hinged on the price of my little monitor. Of course if they do continue to refuse to fix it and refuse to give me back my money I'll report them to whatever and as many agencies I can to get them to do the right thing and either fix it or refund it. We paid for a service contract to fix THAT laptop not get shafted onto some new POS runniing Vista.

And yeah I did like that laptop. Not only did it look cool and run the stuff I wanted it to run the way I wanted it to run it was a christmas gift from my wife. She choose it and went out of her way to get it for me when she really shouldnt have done so. She actually sacrificed her christmas budget for herself to buy me that laptop and it pisses me off to no end that the scumbag lowdown dirty beancounters just want me to throw it in the garbage like its some antiquated piece of junk when we just got it last fall. Planned obsolecence ought to be illegal and punishable by making whoever designs the planned obsolecence obsolete. Where's burgess meredith when you need him?

Mark: Unfortunately the laptop's recover disks are only useable for that laptop. My wife did get them to give me the disks for free when she got it but they are just unusable garbage if I dont get MY laptop back. Maybe I could usethem for skeet? Also supposedly the new computer systems wont work with an older OS as the drivers are not available and microsoft will not release them. I tried to see if they would just throw my old hard drive in a new case or something, anythign to avoid the horrors of having a new laptop running vista.

CMS: Yeah I did. But I feel very justified in doing so. Sometimes when a person is getting shafted then they should go off on who is doing the shafting. And we got our point across. They will either fix it or they will send me my laptop back or they will give me my money back. I have been doing some research and I ahve the phone numbers of the appropriate people to call at HP and complain about this BS. Several of the senior VPs offices and such. And yes I am being a SC but after having seen some of the tricks and techniques used here I am goin to use them all out to get my own laptop back if they dont do it the right way, I tried jumping through their hoops and they tried shoving me off on some GD POS I didnt want, didnt need and couldnt use so they get what they deserve. If they had repaired they had reapired the laptop as per the agreement or provided me with an equivalent one (which means running windows XP) that I could use then there would have been no problem. But no they have to get all high and mighty and tell me the customer what we will do and what we should do and act like I should be grateful they are willing to give me a new laptop with Vista on it. Bah! if I had wanted a new laptop I would have bought one. I did not want a new laptop I wanted MY laptop. I will never have a vista laptop and if for some reason if I am given one I will try and sell it for whatever money I can get out of it. Either that or reprogram it with a 10 pound lump hammer! And I know I went SC on them today thats why I put it in sightings instead of sucky employees section.

As for the Contract it said and my wife was told when she bought it that it would repair anythign that happend to it no matter what the cause. I could have thrown it out the moving car window, into the pond or left it out in the rain and this contract was supposed to cover it the way she was told (Not quite direct quotes but close enough examples of what my wife recalled the salesman pitching) And considering how probably only 1 in 10 of those service contract ever get activated then the company has enough surplus they could afford to repair my laptop and do the right thing. Its not like the amount of money it would cost to fix the thing is going to make the company go out of business.

[Dreamstalker]

Not so much Microsoft but PC manufacturers now don't include Windows discs anymore, rather "restore discs" that only work on the PC they came with.

Or don't even include discs at all; if you want them, you have to make them (or pay more than it would cost to burn them yourself).

[tollbaby]

I don't care how justified you feel, going off like that was not only rude, it was abusive and inexcusable. So you're pissed. Suck it up! How would you feel if someone walked into your workplace and treated you like that? Not only did you continue to verbally abuse the staff (why else would they have kicked you out), you became physically violent as well - it doesn't really matter that it was outside the store or to your own property, it'd be enough to scare me to the point of not letting you back in.

If your computer had been blown up and shattered into a million pieces, would you expect them to repair it then? Would you stand over them, berating and screaming while they tried to glue it back together? Seriously, dude, a bit of common sense would tell you that they offered you an excellent deal. Okay, so it's not the machine your wife picked out for you, but it's newer, probably faster, and you should be thankful they're offering it. Fixing laptop screens is not easy, and most stores aren't equipped to do it - 90% of the time, they'd have to send it to the manufacturer to have a new screen swapped out. But guess what? Your wife bought it on CLEARANCE. You're lucky she was able to get a service plan on it at all. Cause the manufacturer won't touch it with a ten-foot pole now.

Don't expect too much sympathy on this front. YOUR WIFE broke the computer, it's not their fault, you acted like a jerk, and the store was just trying to make you happy.

Mods, apologies if I crossed the line, and I will modify my post to suit if I did.

[Rahmota]

Tollbaby: First off let me say that there have been others here who I felt went over the top and acted like arses and idiots to the point where I'm thinking they where a moron but thats a matter of opinion. I felt justified in that I was getting shafted. I'm not looking for sympathry here on my loosing my temper for getting shafted but confessing and venting here. SOmething that quite a few other people do as well.

And I did use quite a lot of common sense in this regard as a monitor swap is incredibly easy takes about 30-45 minutes to do so as I have done so in the past.
Your comment:

Fixing laptop screens is not easy, and most stores aren't equipped to do it - 90% of the time, they'd have to send it to the manufacturer to have a new screen swapped out.

Is quite incorrent. The laptop monitor is held on by 2-4 screws depending on the model varient, a ribbon cable that is snapped into the motherboard or video card and that is it. It would take no time to do so. And if they had refused to do so I will be the one to replace it. The only correct part of your comment is that most stores are not equipped to do repairs (which is false advertising in my opinion and they should make it clear they are going to send it away from the begining and are useless.)

Why I blew my stack so much was not just the fact they refused to make a simple and easy repair out of their miserly greed it was their attitude in the store of you'll have to get with the program luddite. Treating me like I was an idiot or a retard for not wanting to "upgrade" to a newer piece of junk. Not everyone is impressed with all the bells and whistles. I absolutely hate and loathe vista. I had tried to make it clear but the little smarmy prick behind the counter refused to give me any options other than take a new one.

but it's newer, probably faster, and you should be thankful they're offering it

Heres another quote that is kinda irksome, Yeah its newer but my friend was running a program on his newer 2 ghz vista machine that I run on mine and it was actually running slower than on my clearance xp laptop. A visible difference. This is not an uncommon issue I have read about Vista that it is so bloated that even on high end gaming machine people have problems with lag.
The bolded part of your comment is the most irksome part though as the whole you should be grateful they are doing you a favor attitude is part of what I consider wrong with america today. Basic customer service and companies caring about something other than their bottom line and the greedy CEOs bonus have gone out the window. Be grateful that even though you spent a bunch of money on us and bought a SERVICE CONTRACT we're gonna ashaft you and force you to do our bidding and give you what we want with no choices and options and you can either take it or get the KY out is dead flat wrong! Anyone who thinks that companies nowadays treat their customers decently is a bit confused.
And no they where not trying to make me happy, they where trying to make me very unhappy.

And as for if someone had come into my workplace one I work from home so that would be a very different situation, and two I wouldnt try and shaft a customer out of their propertty and act like a total smug arrogant prick about it. I would actually try and work with the customer to get them a system that they where happy with or their own system repaired. Its called customer service somethign many big companies need to learn.

Which this is all a moot point anyhow as I spent the morning on the phone with HP direct climbing their tree and not only am I getting my own laptop back with a brand new screen but a gift card to BB and a printer cartidge set for my printer all for free for the hassle and BS I had to put up with. I feel a lot better now.

[tollbaby]

Your comment: Is quite incorrent. The laptop monitor is held on by 2-4 screws depending on the model varient, a ribbon cable that is snapped into the motherboard or video card and that is it. It would take no time to do so. And if they had refused to do so I will be the one to replace it. The only correct part of your comment is that most stores are not equipped to do repairs (which is false advertising in my opinion and they should make it clear they are going to send it away from the begining and are useless.)

Okay, my comment was entirely correct. As you state yourself, they'd have had to swap the screens out. NOT repair them. I stand by my original statement.

The bolded part of your comment is the most irksome part though as the whole you should be grateful they are doing you a favor attitude is part of what I consider wrong with america today. Basic customer service and companies caring about something other than their bottom line and the greedy CEOs bonus have gone out the window. Be grateful that even though you spent a bunch of money on us and bought a SERVICE CONTRACT we're gonna ashaft you and force you to do our bidding and give you what we want with no choices and options and you can either take it or get the KY out is dead flat wrong! Anyone who thinks that companies nowadays treat their customers decently is a bit confused. And no they where not trying to make me happy, they where trying to make me very unhappy.

You completely misinterpreted my statement. They couldn't replace the piece that broke, because it was bought on CLEARANCE. In other words, they don't HAVE it anymore. How are they going to do a monitor swap with something they don't have parts for anymore? So they offered you a whole new computer. And if you read carefully, I did say you were lucky to get a SERVICE PLAN at all. When you buy on clearance, you get what you pay for. It's on clearance for a reason, and you can't expect the full service and support you'd expect for a regular sale machine.

You said they were trying to make you unhappy.... yeah, cause that's how all stores stay in business. They were trying to do their best to solve your problem, but because they weren't doing exactly what you wanted them to do, then in your eyes they were deliberately setting out to piss you off. That's such classic SC behavior, I'm stunned you don't recognize it yourself.

Being snotty with me isn't solving your problem, but it seems to be making you feel better, so fine. Be snotty with me. The suckiness of the situation was nearly entirely of your own making. Aren't you lucky HP was perfectly willing to cave to the screaming customer and give him some freebies...

[justZu]

Rahmota, I'm not here to jump into the behaviour debate, but rather let you know that just because BB cannot fix your laptop it does not mean that no one else can fix it either. Yes, you paid for their service plan, but that appears to be a dead end. Unfortunate, but that's the way it seems to be.

If you are determined to fix your laptop rather than buy a new one, other repair places may be able to help you. Call around and look online to see if anyone else could possibly repair your computer.

[Kiwi]

And then we went round and round for about 45 minutes with me at one point being basically thrown out of the store where I went out and punched the side of our van dislocating my pinkie finger in the process.

If you were behaving in such a way that caused them to actually remove you from the store, then I think you must have crossed a line. Retail stores usually put up with a whole lot before actually needing to remove a customer. As frustrating as it is, yelling and screaming at a clerk behind a desk is NOT going to help you, if anything its going to hinder you. Not to mention that clerk most likely has no power to do anything other than follow store policy.

Put yourself in that clerks shoes, imagine you have someone who is redhot angry at you for something you have no power to fix. You need to fix the problem, by being insistant but polite and calm. Punching something and accusing is not going to get you anywhere. To me thats similar to a two year old throwing a trantum, over what... a piece of machinery.

Personally if someone became irate when I was simplying informing them of what we could do to help them and they started yelling and carrying on, I would refuse to bend to them until they calmed down and acted like a resonable human being. If you have reactions like that over a problem of this nature, I really fear for you when something serious happens. I think you need to seriously consider how you reacted to this.

[rerant]

Forgive my computer stupidity (and also if someone has asked this alreadt, but it's 3am and skimming through all the replies is not in the cards) but if they were going to give you a new laptop rather than repair your existing one don't you come out on top anyway?

Computer stuff confuses me to no end.
*hugs laptop and promises never to drop it*

[i4wolves]

I am sorry but I think you are being a little unreasonable. Yelling and screaming at the clerks is not going to get you anywhere and it is also very immature, in my opinion. You have the service plan and I am guessing that there are lots of clauses in the contract because I just looked at my service plan that I got with my laptop and there is a million things that it does not cover. Your wife dropping and breaking it not the companies fault, and I am guessing it does not say in the plan that they will fix or replace the computer no matter what. The reason being it would cost a fortune to replace the computers especially if the reason it is broken is because of carelessness. You can call every person in the world and I am guessing that the manager will do everything in his power to make sure you get nothing after the performance you made in the store. The situation could have gone a little different if you handled yourself better. I have found most stores will bend over back wards for you if you are pleasant and reasonable. I just think you need to step back and look at things through the companies eyes and also reread the contract and there should be very tiny print that list all the clauses.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

"Yeah I did. But I feel very justified in doing so."

So does every single Sucky Customer we are talking about on these boards. Food for thought.

[CSR Kim]

In the warranty that you purchased, does it mention that if your computer is unrepairable, that they will replace it instead? If so, then...that is your warranty. They are doing what they are required to do. Even if it isn't stated in your warranty...your behavior seems to have been unnecessary and over-the-top SC-ish, especially if they had to escort you from the premises (they wouldn't have removed you if you hadn't been doing something threatening, abusive, etc.). Even if you are in the right, there is a right way and a wrong way to handle things...that was definitely the wrong way.