Part VI: Free Repair, Clarification of HP Policy

I went through 13 inept, lying, rude csr's before emailing the hp ceo. Then, and only then, was I given a dedicated american case manager, Graham, (via direct line, no waiting) and after about two minutes of explaining the situation he said the repair is free. They'll be sending a prepaid fedex box. In fact, it is HP policy to repair all zd7000 screen issues at no cost to the customer regardless of warranty status. Funny thing, they have a dedicated department full of little case managers who spend their whole day telling customers their zd7000 display will be repaired for free. These are of course the customers who haven't already previously listened to HP technical support and payed $700 to have HP perform what should have been a free repair.

So, according to my escalated HP Case Manager, Graham, right now, HP has a company wide policy of repairing screen issues with the zd7000 free of charge. Which is great. I commend Hewlett Packard for acknowledging this issue and taking steps to solve it. But then why on the three occasions when I had the displeasure to speak with HP's tech support and I explained my screen issues to them, they didn't quote me HP's company policy? Instead, they tried to get me to pay 700 dollars. They tried to tell me my warranty was expired, and I was just out of luck. Too bad. Then they wanted to bargain with me and offered to repair the laptop for only 290 dollars. Does Graham know why tech support is telling people this? "They shouldn't be doing that." At this point I have lost track of how many times one HP rep has passed the blame onto another poor HP rep.

At best, this shows a lack of coordination between their american offices and their official tech support in India. At worst, this is a company that intentionally is trying to obfuscate their policies and attempting to falsely profit from what should admittedly be a free repair. A company that chooses to run their business in this manner deserves whatever amount of shaming customers can dish out.

If HP is really serious about repairing these things, why aren't they publicizing their policy? There's nothing on their website, no alerts sent to zd7000 owners, nothing. Why aren't they making damn sure that their own tech service reps are keyed into their official policy? I had to find out from fellow disgruntled customers and websites what should be common knowledge.

This is a rotten company, one I'll never have anything to do with again.



Edit: After a few days passed and there was no sign of any fedex box I began getting a little worried. But there it was waiting for me after my too short holiday break. The reason for the delay: instead of sending it to 12964, HP went ahead and initially tried to send the package to 129 Sixth Floor. Bless their little hearts.