Part XI: The Run Around

Eight weeks and roughly 5 letters to Mark Hurd later I hear from a new case manager, "Steve." It's disappointing but not very surprising that he is just a carbon copy of the previous case manager Graham. After four repeated defects, and HP's continuing failure to adequately repair the problem, Steve thinks that this time they're going to get it right and wants to schedule another repair. Graham said the same thing back in February, until the laptop continually could not be repaired and then he just stopped returning my calls. I've already tried it Steve's way, and I still have a non-functioning machine. I'm simply looking for a working computer, what I originally thought I'd purchased.

I thought the following was appropriate enough to mention again:
True, HP is saving money by outsourcing their technical support, neglecting customer service, refusing to repair lemon laptops, and selling what can only generously be described as fake warranties. But does there come a point when the money saved is less than the money lost? Is A + B ever less than C? For instance, if I decide to never purchase another HP laptop, HP just lost $2000. And that's only the first purchase in a long line of possible future purchases. If I strongly urge my girlfriend to not buy HP products, and she listens to me and continues to show brand loyalty to Apple computers because they don't fail in the first five months. How much of a loss is that to HP? And what if the office is considering buying an HP workstation, but I recount my experiences here and we decide to continue to purchase Dell because we've never been lied to by a Dell customer service rep. Or if this humble blogger pretty much creates a blog for the sole damn purpose of hoping others avoid purchasing any product with an "HP" on it, to prevent a similar hassle from befalling them, just how much can I influence anyone else's pre-purchase decision? Not at all? Maybe a little? Simply put, how much will it cost Hewlett Packard to receive negative word of mouth reviews from me for the rest of my life? More than it would cost them to successfully resolve this issue?