Compaq
I only have facts to state about my experiences with Compaq. This equates to not having anything nice to say. Please note that I have a compaq because of PEOPLEPC, not by choice.
Based on my experience this is what will happen during the ownership of your new Compaq presario desktop system (even though it's technically called a mini tower they call it a desktop system):"
You will fight a war of attrition to resolve any problems with your computer.
You will have problems with your computer.
You will wait on hold for tech support an average of 25 minutes when you call in the evening (I have made more than 30 such calls) and 15-20 minutes during the day (I have made 6 such calls). The time will be longer on weekends (I have made more than 20 such calls).
The first level technicians are not competent. They do not have a problem solving approach. You are better off to wait on hold another 20 to 30 minutes for a second level tech than to waste your time with them.
You will fight a war of attrition to get your pc authorized for service. The recommendations of the phone tech and what is replaced by the service tech will be different.
They will make you reformat your hard drive and lose ALL of your data before authorizing the pc for onsite service to 'make sure there are not any software conflicts.'
After servicing your computer they will not reattach all of the internal components correctly, causing even more failures to the system.
The onsite service will take 12 days to contact you after you win the first war of attrition to get your computer authorized for service AND continue to call six consecutive days to followup on why you were not contacted within the promised 2-3 business days by their onsite service rep. In this case it was BANKTEC.
After FIVE major failures and part replacements (power supply, hard drive, cd rom, cd rom, motherboard), a trip to the ASC and two visits from an onsite technician they will not replace the system for you at their cost.
The authorized service center's (asc) interpretation of the warranty and the official compaq interpretation of the warranty are not the same. You will be charged labor by the asc if you have an onsite-only warranty.
The above will happen within 8 months of owning a new compaq computer.
While you are on hold you will be suggested to email compaq instead. By doing this you only upset someone by interrupting their game of freecell or minesweeper. Here is a transcript of my current problem (11/08).
When you get sick of it you can format and fdisk then install Win98OEM. BUT they will eloquently hide the drivers on the CABS from the quickrestore (the OEM doesn't have these drivers) and when you install the drivers separately they will not work because it couldn't find the original drivers on the CABS. So with COMPAQ you are more or less stuck with whatever they provide you...a heavily modified proprietary piece of junk.
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Trust me. Spend a few dollars more and buy from a reputable brand such as Dell or Gateway. I have nothing bad to say about either company. Dell tends to configure their systems proprietary in this case difficult to add a second hard drive but otherwise they and Gateway consistently receive high marks for system integrity and support. Proprietary design isn't a problem if you don't have to replace parts every other month. I have a Gateway from 1996 on Win95a and it is more stable and reliable than this compaq paperweight that was built in 1999!
THE DETAILS
My peoplepc is a compaq presario 5410. The computer worked fine for four months before having to have the motherboard, hard drive and power supply replaced. I spent more than 25 calls (equates to more than 19 hours on the phone with 60% of that time on hold) to different people at Compaq before one would get the pc authorized for service.
This included a call to Chris in Compaq research who told me that I would have to provide a credit card and a flat fee of $20 per question with no guarantee that his solution would work. I talked to a tech support supervisor who informed me that he was out of line to ask for that information! He was trying to make a little on the side!
Compaq tech 'support' employees can be described as either barely having a grasp of the english language ie. not able to comprehend what you are saying or being so cocky and arrogant that they cannot wait to interrupt you with phrases like 'that's a software issue' or 'there is no way I'm authorizing that for service.'
When I dropped it off at their Authorized Service Center in Rockford, Entre Computer Solutions charged me $40 in labor. They told me they would get to the computer within three biz days after I dropped it off. It took them SIX biz days before they even looked at it. THEN they had to order parts (albeit not the parts they were told to replace...couldn't they have looked up the case number on their network and proactively ordered the parts in advance?).
The warranty is three years parts and labor but even after what was done in the peoplepc section of this page the warranty information is still not corrected. Entre didn't bother to replace what was authorized for replacement (motherboard and hard drive). They saw a bad power supply and that was good enough for them. Then they charged me $40 to pick up my pc and refused to contact Compaq regarding the true conditions of my warranty!
I got the computer home and went to install a second hard drive. Entre neglected to screw the fixture holding the drive back to the frame. So the drive fixture crashed down onto the memory and modem cards. Great. So I call Entre and they tell me the person who 'fixed' it will be 'right over.' 90 minutes later....at least the lady was ready to admit she made a mistake. She did not have a motherboard and hard drive in hand though, which disappointed me after the time I'd spent on the phone just to get it authorized for service. She apologized and was friendly (I bet she got her butt chewed out at work) but I thanked her for coming out and the memory checked out and the phone modem works too.
After having the power supply replaced, my HP 8250i, less than one month old, has ceased to function. Compaq technical 'support' says it is not their fault that I attached aftermarket equipment to their computer and refuses to take any responsibility even though their faulty power supply possibly shorted out the cd writer. They say 'it is a software problem. Windows 98 never can recognize those cd writers properly.' Yeah, whatever, Jason (Compaq rep who told me this). HP charges TWO DOLLARS AND 50 CENTS A MINUTE FOR TECHNICAL SUPPORT ON A REGULAR TOLL LINE PHONE NUMBER!!!! I talk about that after this.
Or ask to speak to Chris in research and call him an idiot and a jerk and when he says 'no one talks to me that way' call him a liar and remind him that you just did!
I do have detailed documentation available regarding my extensive discussions with the high school dropout level of quality tech support people of compaq if you are interested. You'll see that I rant on Peoplepc. But in some ways they tried to make things right. In other ways they have not. Compaq has refused to make anything right, even when the pc is under full parts and labor warranty. And only in my possession for four months. THERE is nothing kind or decent I can say about Compaq. They are an unethical company and sure compared to Dell Gateway or Micron their computers look like a bargain but that comes at the price I have described above.
The CD-ROM quit working in September. After three calls and more than two hours of total phone time a tech agreed to send out a new cd-rom. This did not solve the problem. What follows next is an incredible war of attrition. In early November I called to get onsite service for this problem. The tech wanted me to run a complete system restore to make sure that there was not a device conflict. NO WAY was I doing this again. So I hung up and called back. This time the tech had me run a selective restore for the cd-rom and delete some device drivers. That did not solve the problem. So he authorized it for onsite and said I'll get a call in usually 2 or 3 business days.
3 days have past. No one has called. I call compaq. I get a snotty girl on the line who cannot explain to me how the whole tech support-onsite service process works. She gets huffy and tells me that it usually takes a week before someone calls. I ask her if I can drop it off at an ASC. She said it's not that simple and I could easily not have the pc back for a month if I did that. She is, as they say, as sharp as a bowling ball.
[My friend with a Toshiba had a failure with his pc and it took 3 days from the time of the phone call to the time someone was onsite with the part and had him up and running again].
So I hang up and call again. This person couldn't explain why I have not been called. They will not give me a name or number for someone to call.
I call again the next day and this time the guy gives me the number 1 800 463 0554 and a dispatch id. Dialing the number, I receive a 'we're sorry your call cannot be completed as dialed.' So he just made up a number because he didn't want to talk to me. The HEIGHT of apathy. But he told me that the id shows that the part was shipped and in stock at the onsite tech's site. I asked him for the name and number of the onsite tech so I could setup an appointment. He refused to give that info.
So I call again the next day. Still no call. It has been one full week since my pc was authorized for service. The guy tells me that the part was sent fedex but shows as being received by the onsite tech just today. Completely conflicts with what the guy said yesterday. So this guy says I'll get a call tomorrow. I turn around and call PeoplePC. Yeah, like they'll help. She calls them up and Compaq tells her the same thing: nothing.
So I call again the NEXT day. STILL NO CALL FROM THE ONSITE TECH. I call peoplepc and vent. I tell them I want a different pc and it's all their fault that I'm stuck with compaq and they better get off their butts and make something happen. So she calls and ends up telling me that the compaq tech is on a job right now but he had been paged and I will definitely receive a call that evening or the next day.
The weekend passes and STILL NO CALL. It's monday afternoon, three days later, and STILL NO CALL.
A total of twelve days pass and I get a call. They have 1 onsite rep for 500,000 people and this guy doesn't work off hours unlike the Toshiba people in Kansas. He comes over and they didn't even give him the right parts. After two hours nothing is resolved.
So they decide to replace the motherboard now. Why not just give me a new computer? Is this typical compaq quality or is this computer a lemon?
After fighting a war with Peoplepc I received a Toshiba v3100. No real problems to speak of. Toshiba tech support doesn't have a clue. They just send you the parts you think you need to get the system working. No war of attrition with them...quite the contrary. Friendly people, too. Like Compaq, they don't know much about computers beyond the basics but they are very friendly. And that counts for something.
I cannot compare the Compaq service to Gateway because after FOUR years my Gateway has only had to have it's CDROM tray replaced. It has given me NO problems from a hardware/construction standpoint and was a snap to install a second hard drive into (took me 20 minutes total). Any software issues were of my own design and even then Gateway was more than happy to help me get them resolved, even dispatching a repair technician on one occasion when I lived in Dodge City and he had to drive 55 miles to my house. I LOVE YOU GATEWAY!
