SERVICENET
And the adventure continues:
To get the first part of the problems with compaq and entre that led up to me getting a replacement computer from peoplepc, click here. I am telling you about these jabronis so that you will not be deceived into thinking that your peoplepc purchase includes three years of what most people consider to be technical support.
After putting up the PeoplePC webpage they finally sent a replacement. A Toshiba v3100. The 'v' stands for value. And it had been. For about two weeks. The cd-rom and motherboard failed within the first month. BUT when I called Toshiba there were no hoops to jump through: they authorized prompt service and everything was running smoothly within a week.
Unfortunately, the relationship with the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer, in this case, Toshiba) ends after one year under PeoplePC terms. Now I am forwarded to a group known as 'Servicenet.' As you will see in the following tale of the tape, their name should be changed to 'Service-not.' I am telling you about Servicenot because they are the people you WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH when your PeoplePC breaks down after the first year of ownership.
Page ONE:
On 6/24 I click to connect to the internet and receive the error 'modem can't detect a dial tone.' I reboot, try again and get the same message. I have installed nothing new on the computer since March. And my land line is working just fine for phone calls. And the cd-rom has not been working for at least two months.
Over the next hour and a half I talk to 8 different people in three different organizations (PeoplePC, Toshiba Hardware, Servicenet) and they continuously treat me like the ball in a game of pong, bouncing me back and forth to each other, all providing conflicting statements. Finally I have to stop playing the game because I have other things to get done that evening.
Page TWO:
So, on 6/25 I try the game again. This time I get ahold of a Toshiba person who is very helpful and forwards me to Servicenet. I wait on hold for 30 minutes. Servicenet asks me for something called a 'membership number.' No one asked me for this last night. PPC has never provided this number to me. The Servicenet person tells me (no joke) 'you don't exist in our world without that membership number.' My mood is rapidly deteriorating. I call back to PPC, get the membership number and go back on hold for Servicenet for another 30 minutes. I get ahold of a kind lady named Kyra who agrees with everything I say.
She informs me that Servicenet can only authorize the replacement of ONE hardware component PER call. What the? She then has to forward me to a tech support person before the hardware can be authorized for replacement. BUT she says that the hold time is about 15 minutes, the call should take less than 10 and she will call back in about 30 minutes to set me up for the next hardware replacement. This is to avoid waiting on hold for thirty minutes again. She forwards me to an evil alien named Malcolm. Malcolm is very bitter, and makes me repeat all of the information that Kyra has forwarded to him, out of spite or stupidity, I cannot discern. He could be experiencing male pms. He tells me that I have to delete all of the hardware I have installed before he can help me. I ask him why the last time I got a cdrom replaced I didn't have to do this. He gets an attitude and says that if I don't do exactly what he says then I will not get my cdrom replaced. I told him the other stuff is not registering any conflicts so it's immaterial to the issues and hand. Besides, I have better things to do than spend the time reinstalling all of this stuff just on account of his hatred of the human race and stupidity.
For those of you who know me you understand that by nature I am easy going and quite friendly. But if I am provoked I tend to respond with equal or greater measure. Kind of like a rattlesnake. Well after spending almost two hours of my life trying to get a stupid modem and cd rom replaced I came out in rare form. Malcolm couldn't handle the truth so he hung up on me.
About 5 minutes later the phone rings. I assume it is Kyra again and I'm so upset I just unplug the phone and chill out for the night.
The bottom line on the modem: the Toshiba person says there is a known conflict with the modem and it needs to be replaced. The Servicenet person, who authorizes hardware replacement, says it is a software issue and it is up to me to find the correct driver. I goto the Toshiba site and they have modem drivers for two modems OTHER than the one that is in my computer. I call back and Toshiba says they had problems with the US Robotics modem and it is to be replaced. They took the driver off of the website because that will not solve the sporadic hardware problems. I call back to Servicenet and they demand that it is a software issue and my responsibility to find the driver and they will not authorize any service on the computer. They refuse to call Toshiba and speak to the person who said that it is a known hardware problem.
Going back to the 1 800 PeoplePC number, I cannot pick any option that actually puts me in contact with a person who has PeoplePC stamped on their paycheck. So as my soul sista likes to say 'when everyone's accountable then no one's accountable.'
In Summary
So as far as Servicenet is concerned....I am convinced that they hire people who get fired from the DMV for having a bad attitude, who in turn get fired from CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) for having a bad attitude, who in turn get fired from Compaq tech support for having a bad attitude. In respect to the entirety of the Banned For Life, these idiots are clearly the bottom of the barrel.
Except for Kyra, the five people from Servicenet I have spoken to are rude, incompetent, argumentative and downright stupid. To put a value on my time, it is better for me to buy a cheap modem and cdrom off of the internet than to bother with these idiots.
These pieces of crap thought they could get banned for life taken off the internet. They are wrong.