Jonathan Oxer
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Blog > HP, you're my hero
>> HP, you're my hero
Wed, Feb 4th 12:30pm 2009: Tech Toys
My HP Mininote 2133 died just a couple of days before heading off for linux.conf.au, and it was only due to Amelia lending me her laptop at the last moment that I had a machine to take with me. So on getting back to Melbourne I thought I'd do something about placing a warranty claim. I was fully expecting to have to provide detailed paperwork with proof of purchase, get an RA number, pack it up and send it to them, wait some weeks, and eventually have a working laptop back. Maybe. I was so wrong. Yesterday afternoon I called HP tech support. They took the machine serial number over the phone and gave me a case reference number, and said someone would be out to fix it. Didn't even ask for information about purchase dates etc. Wha? You mean they come to me, and I don't have to send them the machine? And I didn't even have to fill in a single form? Wow! And this morning I had a call from an HP tech who was finishing up at another job down the road, asking if it would be OK for him to be at my office in about 20 minutes to do the repair. Hell yeah! He arrived with a box full of tools and replacement parts and in about 25 minutes he had the machine stripped down, the mainboard replaced, reassembled, and powered up for a test. All I had to do was switch back my xorg config (I'd changed it to suit Amelia's laptop) and I'm back in business. Total time elapsed from my call to HP to a fully working machine: about 20 hours. Keep in mind that this awesome customer service wasn't for a high-end machine where they had lots of profit margin to play with. It's for a bargain-basement netbook worth $500 brand new that they probably make about $20 margin on. HP, you rock.
My HP Mininote 2133 died just a couple of days before heading off for linux.conf.au, and it was only due to Amelia lending me her laptop at the last moment that I had a machine to take with me. So on getting back to Melbourne I thought I'd do something about placing a warranty claim. I was fully expecting to have to provide detailed paperwork with proof of purchase, get an RA number, pack it up and send it to them, wait some weeks, and eventually have a working laptop back. Maybe. I was so wrong. Yesterday afternoon I called HP tech support. They took the machine serial number over the phone and gave me a case reference number, and said someone would be out to fix it. Didn't even ask for information about purchase dates etc. Wha? You mean they come to me, and I don't have to send them the machine? And I didn't even have to fill in a single form? Wow! And this morning I had a call from an HP tech who was finishing up at another job down the road, asking if it would be OK for him to be at my office in about 20 minutes to do the repair. Hell yeah! He arrived with a box full of tools and replacement parts and in about 25 minutes he had the machine stripped down, the mainboard replaced, reassembled, and powered up for a test. All I had to do was switch back my xorg config (I'd changed it to suit Amelia's laptop) and I'm back in business. Total time elapsed from my call to HP to a fully working machine: about 20 hours. Keep in mind that this awesome customer service wasn't for a high-end machine where they had lots of profit margin to play with. It's for a bargain-basement netbook worth $500 brand new that they probably make about $20 margin on. HP, you rock.
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