lol @ Tech Support

[HolidayQueen]

So ive been having trouble with my netbooks' integrated camera. Basically it wont turn on, not in ubuntu, not in windows, nowhere. I know it's a hardware fault, i told HP's total care a dozen times.

So they ask me to fill out a survey and give my comments, in it, i wrote:

"Concatenating unheard of foreign names doesn't quite blind me to the fact you seem to be using a semi-sophisticated AI that picks up on keywords and spews responses that read like FAQs"

15 minutes later, Gary wrote back to me saying theyre sending the whole issue to management and they'll consider sending me a new netbook in exchange for the old one.

I guess they just expect people to be idiots and not realize theyre talking to a machine just because the machine adds "sincerely, hazim aba maliz" lol

[Firestem4]

I once talked with HP Support about a keyboard issue. (Overheating from the poorly designed laptop internals warped my keyboard due to excessive heat).

Needless to say, I was asked to 'clean my laptop', install drivers, update my BIOS, and send it in for a $400 out-of-warranty repair...

I love HP's laptops but support is umm... Terrible.

[HolidayQueen]

LOL me too, they made me reinstall drivers, update the bios....eventhough i knew none of this would fix it.

Though i told them i wont send it in for repair, because everytime you open up a laptop, its one problem after another. I told 'em, send me a new one, with a postage-paid box, and i'll send you the old one.

I also told them i fix a lot of computers for people and frequently give advice on what to buy and not to buy.

[Dawei87]

i hate hp. i bought a brand new hp dv5 laptop and it worked great, except it did not have any acpi support in the bios, (or something like that). from what i understand they made the laptop with no support for reading hardware temperatures at all. this caused the computer to overheat incredibly, there was no way to control the fan in windows or linux through any software, and the vent got so hot it would burn my hand if i touched it. there was a bios update that was supposed to fix this and enable the proper hardware features, but it didnt. then, nine days after the year-long warranty expired, the laptop's motherboard fried (due to overheating so much). and all support tech support did was say they are sorry and asked for $400 to fix it... instead of that i bought an asus eeepc for $350 and have been much happier.

[HolidayQueen]

After fifteen years of buying PC's, and i've gone through alot, ive learned to pay the strict minimum. (300 for a netbook, 500 for a tower).

Repairs, warranties, hassle....no thanks. much cheaper to replace a cheap computer then to keep spending to maintain an expensive, aging machine.

dont get me wrong, its nice owning a new powerful computer, but that feeling lasts all of two months...after that it starts getting "old".

[NightwishFan]

I too try to look for something efficient. I am mainly just happy that my needs are modest. A budget machine can be given new life despite the sales rep telling me that machine will be slow running Windows 7. No thanks, you can keep the 7 and I will just install my 64-bit Ubuntu.

I try to be my own tech support. As long as the hardware is working right I will never need to call anyone. If it isn't then I am going to get a new machine one way or another because I handle my things with care, and it would have to be something on their side that caused it.

[Mr. Picklesworth]

So ive been having trouble with my netbooks' integrated camera. Basically it wont turn on, not in ubuntu, not in windows, nowhere. I know it's a hardware fault, i told HP's total care a dozen times.

So they ask me to fill out a survey and give my comments, in it, i wrote:

"Concatenating unheard of foreign names doesn't quite blind me to the fact you seem to be using a semi-sophisticated AI that picks up on keywords and spews responses that read like FAQs"

15 minutes later, Gary wrote back to me saying theyre sending the whole issue to management and they'll consider sending me a new netbook in exchange for the old one.

I guess they just expect people to be idiots and not realize theyre talking to a machine just because the machine adds "sincerely, hazim aba maliz" lol

15 minutes is pretty quick. Are you sure Gary isn't, himself, a more sophisticated AI? Maybe he's taken over the entire support team and is mailing a bomb to you this moment!

[jrusso2]

A PC World survey of users I read rated HP the worst.

[HolidayQueen]

15 minutes is pretty quick. Are you sure Gary isn't, himself, a more sophisticated AI? Maybe he's taken over the entire support team and is mailing a bomb to you this moment!

LOL maybe :P

though it was the first non-foreign name, the entire response didnt read like their online tutorials/faqs, and there were many more apologies in this reply lol even the font was different lol

[swordofmagnus]

A PC World survey of users I read rated HP the worst.

HP is the worst of the worst.

[toupeiro]

My vision may be a bit rose colored because I work with HP's enterprise support, which is second to none. I used to support Dell's early on in my career, couldn't stand their enterprise policies of the time, they were so abrasive and even if I was certified on the server class I needed work done on, they would make it MANDATORY to dispatch someone who knew half as much and always came with the wrong parts, which kept the server down even longer. I've support Proliant equipment since before HP and Compaq merged and it was quite simply some of the most solid x86 systems around.

Based on the support I'm used to, I'd have 0% hesitation jumping into an HP system for home, but it sounds like their residential support doesn't hold as high a standard as their enterprise support, which is unfortunate.

[HolidayQueen]

Well maybe you can tell me if im insane in saying it sounds like an AI's answering me.

i mean, i tell them point blank, the device isnt showing up, not in windows, not in ubuntu...and the reply recommends reinstalling the driver lol like wtf?? are you not listening? thats how i clicked that the program probably picked up on the keyword webcam and simply recommended reinstalling the driver, which is exactly what the FAQ recommends.

[Dawei87]

even though he is asking dumb questions, he may be a real person. the unfortunate thing about tech support, is so many retards ask for help they have to assume everyone is retarded and annoy tech savvy people with seemingly redundant questions

[cgb]

even though he is asking dumb questions, he may be a real person. the unfortunate thing about tech support, is so many retards ask for help they have to assume everyone is retarded and annoy tech savvy people with seemingly redundant questions

I agree with Dawei87. I've done a lot of tech support, not a lot of phone support as such but some, and sometimes you can assume someone is tech smart and spend a lot of time in the process to be proven wrong. Sometimes asking the stupid questions like "did you turn it on" or "Is it plugged in" and not assuming someone knows what they are talking about can save you a lot of time.

[fromthehill]

99,9% of the people ask questions that aren't even worth being answered by a it professional.

even though people get angry when you ask them to plug the damn thing in it is the answer of almost all the problems. if it's already running a reboot will solve the problem.

also people think their pc is broken because windows doesn't start(because its ridden with malware). and they send it for repair. even though they can reinstall their windows by starting the recovery partition and clicking on one single button(if they had read the manual)

tech support may seem bad when you really have a problem. just keep in mind they have to filter out all those people that don't really need tech support.

[HolidayQueen]

I talked about the webcam not even showing up in device manager, now if i was an ignorant douche, i wouldnt be able to find device manager.