Either your computer is under warranty or it isn't, you'd think. But one reader recently discovered that only dogged persistence could get HP/Compaq to give him a halfway warranty.
"I bought a Presario 1800T laptop directly from Compaq in August, 2001, with a three-year warranty," the reader wrote. "I filed the paperwork away. In May of this year, the screen went out -- totally black, no image. Thinking that the warranty had probably expired, I took it in to an authorized Compaq service center near where I live. They looked up the serial number and said it was out of warranty, so I had them fix it and paid for the repairs."
Subsequently, however, the reader found the original paperwork and discovered that the machine was still under warranty. "I called Compaq and they said the machine was registered to someone else, not to me, and that the warranty had expired," the reader wrote. After faxing his proof of purchase, though, Compaq finally acknowledged that he was the purchaser and the laptop was indeed still under warranty.
"Now here is where the fun starts, or the aggravation, as the case may be," the reader wrote. At first Compaq said his service center would refund him the $800 he had paid for the repairs, but the service center told him he would have to deal directly with Compaq. "I called Compaq to ask for reimbursement for my out-of-pocket expenses for the repair and was on the phone for two hours with three different people. Compaq says they have no record of my original call asking about the warranty. They won't admit that their system used to show someone else as the owner, and that therefore it was reasonable for me to go directly to the service center. They claim that according to their policy I have to call Compaq before getting any warranty repairs, although nothing in my paperwork states that as a policy."
Next, Compaq tried to tell him that they had to deny his request because their warranty does not cover "cosmetic" damage, even though a blank screen on a laptop hardly seems like a superficial problem. By the time he contacted me, he was at an impasse. Compaq told him he would have to speak with his "case manger," but they wouldn't tell him who that was. "Assuming I do not get a call, or that I do and I get no authorization for reimbursement from Compaq, what is my recourse?" he asked me. "I am, as you can guess, a dissatisfied customer and believe I am within my rights to ask for a reimbursement for my repair costs. Where do I go from here?"
While I was relatively certain he could ultimately get his warranty upheld, I suggested he first try one more time to see if he could get Compaq to see reason. He finally was able to talk to a case manager, but it was still like pulling teeth. "He reiterated Compaq's position that I should have called them first," the reader wrote. "As a courtesy he would extend my warranty another six months. I declined that offer and said I wanted full reimbursement. I told him that there is nothing associated with my warranty that says I have to call Compaq, and in fact I went to an authorized Compaq service center. We stubbornly affirmed our positions to each other for about a dozen iterations. I made the point that even if I had called Compaq, I would have been told that my machine was out of warranty. I also threatened legal action and asked him for his full name and Compaq employee ID number. He then put me on hold and came back with an offer to pay half. After a little more haggling, I settled for half the repair costs and a six-month extension of the warranty."
I agreed with the reader that accepting Compaq's compromise was probably the best choice. "I figured I did not want to hassle it further," the reader wrote. "And in fact I could have found my warranty documents if I had looked thoroughly enough, so I'll accept part of the blame. Half is way better than nothing. The moral, if there is one, is that the vendor will try everything they can to get out of paying for repairs, and that persistence is required. And be prepared to assert a lot of persistence!"
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