unhappy....

for the past 5 years i've been fairly loyal to circuit city.

when my desktop died and i needed a new one, they set me up.

when that monitor needed replacement while still under warranty, they helped me out quickly.

for dozens of little and bigger things, they've been rockstars.

then in the past few months, my laptop (an HP whose warranty expired in january) has been acting up. the current issue is that the sound doesn't work from the speakers and that you have to jam the power button really hard to turn it on. i first contacted HP directly via email in the middle of the night while i tried to troubleshoot on my own... they responded via email within 2 hours and apologized for the delay! they said from my description of what i'd done so far that it appears to be a hardware issue and that i should take it into a circuit city or best buy in person to get it addressed by someone who could SEE the problem. so to circuit city i went.

they were up front and said they'd charge a diagnostic fee to check it out for a day before working on it to make sure what i thought was wrong really was the problem. i told them that software wise it was fine, but my speakers only work when i use headphones and the power button is hard to work, so it's two hardware issues that are close in proximity. they're computer people though, so they're smart, they'll see this, agree, and take care of it, right?

apparently not.

the day i took it in to get diagnosed i also explained i needed it for a conference last weekend so i wanted to leave it for the day and pick it up for the weekend and bring it back later... that was fine too.

when i brought it back monday they assured me that now that it was diagnosed, they'd take care of it quickly and call me when it was done... 3-7 days.

today is the 7th day and i'd still heard nothing, so i called to check. after getting disconnected midcall TWICE, i went in person. the guy at the counter knew nothing so he called the guy who had my computer in the back... he reported back to me "well you have a lot on the desktop, but it seems to work fine, but the sound doesn't work"

me: "yes, that's exactly what i told you TEN days ago, when i gave it to you. i brought it here so you could try to fix the sound... and if you can't fix that, at least the power button. what's the status on that?"

guy at counter: "oh, i don't know about the power, let me check"

after 3 more minutes on the phone, he reported back to me "he hasn't really looked at the power button."

me: "it took him 6 days to repeat what i said when i brought the machine here and he didn't even look at what i brought it in for?" (and in my defense for clarity, i have a printed work order from when i brought it in the first time that says exactly that the sound doesn't work and the power button has to be pushed very hard to make it turn on...)

the guy at the counter apologized and said if i gave him 2 hours, he'd open up my laptop himself and see if he can fix anything. he called back 1.5 hours later and said "the power cable and sound cable inside are shot and we don't have the parts. if you want, you can call HP yourself and bring it back for us to install them but for now you can pick up your computer"

so i did.

when i dropped it off, i could turn the laptop on by pressing the power button hard... now nothing.

and most places are out of stock with the part i need... i just ordered a "refurbished" one on ebay.

hp's craftmanship for making a model with such a common and big flaw (power button is important no matter what you use your machine for) sucks, but at least their customer service was helpful.

circuit city, for taking my machine for a week and charging me to repeat what i told them when i handed it over to their care sucks... and returning it so that i have no power whatsoever is even worse.

5 years of being a loyal customer and all down the drain in about a week.

unhappy.