Contributed by Haresh Karamchandani
A mining
company client for whom we do regular repairs and maintenance work on
their IT equipment sent me 2 (two) HP Pavilion 7900 Desktop computers
for diagnostics.
They
mentioned in one of the back and forth email correspondences that
they have “Worldwide” warranty for the equipment from HP. The
equipment was purchased in Australia and shipped to Liberia for use
at their mines.
We opened
up the machines and discovered that they had problems with the Power
Supply Assy and the Motherboard. Then we contacted HP and this is
where the real story begins:
I called
up HP USA Hotline and got connected to someone in Bangalore, India.
They kept me on hold for like 18 minutes and eventually began by
asking me the details of the computers in question, viz: Serial Nos.,
Part Nos. of the defective parts etcetera. Then abruptly the line got
disconnected!
I called
back again and got connected to a person in Manila, Philippines. He
kept addressing me as “Maám” even after I told him a million
times that that’s not who I am. I just had to absorb the Maám tag
and continue the discussion. He kept putting me on hold and finally
told me that his HP department does not cover computers that are in
Africa and I would have to call HP support in Nigeria. He gave me
some HP numbers there.
I called
up HP Nigeria. None of them were answered!
Then I
decided to call up the HP Hotline in the US again. I got connected to
someone in Bangalore, India. This guy was quite reasonable and well
versed. He asked me to first take down the case file number just in
case we get disconnected. That was a relieving advice and made me
feel good. Once I had the case file number I felt that now we would
be progressing to solve the problem.
The HP
Support guy in India went on to confirm that yes since the computers
are covered by a worldwide warranty, they could replace the parts.
But first we would have to contact the local HP agent in Liberia for
a diagnosis and confirmation that indeed these parts were bad! I told
him that we DO NOT have any HP agent in Liberia and that I was an IT
technician and expert and have already done the diagnostics. He kept
me on hold and came back to confirm that yes I was right there is no
HP agent in Liberia. Then he said that his supervisor has agreed to
replace the parts provided we agree to take delivery in the USA. He
said that they would not be able to ship the parts to Liberia. I gave
him our US counterparts address in Houston and he said that the parts
would be shipped within 5 days to Houston.
I thought
that was the end of the story. I was wrong. A few days later I got a
call from HP Support, South Africa. The guy was an Indian calling
from Bangalore, India but represented HP Support South Africa!
He
started by saying that even though they had earlier agreed to replace
the parts and ship them to Houston, they are sorry to say that it
would not be possible anymore. They said that we would have to first
ship the defective parts back to HP USA then they will replace them.
I asked them, who would pay for the shipment and courier costs from
Monrovia to USA? They said that they would not be responsible for
that. After a lot of arguments, threats and haggling we finally
agreed to ship back the defective parts, but we told them that I
would first want the replacement new parts. They agreed with great
difficulty.
Now the
parts are at my counterparts Houston address, and he will be shipping
them to Monrovia today. After I get them and replace them I will have
to ship back the defective parts back to Houston for onward delivery
to HP, USA.
During
the same time, I learnt that Panasonic has a policy of Worldwide
Warranty and in case there is a problem in any of their equipment
they would ship the replacement parts anywhere in the world free of
cost and also provide a return prepaid DHL envelope.
All the
telephone calls were worth the trouble in the end. One more satisfied
NATC customer!
