Music Tech Talk

I was probably more surprised than anyone else…  As stated in my previous article regarding the unfortunate post-purchase-pixel-eating-internal-damage-not-covered-by-warranty fiasco, there was just no way that I was going to pay $430 to fix a $500 laptop (after $250 mark-down/price-match).  So while HP was in the process of returining the damaged unit, I gave the retailer a call.  I calmly explained my situation and to my surprise, happily agreed to exchange it for an “equivalent” model.  I figured I’d end up with a slightly lesser model.  Instead, everything fell into place like a dream…

…Or maybe a nightmare.  If you recall, I found out that my wife had misplaced the receipt :-( .  Of course, there was no way they would take it back now.

But when I walked into the customer service portion of the store, everything just seemed to fall into place.  The guy I had talked to on phone happened to be standing right there.  There were no other customers around and two other available customer service reps.  I told them how I had lost the receipt and had only the tag on the box attached to show I wasn’t walking out with a stolen laptop the first time I bought it.  Luckily, that had a date on it.  So, cheerfully, without even looking at the damaged product, they retrieved a brand-new identical model from the back…  New-in-the-box!  The laptop I had purchased was a floor model with only the power chord.  To put a little nicing on the cake, I now have a brand new receipt and a warranty that starts yesterday.  Although, If the LCD screen has another issue I pretty sure I won’t be mailing it to HP to get it fixed.  With that being said, call me crazy, but I still didn’t purchase the extended warranty.  :-)