Horrible Tech Support? Share Your Stories

[Jason Dunn]

An anonymous reader contacted us after having a negative experience with HP tech support. It gave him the following idea:<br /><br /><i>"I searched google.com for toshiba sucks and got 27,700 results, then I did a search on hp sucks and got a whooping 152,000 results!"</i><br /><br />Ouch, not good for HP! :lol: Granted, HP makes more products than Toshiba does, so this isn't a result that should be taken very seriously. What are some of the worst tech support stories that you have had related to your Pocket PC?

[felixdd]

He must've done the google search without quotes -- I only got 1320 for hits using "HP sucks" (with quotes).

"Toshiba sucks": 292 :lol: -- by that logic, HP sucks approx. 4.5 more (harder?) than toshiba.

Another comparison: "Microsoft sucks" = 9140!

[nuka_t]

lol, http://srom.zgp.org/

[DinarSoft]

Almost everyone has a story about a bad support.

Someone might like HP because he got an excellent support, at the same time you'll another one who hates the same company because of his bad experience.
It all depends on the situation

[arnage2]

Sony Clie's support SUCKS.
HP has good support.
Palm is good, but its free for a short time.
Toshiba is ok.
Handspring is ok
Tapwave's support sucks

[Ojster]

Well, I had to call an inspector in order to get our Slovene HP moving. I waited for 45 days and nothing happened - they were just playing with me. And on 45th day I sent a fax to an inspector and newspapers and you won't beleive it, but I even got a call from director of HP Slovenia ;)

I promised myself that this is the last HP product I will ever buy. I heard a lot of things about HP during this time and all I can say is that in the long run they will pay for this behaviour...

Best regards,
Peter

[dangerwit]

Yikes! I got 277,000 on google for "i suck". Looks like good customer support needs to start at home. :)

*Phil

[juni]

Bet you got a lot of x-rated sites :D

[joefuture]

HP really ticked me off with the latest iPaq 4355 ROM update. But by far, I had a much worse experience trying to use my extended service plan for a toasted Toshiba laptop. Full details at http://www.livejournal.com/users/joefuture/2004/09/08/.

The quick version is that I had to return it 3 times before they actually fixed it, spaning a nearly 3 month period. The first 2 times, they didn't acknolwedge there was even a problem. The Best Buy service plan says if they try to fix it 3 times and it's still broken, you get a new one. But apparently my first 2 tries didn't count because they refused to admit there was a problem (never mind it wouldn't even boot). So if it happens again, I get to try at least 2 more times before I get a replacement.

[acollet]

Not sure how many saw this link but it sure is funny ..

http://www.illwillpress.com/tech.html


*** Moderator note - "bad language" warning for the above link.

[Shuushin]

Toshiba really only sucks if you have an e550g, then they suck hard.

Very hard.

This sucking has left a hole between e405 and e570 on their Technical Support Center site. Lets see Product -"PDAs", then Family - "Toshiba Pocket PC" (getting somewhere...), now Model - e310, e330, etc.; 13 models, none say 550. Yep, that sucks.

Maybe I can Ask Iris(r), all models - gimme a hit on "e550" - not a damn thing.

Yes, I know Audiovox has something, but tech support - nope, unless "There are no warranty centers associated with this product" counts.

I don't need no stinking manuals or questions answered, and the hell with 2003 - and to hell with Toshiba.

[Jonathan1]

and the hell with 2003 - and to hell with Toshiba.

Someone seems a tad bitter. :wink:

But understandable. I have a 4 year old Dell Latitude and they are still releasing BIOS updates occasionally.

I have a Tosh Satellite that I purchased 4 months before XP was released. They've released ONE BIOS update that makes my system "somewhat" compatible with XP. I still get funky error messages about the BIOS in my event logs. And the setup of the APM features in XP is a serious PITA to setup with Toshiba.
Finally my laptop was the first Gen Geforce 2 go chip. Tosh has never officially released drivers for XP for the graphics card in the system. Consequently I have to use Windows default drivers that DO pick up the card successfully but do not install the NVIDIA utils that come with Windows 98/2K drivers that allow you to configure some of the advanced features on the video card. Screen brightness/hue/color balance/etc. (I tried 2K's drivers in XP. Not a happy system.) Looking at Dell I see the same first gen laptop with a Geforce 2 go had their video card drivers updated as recently as fall of 2003.
I will never again purchase another Toshiba product due to their craptastic hardware support. The hardware itself I have no problems with. Its rock solid. Everything else SUCKS.

[kosmicki]

Anyone had any experence with Sharp tech support? I like their MM line of ultra tiny notebooks. Thinking about getting one someday.

[bbarker]

I'm still using my old Jornada 568, so my HP support experiences come from that era. In those days the support was outstanding. I was often amazed. I have no experience with their support in the iPaq days.

[ctmagnus]

One word: scripts.

[Darius Wey]

I've had my ups and downs with HP.

My first one was a "downer".

When I first bought the h1940, I appeared to get a rotten egg, and it died on me within the first two weeks. I called up HP and they insisted that I still had to "pay" for delivery and send it over to the other side of the country to get it fixed, even though it was still under warranty. Anyway, I managed to talk to this HP support staff member for 20 minutes and got absolutely nothing out of it. I then went to the store I bought it from (which has a 30-day guarantee) and told them my problem. They then called HP for me and HP insisted that I had to wait 2 days before they would give authority to replace my device instantly. I then got a little annoyed and insisted that that was stupid and asked the store to call HP back (actually, the store staff thought HP was being a bit arrogant as well). After continuous arguing between HP and the store staff, HP (finally!) gave the authority to replace my device free of charge, and I walked home with a new h1940 in my hands.

So with perseverance, I got what I wanted.

Now the next story is one of the more "positive" stories. It actually happened two weeks ago.

I was there sitting on my desk happily charging my device when I got up, walked, and tripped over the cable to see my device fly off the charging connector onto the carpet (my device was fine), but the cable connector had broken off into two pieces. The little plastic bit at the end that keeps it in shape had broken off. I then called HP and told them it had broken (not telling them how... :roll: ) and they immediately sent one out to me via priority courier and I got it on my doorstep after 48 hours. Now I was one happy man! :D