In July I started my troubleshooting process with GE-Zurich Warranty. As of today, September 17 my PC is still not repaired. I first called them because I was receiving an "Open Port" error and "Unable to detect a dialtone" when I tried to access the internet. The first night I spent approximately 2-3 hours on the phone doing all sorts of troubleshooting scenarios. Finally, the tech wanted me to run a thorough scan disk on my PC after which he would call me back. I started the scan, it took about an hour or so and I never heard back from the technician.
The next evening I called back again and after that long 20-30 minute wait, finally got a tech on the line. We again went thru over an hour of the same troubleshooting techniques that I went thru the night before! Finally he wanted me to format and reload from the recovery CD's of which I didn't have because my dog chewed them up last year. Now, I have been in the IT field for 17 years, have my degree in Computer Science, and have been employed as a Systems Support Analyst for the last 4 years. I REALLY thought my problem was modem or motherboard related, but couldn't get that thru this stupid technician's head. All he could say (in VERY broken English), is that until I had formatted and reloaded my PC from the Recovery CD's, he couldn't go any further.
So, I call to order my CD's only to find out that last year they cost $9.99 and this year they cost $23.00 and $12.00 to ship! I thought $12.00 was outlandish, but since I couldn't go any further, I ordered them. When they arrived, I loaded them like I do any other software everyday of the week. It took about 30 seconds, said it was finished, and also stated that some of the files could not be archived, but to reboot. I rebooted, and then it said I had no operating system. Finally I called GE and the technician told me I should not have started loading the CD's without calling them first. So, we went thru the same thing I had just done on my own and it still would not work.
We troubleshooted again for hours, to no avail. We ended up getting cut off and I called back and FINALLY got to speak to a) an American, b) a woman, and c) somebody who had some expertise in doing their job! After 1-2 hours on the phone with her, she was very sympathetic to all I had gone through and decided I needed a new hard drive... Not that I thought that would solve the problem, but hey, we had to start somewhere since nobody would believe that it was the modem or motherboard.
The end of August a technician came and replaced my hard drive. At that point, nothing seemed to work. It was just like the whole PC died. So, HE spent about 1/2 hour talking to another tech and decided they were going to replace the motherboard, CD-ROM, and memory. He came last week and replaced them. Today I tried to access the internet and received "Open Port" and "Unable to detect a dialtone" errors. Now I have to call GE-Zurich again and go thru this whole process. I'm still receiving the same errors I did before. Now, do you think they will FINALLY replace my internal modem card???
I will never purchase an extended warranty thru GE-Zurich again. Since I'm only getting "replacement parts" and not "new" parts who knows if my PC will EVER work again. I agree that GE-Zurich wants to make customers wait on the phone just so they'll hang up. The same with their troubleshooting tactics... If they feel people don't want to exert the time and energy to go thru all the troubleshooting, they won't have to replace their parts, thus they make more money. Let this be a word to the wise.
Vicki
Gillette, Wyoming
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