Conn's service center does not honor thier exteded warranty.in October I bought a Compaq presario Model 1720 US lap top with the 3 year extended warranty (or service plan). This computer was used by my wife and was well taken care of. It has spent most of it life in the open posistion on the desk. Recently I noticed that the plastic surrounding the screen began to seperate on the lower left hand side. There was also resistance to closing of the lap top. Because of this resistance I feared closing it, since this might break off the hinge.
I decided to bring the computer in to my local conn's store here in Corpus Christi, TX. I specifically told them, not to close the screen, this may further worsen the problem. I was told that they would not close it. About three weeks after I sent the computer in, I recieved a call from the service center in Houston, A technician named Miquel, (whom was quite difficult to understand) spoke to me, explaining that the monitor needed to be replaced, and it cost $627 to replace. I explained to him, that they should go ahead and do what the needed to do to repair the computer since I did purchase the warrantee. He then said I needed to talk with his supervisor, His supervisor mentioned that they would repair it, but at my cost.
Tensions, getting a little hot now! I then asked to speak with his supervisor, the service center manager Mr Stan Stinson (Address: 2425 Turning Basin Dr. Houston, TX 77029, TEL (281) 591-6611. He qouted this as being accidental damage, and stated they would not repair this under warantee, it was also stated that by him that Compaq did not recognize this as a defector design flaw, but rather as normal wear and tear. The computer was then sent back to customer service center in San Antonio and then back to the Store in corpus Christi. The San Antonio service center was the center representing my area, but they were backed up and sent the computer to be worked on at the Houston service center.
About a week later I recieved a call from the store saying the computer had arrived.in the meantime, I did a little research on my own.By the way, I myself am a certified technician, I may not be an expert on lap tops, but I know a defect when I see one. I was quite surprised by the number of complaints I found on the same exact model lap top I own, A Compaq Presario 1720 US. To my surprise most all of the complaints I found on this model was due to a faulty hinge on the left side. Kinda surprised Compaq will not recognize this. Just to further my research, I looked on ebay, and there was two 1720 US there, and in the pictures, you could see cracks on the left hinge area. I decided to contact Compaq about this problem, All I got was some guy from India telling me that this computer was not under thier warranty, and that I needed to contact one of the local compaq service centers, which was Radio Shaq, and Comp Usa. Compaq was of little help.
So I decided to make a print out of all the information that I found online, and my service contract, and brought them to the store to pick up the lap top. THIS IS WHERE I LOST MY COOL! To my surprise when I recieved the lap top, I noticed first that the screen had been closed. I knew this was not going to be pretty! I opened the computer to find that it had been damaged beyond belief, by the Conn's technician! Originally I had a small serperation on the lower left side of the plastic surrounding the screen, approx 1/8" seperation, also there was a small hairline crack.
However, to the contrary when I got the lap top back. The plastic was completely broken from the screen, and the left hinge had become completely serparated from the monitor, therefore I no longer have any support for the monitor. This was damage caused by Conn's service Dept. I asked immediately to speak with the store Manager, I was met by the Asst Manager Mr. Chris Knape of the corpus Christi store located at 4818 SPID. He then refered me to Conn's service dept in San Antonio, I spoke with service dept manager Mr Terry Peterson. He stated altough the laptop was further damaged by his technicians, they were not reponsible for repairing it, nor would the waranty cover this. Address for the San Antonio service is 4810 Eisenhower Ste 240 San Antonio, TX 78218 Tel. (210) 354-1000. I will perform my own root failure cause analysis on this machine, since I do this on a regular basis at my current job, and this is to component level. Just upon initial glance since the internals of the hinge is now visible, I do see that the hinge is made of plastic! Being that some of the complaints about this model do concern the bottom of the lap top being really hot, there might be a relationship between the two. More later on that. However, I spent $1699.97 as well as a $199.95 3 year warranty policy. Don't buy from conn's or any compaq products.
0 comments