Hewlett Packard

Almost a year ago, whilst still in the Magic Kingdom, the Gnomad bought a gift (one amongst many) for the Gnomadette. Said gift was a Compaq laptop (or "notebook" as the industry prefers to call them). Apart from the fact that the laptop came with windoze vista (not the Gnomads choice but nothing else was available in the Magic Kingdom at that point) it has worked very well indeed.

that is up until about three weeks ago when it stopped charging. The Gnomad has a Hewlett Packard laptop which, fortuitously, uses the same battery and a very similar charger. So the batteries were swapped and tested and both worked, so that was not the problem. The chargers also were checked and they were both functional so the problem must be internal to the compaq. Eek! Expense!

As anyone in the Middle East will suspect a warranty in the Magic Kingdom is worth no more than the goodwill of the sales assistant one speaks to, and on the Compaq's documentation it only said 3 months warranty in any case. However, on examination of the casing there was a little sticker, in English, saying that there was a one-year warranty with the laptop.

On the advice of a knowledgeable and trusty friend (thanks Steve) the Gnomad looked up the various numbers, service tags etc of the laptop on the HP website and, according to them, there was indeed a valid warranty with a month still to go. Okay, nothing to lose thought the Gnomad, I'll contact Hewlett Packard (who own Compaq) and see if there's anything that can be done through the warranty.

The Gnomad (G) and Hewlett Packard Customer Service (HPCS) exchanged emails which can be precísed thus:

G: I have this problem with my laptop

HPCS: Thank you for contacting HPCS, please do this diagnostic

G: Here is the result of your diagnostic

HPCS: thank you for taking the time to do the diagnostic, please also do this diagnostic.

G: Here is the result of your second diagnostic

HPCS: thank you for taking the time to do the diagnostic, the notebook will need an internal repair. Please advise when it would be convenient for our representative to collect the notebook.

G: Friday this week would be good

HPCS: We have arranged for our representative to collect your notebook on the afternoon of Friday, repairs will take between 10 and 15 days.

Friday arrived and so did the HPCS representative. The laptop was taken away and a receipt left behind.

The following Wednesday arrived and so did the laptop, fully repaired and working with all programmes and data still intact! That's three working days only! No charge for collection, repair or delivery!

Now it may be that the Gnomad had got used to Middle Eastern Customer Service but the Hewlett Packard Customer Service was very good indeed by any standards.

To recap:

Within two weeks of being notified of the problem, Hewlett Packard's UK operation had collected, repaired and returned the laptop under warranty at no charge at all, even though it had been bought in an entirely different country, arguably a different continent.

Hewlett Packard has the Gnomad's Seal of Approval for Customer Service.