HP customer service Review

First, I must say that I have no issues with the quality of the products that HP produces; in fact, I have been a devoted HP user for over twelve years now and I have been very pleased with all the PC's and peripherals I have owned.  However, my recent experience trying to get service for my four-year old m1264n Pavillion under the HP Total Care extended warranty I bought has turned me away from HP.  First of all, the over-the-phone tech support I got was really shabby at best; I'd get so far into the trouble-shooting and would be advised to call later when their systems were working better (it seems they were undergoing some sort of system maintenance?); but they didn't give me a ticket number so I had to start from scratch each time (four tries in total) and this was made more cumbersome by the "language barrier" I encountered!.  Finally (after about 6 hours), it was determined that I had a hardware problem but they told me that the extended warranty I "had" only covered tech support even though I had a written agreement to the contrary - it seems that they could find no record of the contract number I gave them.  They would not yield to the overwhelming proof I had as to my coverage; I even offered to fax a copy of the paperwork!  However, since I had a good idea what was wrong, I was able to get the problem fixed myself at minimal cost, but it doesn't end here; an HP rep kept leaving me messages on my voicemail inquiring about what I wanted to do with my service request!!  Finally, I called them back, expressed my displeasure and told them what they could do with the so-called warranty they jipped me out of a hundred bucks for!!  I also told them my next PC would not be an HP!!!