A couple of weeks before starting my first year in college, I bought a HP Pavilion Notebook. A few weeks into the school year, my computer started having problems. One day it shut down automatically before I could back up my homework on my USB. I tried restarting it but it kept saying error. It wouldn't even let me reboot the whole thing. When I called technical support, they told me something was wrong with my hard drive. They said I would get my replacement within three days. Everything seemed to be going fine, but after about four days (not including the weekend), my hard drive still didn't come in. I called customer service to check in, and the lady said there was a delay and I'll receive it the next day. That night, I get an e-mail apologizing for the holdup and a link to check the status of my order. When I logged on I was shocked - both my billing address and my campus address were wrong! Both addresses were mixed together, and my shipping address was for Birmingham, AL - I live in Milwaukee, WI! I called right away (11 at night) and was transferred to India. Now that seemed like an issue right there. Since their accents were strong or it was hard for them to understand, it took a long time to get my problems and point across. However, that did not turn out to be the huge problem. The people at India were very kind and made sure I was getting all the help I could get, but eventually they realized that something was messed up with my overall order that was placed here in the first place. I was transferred three times that night, waiting and having to keep repeating information on the phone for an hour and a half. The last guy I talked to seemed like he fixed everything. He said the serial number of my computer was written wrong as well as my address (which was surprising because the guy I first ordered all this from spoke perfect English, so nothing should have gone wrong). My replacement hard disk was sent to Alabama, but it was the wrong one anyway because of the serial number. He said he fixed everything and I should get my disk the next day or after. However, when next day arrived, my dad got a phone call saying the hard disks were out of stock and that I would not receive new ones for three weeks! It had already been a week and we were frustrated! First of all, it was a new computer and should not have broken down in the first place, and second, we expected HP to be better at helping their customers quickly. My dad called technical support again, and we find out - once again - my address and serial number are still wrong on their order sheet! The last guy never fixed it! The guy who was speaking to my dad said the same things the last guy said to me the night before. My dad didn't believe him and now we're planning on calling the head of HP or the supervisor, all of this in order to get a small hard drive replaced. A week of phone calls, talking to 8 different people and repeating the same problem over and over, and dealing with having no computer in college was just enough. I expected HP to be better, but they can't hold a candle to my family's Sony Vaio. I know what I will be getting next time.

A p/o'd customer.

I just want the message to get across to HP that they need to step up if they want to keep up their reputation.