It has not been a good week for HP - what with the troubling news the company hacked into the phone records of its directors and a CNet reporter to track down a leak. Now, they've gone and pissed off my friend, Drew Hasselback, who took his hard-earned dollars and bought a Compaq laptop from Best Buy in July but has had nothing but trouble with it. His efforts to get some love from  HP customer service have been a series of calamities and incompetence. Drew's recounts his sorry tale in a guest post called "10 Strikes and Counting".

I've had customer service problems with companies in the past -- who hasn't? -- but I've never gone through anything like my experience with "JD
Power-certified" Compaq.
I bought a Compaq Presario Laptop on June 6. The computer broke on July 16. I spent about three hours on the phone over three days trying to sort this problem out. I was told of a temporary fix that involved removing the battery and perfoming a "hard reset." This got the computer up and running for a few days, but the problem didn't really go away. Product failure is Strike One.
- I phoned on July 22 and arranged to ship my computer back to HP Compaq under warranty. I also asked for a Restore CD, in case that might help resolve future problems. I shipped the computer on July 27.
- According to FedEx, my Restore disc was shipped to an address in Port Moody, B.C. on July 25. I live at Yonge and Lawrence in Toronto.
Strike Two is forgetting what province Toronto is in.
- On August 4, Compaq emailed me to warn that the parts needed for my repairs were on backorder. I'd later learn that Compaq needed both a fan and a mother board. Strike Three is excessive delay for the repairs. I can understand how this happens, but I shouldn't be the one to suffer for it.
- On August 18, I phoned and requested an update. By August 21, I received emails telling me the parts were still on back order. On September 1, I called to request an update. Strike Four is that I would actually have to do this. Compaq should have been contacting me at least once a week, by email or by phone, to bring me up to speed. Anyway, Compaq asked me to fax my details to the Customer Satisfaction Department at Compaq. I provided my WORK telephone number for future contact.  I sent the fax over the long weekend.
- On September 5, Compaq called my HOME number and left a message. My wife called me at work and passed along the news. Strike Five is failure to read my fax, which was written in 18pt type. Eventually I spoke with the Compaq guy. We struck a deal: Compaq would send me a new machine, a superior model to the one I bought. The terms of this deal specificly required that the machine be sent to my WORK address, because I didn't want to have to truck out to the Purolator hub in Etobicoke to pick up a mixed delivery.  
- On September  6, Compaq shipped a product to my HOME address during the day. This meant I had to drive 60-km and clock 90 minutes on a round-trip to Etobicoke (which BTW caused me to miss the opening kickoff of the 2006/07 NFL season). Strike Six -- Failure to comply with my otherwise simple shipping instructions. 
- When I got home on September 6, I discovered the Compaq had shipped me not my new computer, but my old broken one. Strike Seven. Of course, the broken one hadn't been fixed at all. Strike Eight. I will likely have to ship the broken machine back to Compaq, a process that is bound to gum up another hour or so of my time. Strike Nine.
- I called September 7 to complain. I asked for the case mnager so I could ask how this problem will be solved. This wasn't possible -- Compaq's
customer service department isn't able to transfer calls (seriously --  this is a technology company that can't transfer phone calls). Compaq could only
say that someone will contact me within 48 hours. That's Strike 10 -- I've been waiting since July 16. I need someone to solve this now, not pass the
problem along to someone else for later.
- So that's 10 ways in which Compaq has failed to deal with my problem. I've owned the computer for 14 weeks. It worked for only five. I've waited the last nine weeks for a resolution.