HP Tech Support

The old Gateway had served me well for 7 1/2 years, but it was time to do a mercy killing. HP seemed to be the brand of choice among my friends, so I am now the proud owner of an HP Pavillion Elite e9280t. Marvelous machine, but for the purposes of today's entry, I am discussing tech support only.

Running the old Gateway side-by-side, gradually getting ready to shut it down for good. I believe in calling HP tech support a lot, since this machine is under warrantee, and getting all facits running and up to speed is a long and taxing process. Out of the box, was getting a video driver error. Easily rectified, after the third phone call. Just needed a new driver from Nvidia, but what I've learned after numerous calls to tech support (for this and other issues), each person on the other end, probably has a different way to attack the problem. Thus, multiple calls may be necessary to solve a particular problem.

Depending upon the expertise of who you get, support person may install a program and take control of your desktop to investigate the issue. Watching someone troubleshoot in this manner is fascinating. You can learn plenty if you follow him moving your mouse around.

Next problem: Line-In port(s) were not operational. One in front, one in back. Two hours later, the Tech got the one in back to work. I thought my problem was solved, only to discover that although I could hear sound (interviews) through speakers, via Line In, my sound editing programs were not recording sound. After yet one more call to Tech Support, Line-In via the front port now works, and one of the two sound editing programs will work (Sony - Sound Forge, Audio Studio). Next call goes to Adobe, for assistance with Win7 and configuring Audition 3.0, but I digress. I can now do my work, so that's a big help.

Don't want to skip the Tech Support guy who told me my sound card would not record, and he could pass my call to someone who could get things to work for the small charge of $59. (Um, I am under warrantee, guy!) At that point, I knew I had wasted every second spent talking to this guy and terminated the conversation. That's an hour of my life I will never get back.

Don't want to skip the other Tech Support guy who told me my software warrantee had expired (I've owned this machine for 7 weeks), but he would solve my problem (Administrator account) out of the goodness of his heart. Excuse me? "Software warrantee"???? That was a new one. I've made at least 10 calls to Tech Support and no one... no one has mentioned a software warrantee. Josh, the Tech Support guy who finally solved the Line-In/Recording issue, went all through this machine, accessing both my sound editing programs, never once mentioning a software warrantee, or even "3rd party" software, which I thought he might. Josh wanted to solve the problem, period. Plain and simple. He was confident from the get go, and stayed after it until I was satisfied.

To HP's credit, you can get tech support 24/7, with very little wait time or menu hell. Now that I have made more than a few calls, I try to do a quick assessment as to whether the particular person on the other end will actually be able to solve the problem or not. I've had all levels of talent on the other end. I am very happy with the computer, and look forward to the day I no longer have to call HP. I believe that day is close now.