The Consumer Complaints Blog

My son and I purchased a Hewlett Packard desktop computer at Costco in Winnipeg, Manitoba in November of 2009 after looking at all of the various models and options at Costco and a few other retailers. We chose this particular model – a Pavillon Desktop – because the box and the packaging material said it would receive wireless transmissions. This was important as our hardwired internet connection is in another part of the house. After 3 days of being unable to determine why we couldn’t get an internet signal finally Costo customer support advised that this model infact didn’t have wireless capacity. The HP “support” person we phoned initally didn’t figure this out, and said probably I needed a stronger signal and thus a better router, which I went out and bought for $100. The second HP “support” person I called on the 3rd day was arrogant, said I “should have looked at the box” and also that there was no wireless card or adapter available for this computer and that I would have to go and buy a receiver. My son went out and bought the wireless receiver for about $120.

I wrote to HP “customer service” in Canada in January documenting this situation and sending copies of all of the bills and got absolutely no answer. Then in February I emailed the CEO of HP and got a call and an email from a customer “support” specialist who had (of course) not taken the time to look into my original complaint and made me re-submit everything. This person also suggested that I should have 1) taken the computer back to Costco (disassembled a desktop, repacked it in the packaging we had since thrown away etc) and 2) should have asked HP for a wireless card when I called instead of buying one (!). Which of course, was exactly the opposite of what arrogant customer “support” person #2 told me in November.

The “specialist” did say they would look into it once I resubmitted all the receipts etc and gave them serial numbers. I did so, got no response until I followed up with another email a week later at which time I was told they would do nothing for me unless I proved I was right by sending them photos of the box (which I’d stupidly thrown out after buying and unpacking their product).

I will never again deal with HP – although I suspect they, like most large retailers do not care.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I got your email from a Chinese newspaper of Montreal, and I would like to complain about a Dell laptop I bought on March 27th, 2009.
The product SKU is 10118295, brand: INSPIRON, model: 115-2169E, serial number: 2J5Q7H1.

After installing Microsoft office 2007 and other softwares, I was very happy to start the computer. Unfortunately, the computer just couldn’t pass some step, then I had to skip it and continued the operation. Later, I uninstalled some softwares because my friend told me Vista could have conflicts with softwares in Chinese, but the problem still existed.
Around May 1st, three days and one month after I bought the laptop, I went to Futureshop where I bought the laptop, the technician received it and found that the hard disk failed but the manager refused to change the laptop because I had not brought it to Futureshop within 14 days after the purchase. But as an ordinary customer, how could I imagine that the hard disk of a brandnew laptop had already failed?
But finally, I accepted to change the hard disk, which means I paid the price of brandnew laptop to buy a defected one! I cannot imagine how Dell could sell a defected laptop as brandnew to its customers!

Three weeks ago, that’s November, the system suddenly reminded me that a file was missing and the computer could not be started, so I had to bring the laptop to Futureshop again, that was November 29th, 2009. The problem was HDD boot failure, unit failed to load windows.

I bought two years of garantee which will expire March, 2001. I don’t know how many times the hard disk of this laptop will fail again, then how much money I have to spend buying new hard disks? I am really tired of the same problem, especially when I am rushing with my homework.

Is it too late for me to ask Dell to change the laptop directly?
Thanks a lot for your time and attention on my email.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I would just like to inform people about my experience with a globalive company called Yak. New cell phone clients should be aware of my bad experience
Yak offered telephone service for unlimited, no contracts phoning. Called 3 times about the unlimited calls for $5 a month and had it confirmed. Emailed from Yak the day after sign up-saying no limits and no contracts. I am seeing the same ad for Wind Mobile owned by Globalive. On first month billing the limit was 500 minutes and there was a contract. No one would take over my number from Yak(Globalive) and had to go back to Bell to keep my number. Now, am satisfied with East Link cable phone.

Thanks, clients signing up with Wind Mobile need to be aware.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

Complaint about censorship, intellectual theft and intimidation at Helium.com

Big Brother is alive and well, and, apparently, flourishing at Helium.com, online marketplace for writers, “where knowledge rules”. (Their slogan now strikes me as particularly ironic.)

Before I delve into my own complaint, do a quick Google search on Helium complaints, and it’s a gold mine. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a major article in a newspaper or magazine, given the extent of the complaints against them.

Helium is a website where writers can post articles, have them rated, and, perhaps even earn a few cents. Since the substance of my complaint is in the correspondence below, I’ll not detail it here, except to summarize it. About a week ago, I asked them politely to remove an article I’d written, three years ago, which was now damaging to my reputation. After much back and forth, they not only locked me out while keeping all my articles online, but censored another article I’d written which was critical of their behavior, and then, threatened to report me to the FBI!

The correspondence follows below, and the whole, ugly affair is recounted in more detail on my blog article (http://brokenwholeblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/censorship-tyranny-and-intimidation-at.html).

Sincerely, Keith (last name protected) – see correspondence below.

Keith (last name protected)

From: Helium Help [mailto:help@helium.com]
Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 8:20 AM
To: Keith Adams
Subject: RE: Site-generated_help_request He:0094807

Further attempts to access helium.com or any Helium computer systems will be considered malicious and reported to local and state law enforcement, the Internet Crimes division of the FBI and your internet service provider. Your account has been disabled and the original article restored to the title.

=================================
Helium Security
help@helium.com

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I am not sure if you would be willing to print this as i see that dell advertises on your web page, but hopefully you will because people need to know.

I was a loyal customer to dell. my first laptop was in 2000. i bought a 2nd one in 2002. my family also bought from dell. the customer service was great until now.

I placed an order for my mother late october 2009. The sales agent said it was to arrive nov 12th. Then our family had a personal crisis and I did not have time to call Dell again until Nov 16th. The guy at Dell told me it was going to come “next week”. November 30th, I called Dell again at 430 pm. The lady on the phone said that they were having “technical difficulties” and to call back in 2 hours. I called at 8pm. on the website, it said they were open to answer calls until 10 pm on weekdays. I was on the phone waiting for 1 hour. I got shuttled from customer service, to sales, and back to customer service. One person told me the computer was sitting in the warehouse, but it wasn’t being shipped. she couldn’t answer why it was not shipped, and transferred me to somewhere else. As soon as 9 pm hit, the guy at Dell says “we are closed. call back tomorrow”. i told him i was on the phone for an hour, and i’m frustrated. All i want to know is if my computer is coming this week. Because if it’s not, i want a full refund. He hung up on me.

This is the service you get from Dell now. I will not be a returning customer anymore. By the way, i called back on Dec 1st. Miraculously, the computer was supposedly shipped today and due to come in 5 business days. somehow i doubt that. The guy on the other end was not willing to offer any discounts for the hassles he put me through. he really did not care.

Buyer beware. there is no such thing as service anymore. you might as well buy off the shelf then.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.