I went ahead and added the BestBuy Geek Squad hardware service while as a back up plan to HPs warranty so that I could be sure to have enough support if anything went wrong.
I received the machine and slowly transitioned myself to the new technology over the coming weeks as I moved files and installed Windows Office and got used to the new keyboard. It wasn't long before I started noticing a few blue screens of death. I couldn't get them to happen consistently enough to figure out what may have caused them, but finally decided by April to take it to Best Buy as a first round of support. Geek Squad informed me that it was not a hardware issue, but a software issue which was not covered by my warranty.
I said I don't know a lot about hardware technology, but I'm pretty confident it may be a hardware issue causing it. They insisted it was not, so I deferred to their expertise and allowed them to "repair" the machine. They had the machine ready two days later and told me it was repaired. It seemed to be working for a little while and then the blue screens returned. I tried to tough it out for a little while longer because we were so busy at work and I didn't want to be without my machine. They started to become more consistent and then my battery no longer functioned and I was forced to get help. I took it back to Bestbuy.com to take another look. They called me two days later and it was "repaired". I took the machine home turned it on and had a blue screen of death and the battery wasn't working. I immediately took it back to Geek Squad and told them my issue. They said again it was not hardware, but software and that it needed to be reformatted and that should fix it. I agreed to allow them to try it.
I came back to Best Buy and they said once again that it was "repaired". When I got home I turned it on and got new blue screens of death immediately and noticed it now had Windows 8 on the device.
Back to Geek Squad who then informed me that they reformatted the computer to Windows 8 (which is apparently what was in the source of the HP device). I said that I did not want Windows 8 on the device, I preferred Windows 7 Pro and they said no problem just to give them my Product Key and they would install 7 for me. I went back to the paperwork that came with my HP machine and could not find a product key. I informed Geek Squad that no key came with the machine, could they just restore my machine back to Windows 7 Pro as it was when I brought it to them and how I received it from Bestbuy.com. They said they could not do it and so I reached out to Bestbuy.com and HP both of them said they do not keep product keys and couldn't help me.
From there my customer service experience with HP, Best Buy, Bestbuy.com, Geek Squad, Microsoft, HPP Enterprises (Bestbuy.com reseller) went completely down hill....
Months after the beginning of my issues and now weeks into this "repair" I still don't have a fixed computer and have an HP IT rep coming today for the second home visit in a week to take their shot at it. More on this story to come in future blogs....
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