Report Abuse

Original Post

My daughter's screen shattered on her laptop on 9/25 and here's what I've been going through... 19/25 Went to Staples and got hard drive backed up. Associate gave me a pamphlet to call for my service warranty. 9/25 Called Joseph, he searched my warranty and found that I was sold a two year extended desktop warranty. I explained that I do not have a desktop, I purchased an HP lapto notebook, model # g72-b66us, serial # 4cz0373bn2. He said that I had to get a receipt from the store and fax it to the warranty company to have this resolved with Staples. I contacted Staples and a gentleman associate, Kyle, assisted me with tracking my purchase and stated that he saw the error and will have a copy made for me. My husband went to Staples that evening, with my daughter, while I was at work and he received the copy of the receipt. He asked the associate, T.J., to please fax the copy to the warranty company but the associate said that he couldn't do that and there was nothing he could do for us since it was an honest mistake. He suggested that my husband call HP. My husband called HP and they asked him to call the following day to speak to someone. 9/26 My husband contacted HP and they were empathetic about the warranty mix up and asked if we tried to resolve the situation with the merchant. He explained that we did but they claimed they couldn't assist. HP told my husband that they could fix the screen for $350 and back up all of her information. He explained that we just paid Staples $70.00 to back up the system onto our external hard drive, which we also purchased at Staples. My daughter is in college and needs her laptop asap so my husband paid the $350 and HP sent the box. HP suggested that we contact the corporate headquarters for Staples for a possible refund of the repair fee. 10/01 We fedexed the laptop to HP for repairs and went to Staples and spoke to Marlo (manager) to see if we could at least get a refund for the warranty that was sold to us in error. Marlo was very helpful and said that she would call corporate for us on 10/02 and get back to us. Marlo kept our receipt copy and information. -Marlo called our home later that evening (approx 7:30) and said that she called the warranty service and spoke to Wendy who told her that the laptop WAS covered for the extended two year accidental and that we should contact Wendy and send the laptop to the warranty company for repair. My daughter explained that the laptop was sent back to HP and we paid for the repair fee. Marlo told her to call Wendy, at the warranty company, for assistance. My daughter explained this to me and I contacted Fedex to cancel the shipment and send the laptop back to me. I called HP and spoke to an extremely helpful, thorough associate by the name of Mike and he refunded the $350 fees back to my account. He also helped me with information on purchasing a warranty directly through HP. -My daughter called the warranty co. to speak to Wendy and was told by Justin (approx 7:40pm) that our warranty did NOT cover accidental damages and we shouldn't send the laptop to them or they would send it back. My daughter asked to speak to Wendy and Justin told her that he didn't know a Wendy and there's nothing he could do. - My daughter called Marlo back and Marlo told her that she shouldn't have sent the laptop to HP because she could no longer call corporate since Wendy already informed Marlo that the laptop is covered for the extended 2 year accidental. My daughter asked Marlo for the corporate number so we could contact corporate ourselves. Marlo gave her the phone number. -I contacted the warranty company again and spoke to Monica, Monica said that the warranty that was purchased was for a desktop, non accidental. I explained everything to Monica and she tried to forward me to another company at 8:35pm but I got an answering machine stating that the office is open from 9:00 am to9:00pm and to try during business hours. -I called back and spoke to another gentleman associate by the name of William, who looked up my incident number and said that he can see all that I have been going through and he was determined to resolve this for me. He said that it is documented that there was an error on part of the Merchant in selling the wrong warranty and that I was to fax the receipt to the company and that I was going to resolve the error with Staples to get a new sku or the correct warranty number and fax it to the warranty company for service to be completed. He stated that it didn't look like they received the receipt yet. I am going to Staples today to make sure that the receipt is faxed to the warranty company. If Staples cannot provide the warranty company with the correct sku, I will contact corporate for further assistance. 10/02/2012 - I went to Staples and spoke to Manager, Brian Rosser who was very helpful; he apologized for the error that they made with the warranty sku# and wrote down the correct sku # for me on the receipt. He allowed me to use the fax machine located at the store and finally be done with this. I waited for the transmittal, thanked Brian and left. - Assuming all I had to do was wait for the warranty company to contact me, send me a shipment box and send off my daughter's laptop for repairs, I sent an email to the Office of the President of Staples, Inc. Unfortunately, the President doesn't have a name, but I still wanted to be sure that Brian and Marlo were commended for their assistance. - At 8:05 that evening, I contacted the warranty company and spoke to Trent who said that they haven't noted the account regarding receiving the receipt, although he's sure that they had. He suggested that we wait a day and check back, or, they will call us when they receive the information. 10/5/2012 - After two more days of not hearing from the warranty company, I called the company myself and spoke to Norma. Norma put me on hold several times to review the account and to be sure that she provided me with the correct information. She stated that, unfortunately, they still cannot fix the computer; even though Brian put the correct sku # as directed from the warranty company, I would have had to have purchased a new warranty through Staples. She stated that the original contracted should have been canceled and I would have had to purchase a new one which would have been a $50 - $75 difference. I believe that I will keep getting the runaround with new requirements and instructions and my daughter will not get her computer fixed. I asked about Wendy, who spoke to Marlo on 10/01 and stated that we DID have a two year extended warranty with accidental coverage, but Norma couldn't help. Norma transferred me to the Corporate Office where I spoke to Ariel. Ariel apologized for all of the confusion and reviewed my account. When he got back on the line, he apologized again and said that we will receive a replacement computer. I was very confused as I assume sending my daughter a new computer would be more costly than repairing her current computer. I asked if she would receive the same computer and he said that he couldn't tell me what computer she would receive but it would be a comparable replacement. I was told to wait until Tuesday and I will receive a call back from the warranty company with the replacement information and I can either accept or decline their offer. My extreme upset with this entire situation is that it has cost me so much time and aggravation as well as my daughter who rely's on her laptop for her schoolwork and for receiving her assignments. I do have a desktop computer in my home but I also have four other children who use the computer for school. My daughter is a first year Student at Wilkes University and has never had less than a 3.9 average throughout her high school career. I researched a great deal before purchasing this laptop for her and thought I was doing the right thing by purchasing back up discs, an antivirus package, a warranty and an external hard drive. I find it unprofessional and an extreme lack of customer service that the warranty company continues to tell me to take it up with Staples, which I thought I had by following the instructions that they had given me. They told me on numerous occasions that I was covered for a desk top or that I was covered for a laptop, but not for accidental, then that I was covered under accidental for a laptop for the extended two years and back to being told that I was covered, non accidental for a desktop. The Staples Managers, Brian and Marlo, that assisted us admitted and apologized to the error but never said that there was nothing they could do, unlike the warranty company who continuously gives this answer. I've managed a customer service department for the past 18 years and I can assure you that our product would cease existence if this was the type of customer service that we afforded our clients.