Compaq Presario CQ40-310AU LCD problem solved!

Compaq Presario CQ40
Compaq Presario CQ40

[LOL UPDATE, Aug. 18:  HP called me up at home with this message — The notebook’s LCD has been replaced and the notebook is ready for pickup. But I already got it yesterday, right? LOL]

After a long 27-day wait, the HP Service Center in Makati City called me up this afternoon with good news I have long waited to hear: My notebook is ready for delivery and its busted LCD screen replaced. I told HP to ditch the delivery because I will instead pick it up this same afternoon, which I did and which made typing this post possible.

The call came just two days after I fired off one long and angry email to an official of the HP Service Center and to HP public relations officers. I wanted to email the HP big bosses in the Philippines but I was not able to get their email addresses.

Here’s the email I sent:

August 14, 2009

Henry Lavado
HP Philippines Service Center
Makati City

Dear Mr. Lavado:

I am writing to complain as an HP/Compaq customer who availed of
warranty repair services at your Makati City office. I am extremely
frustrated and disappointed by your “service” and the “lemon” of a
notebook you are selling.

Allow me to explain:

1. On July 21, I availed of your service center’s Quick Drop service,
leaving my Compaq Presario CQ40-310AU notebook for possible LCD
replacement. Lines have appeared on the LCD of the notebook, making
about half an inch of the bottom part of LCD not viewable and
therefore difficult to use. (Please note that I only bought this
notebook a few months back, believing that HP/Compaq notebooks are a
good quality buy.)

2. Contrary to the promise of the attendant who accepted my notebook
that the center will call me the next day to provide me the tracking
number, I only received a call about it days later.

3. Between that date and Aug. 3, I religiously and almost daily made
calls to your center to check the status of the repair. My expectation
was that the LCD was available and would readily be installed and
tested. Please note that you center did not give any information that
no LCD is actually available to satisfy my request for LCD
replacement.

4. On Aug. 3, at around 5:00 pm, I received a call from 7511912
informing me that a new LCD will be arriving the next day (Aug. 4).
That was the first time I was informed about the absence of a
replacement LCD.

5. On Aug. 10, expecting that the LCD has arrived as per the Aug. 3
advice, I again called up your service center to inquire about my
notebook’s status only to be shocked by the new information that no
LCD has in fact arrived.

6. On Aug. 11 or 12, I again called your service center. The attendant
told me that I should have known the status because someone from HP
allegedly called me the previous date for an update. I informed the
attendant that I received no such call. Had that been the case, I
would not have called to ask for an update.

7. Just a few minutes ago today, Aug. 14, I received a call from
7511912 informing me that “due to a regional shortage of parts”,
including replacement LCDs, HP Philippines’ service center expects
shipments to arrive by the last week of September or the first week of
October. The caller told me that I can opt to temporarily pull out my
notebook and would just be informed when replacement LCDs have
arrived.

While I understand that my notebook is not the only one that needs
your service and attention (your center was full of customers seeking
repairs of their units when I visited last July 21), I wish to point
out that this is no way to treat me or any other customer for that
matter. Your company must respect the most basic consumer right — the
right to adequate and correct information — especially when you deal
with them and when they inquire on the status of the equipment we want
to have repaired or replaced, all under the warranty contracts your
company provided.

To tell you the truth, I am actually prepared to wait for a
considerable time for your center to make repairs. But what irks me is
the center’s seeming cavalier attitude towards my requests for
information. Had I been informed as early as July 22 that no such LCD
replacement is available, I would have opted to pull out my notebook
and waited for an advice when such parts arrive from your regional
center. But no, your center sat on my request for repair, deprived me
of the correct information so I can make such a decision. Worse, there
were obvious attempts to embellish the truth.

In other societies, computer makers provide customers with service
units as a matter of courtesy and respect. That, sadly, is not done
here, as your attendant told me some days back. At the very least, HP
should immediately act on requests for repairs and if delays are
expected, HP should most respectfully inform affected customers.

Where this “regional shortage” leaves me and others whose notebook
LCDs also need replacement, I do not know. We just have to wait as
late as October!? We just have to pray the shortage ends!? We now have
to quietly suffer the inconvenience and humiliation of having bought
lemons!?

Reading through one of the forums at TipidPC.com,
it is apparent that there is a growing number of CQ40-310AU notebooks
with busted, faulty LCDs. There is also a mention of replaced LCDs
experiencing the same problems.

If your LCD replacements are non-existent due to a regional shortage
which seems to be indefinite (no specific date of replacements can be
provided) and if previous LCD replacements cannot themselves last (as
shared by other users), your company owes me and other customers
replacement of the “lemon” units you sold us.

Cordially yours,
Anthony Ian M. Cruz

Thanks to this email, magic happened! HP found a replacement LCD, had it installed to my notebook and I got the call today.