Compaq sucks!

Who says that you go to name brands for good customer service?

I bought a brand new Compaq laptop that had a "Works with Windows XP" sticker right on the unit and came with a Windows XP upgrade right in the box.
Can you guess what's coming?

It's not that Windows XP wouldn't work....
It wouldn't even install!
The whole thing would crash to a blue screen DURING the installation.

I called tech support upwards of 20 times.
I talked to a level-2 tech who diagnosed a RAM problem.
I talked to a level-3 tech who nixed that idea but thought hard drive problem.
I returned the unit three times.

And now 5 months later they are finally replacing the unit.
5 MONTHS!


Compaq sucks!

I've had good luck with Dell notebooks ( had 3 over many years)- actually wouldn't think of getting anything else. I always get the 3 year warranty.

Oh Greg darlin'... the stories I could tell you... *shaking my head*... you see, I am on my 3rd Compaq laptop myself... the 5th in the family. I've written essays of my dealings with Compaq... I should post them here for you so you can get a little joy out of someone else's misery with Compaq. Yes, the stories I could tell you... btw, do you want the phone number for the executive offices and the name of the secretary AND one of the CEO's?

I bought a Dell desktop and its been trouble-free from day one.

I do have a funny Dell horror story about my ex-boss's Dell laptop.
I can't remember what his inital complaint was but Dell sent a tech to our office.
The tech changed the hard drive.
Well that didn't work so he returned to change the RAM.
Then he returned to change the motherboard.
My desk was near the conference room where the tech would set-up shop each time so I would go in and watch and talk with the guy.
The guy kept coming back and was finally at the point where he'd changed everything there was to change.
They finally replaced the unit but at least with Dell the whole thing took less than 2 weeks.

Don't really have an horror stories (thank God), but I've been happy and trouble-free with my Dell.
....crosses fingers.

We buy lots 'o Dells at work. I have two Dell Dimensions (333P2 450P3) that have been quite excellent. A good friend bought a Compaq and it took months to get it working right. She was stonewalled from the beginning by Canadian Compaq's customer disservice.

Never a Compaq for me. I've also had a Gateway and my Dad currently has a Gateway, but so far my experience with Dell has made me want to go back.

On a project we had some eMachines that kept crashing (these needed to run 24/7 for 40 days and nights) After two weeks of crashing, we replaced the eMachines with Dells and they ran and ran...same softweare, same OS (XP).

GOOD LUCK!

Richard

My eMachine likes to crash as well!
I think it is a cooling or power supply problem(Just enough fans to work, 120w power supply).
Worse yet, the power supply is nonstandard(smaller than ATX and different screw positions), so you can't upgrade(at least not easily).

Use Gateway PCs at school--seem to work ok.

Use IBMs at home (I Built them Myself)

Laptops are a whole 'nutter story I suppose, I use a Toshiba laptop most the time (It's my computer) except for when I use my dads machine. Laptop is old and slow with an outdated LCD, so I complain about it a lot, but it really has been trouble free...

Originally posted by Saaby:
Laptop is old and slow with an outdated LCD, so I complain about it a lot, but it really has been trouble free...

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Most Toshiba laptops have a standard VGA out port, have you thought of digging out an old CRT monitor and using that instead of the LCD ?

No room in my room but yes, I have thought of it. It's not toooo bad for most stuff, it's just hard to see things like pictures of black trucks at night...

Wow.....I thought that my experiences might have just been luck of the draw....but now I see that my opinion is quite common based on what's happened to me personally.

In short.....I don't care for Compaq. Didn't have a major problem with the laptop but it was a pain in the neck more than it should have been.

And Dell rocks the planet.

I will always buy Dell from now on and will probably not buy another Compaq.

compaq laptops keep me in plenty of work.
and the emachines do too.
the cheap fans lock up then the power supply melts down.
relatively few dells and most of them are old and creaky by the time they break.
but support for some dell stuff(web pc)sucks.
when i cannot order a restore cd for a year old unit it is a real problem.
esp.when the needed drivers for it are not availible for download.
i build all my own systems.
some of the dell p4 machines i have seen are a proprietery p.o.s.
we sell lots of trade ins and rebuilds but if the customer wants a new unit we build it to their specs.with known good quality parts.

Oh no! Dell is going proprietary. What's a P.O.S.? Power suppl?. I just bought a dell D2300 for someone and assuring him it's not like compaqsucks. They've killed HP IMHO. It's late and my brain is fried I have three dells at home and enjoy them all. They're practically giving them away. Today's buy was:
P4 1.8
40 hd
512 sdram
on board video and sound
PCI modem
40 or 48 cd burner, I forget
16 dvd rom
1 year warranty
Win$ XP Pro
17 inch monitor
speakers
$885.84
The unit this will replace is < 233 p. Guy just uses it for business. Upgrade so he can run peachtree.

P.O.S.??-see: excrement.

Dell has been proprietary for a while. On the workstation side it's fine, but the server quality has been going down hill for the last year or so. They're using Adaptec and AMI controllers, still, so far, but not standard drivers. Plus service for servers has been TERRIBLE compared to the workstations...

AAAAHHHH, I see now. P.O.S. )
Thanks for the enlightenment

my first computer was a compaq. a worthless piece of garbage. from then on I built my own. I think you can build a much better system for the same cost of buying one of their computers. its not really that difficult. there are a lot of message boards and books for help. anyone can do it if they try. I never bought a laptop. you pay more for one and get less performance.