My big awesome HP LP2475w 1920×1200 24 inch LCD monitor started having a strange black streak faintly visible on the right side of the screen image but only against certain pastel colors. Well this is no cheap TN LCD panel so I figured it would have some warranty left. So I called HP.
Well after a LOT of back & forth over the phone with about 6 different HP (and HP subcontractor) reps they finally managed to get the replacement monitor too me. Although this was a Business Level Warranty deal three out of the six folks I talked to over the phone were quite obviously in some third world nation & I could barely understand ANYTHING they said. And don’t get me wrong I’m NOT one of those people that always say crap like that and revel in making fun of “foreigner speak”. I can normally understand VERY thick accents. After all I did grow up on Monty Python and Morecambe & Wise. Also my first boss at the TJX Distribution Center back in 1986 was Peruvian and virtually none of the local workers here in Evansville, Indiana could understand him. I was (not exaggerating here) his “translator” at the start of each shift. He would tell everyone what to do and then the group would look at me and Jacinto would say: “Larry – you tell them”. Seriously.
Anyway these guys I could NOT understand. Clearly HP is behind Dell in the area of “choosing good Bangalore phone clerks” department!
During the initial conversations with HP they actually insisted that I have an in-home Service Tech “install” my replacement monitor!
How does one “install” a monitor???
I thought that was pretty insane but he wouldn’t have it any other way. But over the course of the next few days I got calls from other HP reps and HP delivery reps and eventually I did get one to change the order to a delivery only & this person was also a little confused that the first HP rep wanted to have someone “install” a monitor! It took me a week to get the replacement even though HP sent it down Next Day air to the local HP reps. They could only give me a delivery window during hours that I work my day-shift job when no one is at home so they had to hold the thing until Friday (my day off). Why they couldn’t allow me to come pick the thing up I will never know since the place they shipped it to seemed to be right here in my town. CRAZY.
Equally crazy is the way I kept getting calls from other continents that kept getting my address wrong. They botched the zip code 3 times and wanted to send my replacement to “Sulfur, Indiana” instead of Evansville, Indiana. I corrected them 3 times and three time they continued to give the local delivery people the WRONG address! Why couldn’t the delivery people that are in the SAME CITY as I AM simply deal with me directly? Eventually they did and I did get my replacement screen.
And it’s a beauty! I ran a free app called “Dead Pixel Buddy” to help me look for flaws and I found NONE. My old unit had 7,999 hours on the backlight. The info screen reports 2 hours on this one as of right now -which is pretty odd since It’s been on since I got it unpacked at around 10:00 am this morning (it’s now 5:09 PM). Anyone know why that is? Part of the time it was asleep but still. Does the backlight counter only update after a power off/on cycle? I don’t know. I will have to Google that I suppose.
