Like many Canadians, I may be over-insured. I have extended warranties on my car, I have maintenance agreements for my home appliances and heating. Last year, I bought an extended warranty for my computer when it was nearing the end of its first year.
At that time, my battery wouldn’t hold a charge and I was surprised to find that HP covered its replacement; many companies consider rechargeable batteries to be consumables. I rewarded HP’s support group with an extended maintenance agreement.
Last week, the machine refused to start up. HP’s support centre diagnosed the problem in a matter of minutes, but warned me that the data on the hard drive might be wiped in the recovery process if it as more than the motherboard, so they advised getting a back-up before sending off the PC.
I did that, so as a result, I didn’t ship my notebook until Monday. The support centre estimated 7-10 days so I wasn’t expecting to see the computer come back until next week. I imagine that this would have allowed for the possibility of out-of-stock parts and it seemed reasonable. In fact, the computer was returned with a new motherboard 48 hours later and all of my files remained intact.
I love seeing companies exceed expectations. Especially when I am at the receiving end.