ICM Computers didn’t call me this morning, so I called them. They helpfully told me that they had no idea when the technician would be calling to fix my still-broken laptop.

At lunchtime, my friendly technician called to say that he wanted to come in the early afternoon. What with me actually having a life and things to do, that wasn’t really convenient. I’d tried to tell ICM Computers that in the morning, but they didn’t want to know.

He says he’ll come tomorrow morning. I can’t wait.

ICM Computers called this morning to say that they were very sorry, but the new new screen hadn’t arrived, so they’d have to leave it until Monday before coming out to fit it.

Then, at lunchtime, my friendly ICM Computers technician, turned up. Good job I was in. Once again, he’s fitted a replacement screen to my laptop. Thanks!

When he left, my laptop screen was working perfectly, and I began to have a little faith in the system. Then, five minutes later, it broke again, and we were back to square one. In fact, the fault was a little worse this time round.

So I called ICM Computers, no more than fifteen minutes after the guy left my house. No good. They tell me that the support request has been closed by HP, and if I want further repairs, I’ll have to contact them. Well, no, I don’t so much want further repairs as wanting the original problem fixed. So I’ve spent another half hour in another queue to another HP call centre in India. This time, without even setting eyes on the machine, the all-knowing call centre operative declares that it is the system board at fault, and a friendly technician will come to fix it on Monday.

We’ll see.

I have a Compaq laptop. Compaq is owned by HP.

The laptop has never been terribly successful. When I bought it, I also got a docking station, which unceremoniously died about a month after the one-year warranty expired, and HP refused to repair it – even on a paid-for basis. The screen has also broken, and under the Next–Working-Day pick-up and repair warranty, the laptop was picked up two working days later, and returned (working) a week later. The hard drive has also broken, whilst the laptop was under warranty, but I was unable to wait a week for HP to fix it, and so had to have this done at personal expense.

Now to the latest fault. Shortly before the warranty for my laptop expired, the screen broke yet again. Unfortunately, this happened immediately before my exams, so I couldn’t afford for the laptop to spend a week away. I contacted HP, who refused to delay any warranty repairs by a couple of weeks, as the laptop would then be out of the warranty period. So, again, at great personal expense, I bought an external monitor, and a one-year next-day on-site warranty extension. All-in-all, I spent around £250 – over £100 of which was on the warranty extension.

The exams ended, and I contacted HP – yesterday, in fact. After more than half-an-hour in a telephone queueing system, HP duly agreed to send for a technician (from HP subcontractor ICM Computers) to visit me the Next Working Day (today) – well done, HP. The technician came out, very efficiently, with a replacement screen. It didn’t work. After an hour of trying to fix it, the technician admitted defeat, and said he’d order a new new screen from HP.

He’s coming back tomorrow, and I get the feeling that this isn’t going to be over quickly, so I’m blogging the experience. Next installment: tomorrow.