i'd just like to say what a fantastic customer support HP operate and how very thankful i am after dealing with them this last week.


so here goes.
iv'e got a HP G61 laptop thats around 8 or 9 months old, and one day last week the HDD just up and died. i was pissed but i did have a spare so i popped that in and loaded windows etc and tried the HDD in a external cradle but still no luck the HDD was well and truly dead.

so along i went to
http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/support-drivers.html
and generated a support ticket, explaining my problem. a day later i receiver the following email.

Dear xxxxxxxx,

Thank you for contacting HP Customer Care.

I gather from your mail that the Hardddisk drive shipped with your HP G61-401SA Notebook PC does not get detected and inspite of that you are unable to load into the Operating System.

xxxxxxxx, I realize the importance of the issue and will make sure that I give you appropriate information.

Causes: HDD not seated properly, connectors faulty, harddrive faulty

I request you to please perform the steps below in order to isolate the cause to the harddrive.

Perform a harddrive reseat & harddrive self test
i then replied that i had performed the tasks asked of me and replied that the drive was still not working to which i received the following email a day later.

Hi xxxxxxxx,

Thank you for replying with the requested details.

I understand that you have reseated the hard drive and the issue still persists.

xxxxxxxx, I am glad to assist you further.

As the issue with your notebook still persists even after reseating the hard drive, it seems to be a hardware issue. I have initiated the hard drive shipment to the given address. I will follow up on this case to provide you the order confirmation. We would like to know if you have created the recovery disc for your notebook to reinstall the operating system.

I request your patience in the meantime.

We look forward to your response.

If you need further assistance, please feel free to reply to this message and we will be happy to assist you further.

Have a nice day ahead!

For information on keeping your HP and Compaq products up and running, please visit our website at: http://www.hp.co.uk/diagnostics

Sincerely,

Neil
HP Customer Care
now as i'm a honest bloke i replied to this email telling neil that i did not require a re-installation disc as i had a copy of the o/s for the laptop. but to my surprise i not only received a new HDD through the post but a full copy of windows 7 x64 to go with it.

so after only 2 emails my problem was sorted very satisfactorily and i'm once again a verry happy bunny.

so i thank you neil from HP customer support for a job well done and i'm damn sure when i come to replace this laptop in 8 to 9 months i'll be going for another HP.