Harvey Norman Marion

[NGE]

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[kadee]

Wow! What a huge generalisation.

Some things I know first hand-

Our local HN store - Most repairs are done onsite by the salesman who handles the computer area. He travels regularly to the state capital for training. Any repairs not done onsite are taken to the closest major centre Mon, Wed and Fri of every week. (the HN in this centre also do repairs onsite).

As for lost data, I had a so called "specialist" tell me my data was not retrievable. Yet the "ordinary" salesman from HN took the machine home and was able to save all my pics and and all emails and files I wanted most. Cost me $100.

So not all HN are the same eh?

[Dilo]

Buying a computer from Harvey Norman is like buying a performance racing car from a model racing car hobbyist!!

Some things I know first hand...

When warranty repairs come in they are placed in a back room until there is a truck's worth of them to send back (they aren't serviced on site). If you are the first in the room you may have to wait over a month before your computer is even sent back to a tech, in a more regional store. They will tell you however that the repair is under way if you call.

HN computer salespeople are not generally computer literate and can't offer specialist advice. They are just ordinary salespeople like any of the other divisions. I know of one salesperson who sold a $3500 system to a senior lady who just wanted a computer for a newbie.

I know of a dozen people who have required more than 1 repair on a new system.

With regard to using different parts to repair a computer...if a different motherboard is used you will have little chance of getting the system back with your data intact as Windows will flip out when all it's drivers don't match the new motherboard. Unless the same parts are used no-one can return your system to you as you had it - pretty poor warranty!!

Specialist computer stores are generally much better than large suppliers for computers. Get a recommendation from others as to which one(s) are best in your area.

[430]

I noted with interest the experience of clreau in regards to their attempts at rectifying the faulty Compaq.

I cannot comment on the issue of the extended warranty with Harvey Norman. However, having been an authorised repairer of HP/Compaq equipment, if the hardware is within the standard 3 or 1-year warranty period (depending on device) the faulty components should always be replaced with genuine Compaq spare parts. (Or at least an equivalent part if the original is unavailable.) There is a standard procedure for doing this.
Where you might get confusion is with the extended warranty offered by a third party. Before buying, check with Compaq (or any other manufacturer) that this will cover repairs with genuine spare parts, and that the procedure for reporting a fault is the same as with the manufacturer's warranty.

In Compaq's case, you should always ring the HP/Compaq Customer Care Centre and log the fault first. This creates a job number that can be tracked.

If someone is repairing genuine Compaq hardware under warranty with their own non-standard parts, this is cause for concern.

Unfortunately I have to say that in the few times I have dealt with them, I have never had anything but rude and ignorant "service" from any Harvey Norman computer department. They must be trained that way.

[NGE]

clreau_ writes:

Harvey Norman have now agreed to supply me with Software similar to what came with the computer. I am happier with this solution, but, also add that the store seems alot more motivated/active the extended warranty hotline. The store personally contacted me to make arangements for the computer to be corrected, which will probably be this weekend.

And for the warranty... I think next time I will personally purchase extended warranty's directly through the manufacture. And in the coming months when we are looking to purchase a computer I will probably buy a computer from Myers or David Jones and will querry about there extended warranty option.

[KidNHZ]

In the interest of empowerment of the people, my wife and i have decided not to go ahead with our planned purchase of a Jensen Jarrah Outdoor setting from Harvey Norman ($1799). After looking at this site to see who was listed, Harvey Norman's listings made us hesitant. The sales guy was fantastic, but he's not the one making after sales service decisions, eh?!

We also have gone elsewhere to buy our new Vacuum cleaner (We wanted a Dyson DC11 Turbine or similar: around $900 from memory). (Running total=$2700). We have not bothered to look there (as planned) for our new laptop ($1500 - $2500) external hard disk drives, ($200 - $300)Digi-Cam and Nikon D-70 'SLR' digital camera ($2100-ish).
(Running Total = $7000)

i feel so good about depriving a 'giant' of my small but noteable purchases, when they seem so undeserving.

Many of my friends live south/west... so all those people i know who are (like me) young and employed; furnishing new houses, moving out and updating old stuff... i'll tell them where not to go.

[NGE]

NGE Member clreau complains that Harvey Norman Marion cuts corners and reneges on Extended Warranty.

Around the end of December my son’s Compaq computer broke. After approximately 2years of use we were then glad that we bought the extended warranty.

The next day we took it to the Harvey Norman store(Marion) where we purchased it from after contacting them by phone first. They agreed to fix it; and they did. It took about 11 days from the 12th-23rd December (off memory). They told us they were waiting on the parts from Melbourne.

On 23 December we got the computer back and we were happy until we took it home and plugged it in. We had just realised that they had put in non-branded/ shoddy parts! Not only this all of the Compaq recovery CD's (Windows XP and ReferenceCD's) won't work (the computer can't read them) because its not a Compaq PC.

After Christmas we tried contacting the warranty hotline (on the 27th or 28th or December). After 2-3 hours of waiting we got through. We spoke to a representative of the company, who completely agreed that they would change the parts to the genuine parts. She also said there would be no problems and even said she would contact the store for us. She also asked us to wait till after New Year's because the store was very busy. We thought this was fine because were going on holiday from December 31 - January 7.

When we came back from holiday we rang the store to see when we could take it in and to our surprise they had no knowledge of this situation. After 3 days of repeatedly ringing the store we gave up and rang the warranty line.

After waiting a very long time to get through we got through, but, it was a different lady. She said they don't have to replace the parts with genuine one's and had every excuse under the son for my points on why they are meant to replace the parts!

I asked her if I could be put through to A was busy at the time and she got A to ring me back. A rang us and we spoke to her and she denied everything she said in the original phone call and said they weren't going to replace the parts.

So, what I am wanting to know is do these warranty lines record the phone calls and would they have the original one on file?

And! My main point, on the Harvey Norman extended warranty booklet it says "The Harvey Norman Group of Companies agrees to extend the Manufactures Warranty by either 2, 3 or 4 years (as indicated on your purchase docket) to a maximum of 5 years from the date of purchase, on merchandise as specified."

Now after reading this I rang HP/Compaq and they said if it was under the warranty of HP/Compaq they would have used parts identical (motherboard, powersupply,etc.) to what were originally in the machine (ie. genuine parts).

So if Harvey Norman's warranty is an extension of the manufactures warranty then doesn't it mean that they legally have to put in genuine parts anyway?

Please help me!!! I need to get this computer fixed ---- properly!