The Tale of My Engagement Gift!!!- a replacement, actually

Yehey... ecstatic today... cause of my blissful state? After so many months of battling with the supplier of my notebook (an engagement gift from Marlon to help me w/ the wedding preps) to have it changed coz the first one he has purchased had crashed barely a month after delivery. I mean, I'm not a computer-savvy person but I do know that if it is the motherboard that has a problem then it's defective. And there's no way for me to accept the defective unit just like that. Marlon did not intend to purchase a defective gadget with his hard-earned money, you know. The reason why he chose to buy a branded notebook though a bit pricier. Actually, it came as a nice surprise, my laptop that is, but not the hassles that came with it.
Here's the story....As we were preparing for our engagement party (sometime in Aug. 2004), my pc has a problem at that time so I was not able to use it, Marlon just surprised me one tiring night after my office...brought me to my apartment, had our usual dinner together & casually told me that my pc had been repaired already. I said "ok, thanks". Then he told me that he has a surprise for me waiting upstairs in my bedroom, but I have to finish dinner first.(talk abt bribery ;-) Cant wait to see what it is, so I hurried with dinner and ran upstairs to check it out.. but I have no idea that it's a laptop.
When I saw it, whooaa!!! I LOVE IT... can't wait to try it out. That was mid-August.

fast forward to more than 2 weeks after, cant exactly recall when... something went wrong. I thought it was just me, maybe I didn't know how to properly use it yet. But the prob. persisted. I checked w/ my younger cousins (Ryan & Chen), who are more adept w/ computer technology & they advised me to bring it back to the supplier to have it checked. At least it's within warranty pa. That's when I found out that the motherboard was defective. So immediately I made a complaint letter (as advised by the owner) addressed to HP (my laptop is a Compaq) but to my dismay, no word from them after more than two months inspite of my bf's persistent follow-up. To add to my fury, when Marlon called up their office (relenting to just have the defective unit repaired coz we want to be able to put it into use na), the supplier was the one pa who got angry. He said that we shouldn't have used the unit if we were not satisfied in the first place. The gall of that guy! Finally, I got fed up so I called the local DTI office of CDO & asked for their advise. Know what? The supplier was called in for initial investigation & was told to have my unit replaced with a new one (at this point I would never agree to have it just repaired). The days that followed had been nightmares... I had to wait for so long (Nov. to Jan.) & not only that I came to a point where I called up their HP Representative in Manila. Some days I get bitchy & say stuffs I didn't realize I am capable of saying. They are really getting into my nerves!!! But I just would not give up. I should teach them a lesson. On the other hand, this particular prob. had been tearing the seams of our usually peaceful relationship. Marlon & I fought often bec. of this. (Later on he did admit that he was close to shoving the laptop in front of the supplier's face... hah, wait a min. mental note: my fiance is capable of such horrible things if provoked... hehe...I know that already. Marlon's a very patient person, just don't eat up his patience. You will be threading on a dangerous ground. hehehe) But in my mind, I am determined to win this battle & I want to teach the supplier a lesson or two about handling customer complaints. I've exhausted all means of communication. I emailed the executives of the company & told the HP Rep. that I would not budge even if it will have to reach the president of their company. (Maybe what did it is the fact that I threatened to use my gadget as demo unit just to show whoever is interested that their wares' quality are not as good as they are advertising). It did reach that point. I was downright mean & bitchy, but to this day, I will never apologize for the things I've said to them... they deserve it. After I got my replacement unit (which bdw was exchanged w/ the defective one at the DTI's office bec. no way would I want to set foot on their store premises), I emailed a lengthy, detailed letter to their customer service dept. & made an account of what transpired between the time my fiance purchased the orig. unit to the time I got the replacement laptop, complete with all the supporting documents.
The good thing about this is that I have learned that DTI (at least the one here in CDO) are doing their job well- I have emailed a letter commending the services extended to us by Ms. Masillones. I did send her a box of donuts to thank her for her invaluable help. And most importantly, we should know our basic right as customers.

There goes a passionate account of the tale of my engagement gift.