Proteva (cont'd)

Midwestern regional Girl Scout Council, writes:

On January 11, 1999, our office purchased seven Proteva computers through our local Staples outlet. Staples did not have the PC's on site, but had to order them through Proteva -- after over 40 days, our computers were finally delivered.

Within three weeks of having the PCs installed on our network, one of them failed. After several hours on the phone, being placed on hold for long periods, and going through a lengthy diagnosis process on the phone, Proteva's customer service representative determined that the problem was with my motherboard. This took place on March 11, 1999.

After a wait of over a month, on April 15th, 1999 we received a visit from a technician with BancTec, which is Proteva's warranty company. After installing a new motherboard, the technician determined that this was not, in fact, the problem. The technician left me a Service Activity Report stating that he had ordered a new processer (or CPU chip). Nearly a month later, on May 10, I have heard nothing from BancTec, the technician or Proteva.

Calls to BancTec Customer Support have been met with the response that they have no record of this part being on order from Proteva. Calls to proteva's customer support line result in waits of 30 minutes or more on hold, then the response that they have no record of this part bieng on order.

In order to get the problem taken care of, they tell me, we have to go through the process of telephone diagnosis again before they can contact BancTec to send another technician to our office. When Proteva's representative attempts to go through this diagnosis process again, we are cut off. This has happened three times in succession.

Representatives of both Proteva and BancTec have been rude, impatient and uncooperative.

Five months after purchasing this computer, it has been in operation for only about two weeks, and attempts to solve the problem are met with a stone wall.

We have also received no response from Proteva regarding hundreds of dollars' worth of rebates that were sent to them at the time of purchase.

Damages include:

Days spent trying merely to contact someone to help woith this problem. Hours on the phone waiting on hold. Documents on the hard drive of the inoperational computer may or may not be lost.

We are a small, non-profit organization, and the loss of one of our computers adversely affects the operation of the whole office. This computers is covered by both a manufacturer's warranty and an extended service plan through Staples.

J.F., Brookfield, WI writes:

Purchased two computers before Christmas for two of our children as gifts. I sent in the required data expecting to receive the promised rebate of $100. for each rebate. To date I have received nothing. The first 800 number I was given turned out to be a welder in the East. The next number given to me by the store I purchased from said they were no longer handling rebates for Proteva. They gave me Proteva number. After 3 attempts with their rebate dept, still nothing. On 5-21 a Proteva operator told me to call yet another number to talk about my rebates -a new company handling rebates for Proteva. Many attempts,no answer. Customer service at Proteva does not answer either.

I am frustrated and annoyed that I still don't have my rebates. They were promised by the salesman and adver tised at a price that reflected the issuance of rebates.

B.F. of Sandy, UT writes:

I purchased my Proteva PC through The Shopping Network in April,1998. However, by the time it was delivered and put into service by a qualified computer technician, I did not start using it until approximately the end of May.

I have had continuous problems with the whole system working properly. I am always getting error messages whereas the system stops running (i.e. while on the internet, running various software CD's, or working in Windows). I also had to purchase a new mouse recently, since the one that came with the system failed.

I have contacted Proteva Technical Support on several occasions; however, after holding on the line for 1-2 hours each time, I did not get any meaningful results to fix the problems.

This is my first experience with a home computer and I purchased it through The Home Shopping Network (HSN) because of the technical support from Proteva and HSN. The support at Proteva has been very frustrating and without merit. They seem to have no concept of what "customer service" means.

I would like to get either a replacement (not Proteva) system from Home Shopping and/or some money back. I am a senior citizen and a fairly new user of PC's (prior to my retirement, I did work several years on a PC at work, however, it was connected to a main frame). It is frustrating enough for the older generation to learn and be a part of the computer world, however, this experience with Proteva has been extremely more frustrating than if I had purchased a "name brand" locally and paid for a class.