Complain about a product or service

Proteva (cont'd)

J.F. of Mandan, N.D.

I am a 50-yr-old disabled man. On Sept. 21, 1998 my daughter purchased a Proteva Computer from the Home Shopping Network so I would have something to do with my spare time. She also wanted it so she and her younger brothers could use it for school work. We keep getting illegal function messages and it freezes up when your in the middle of a project, when this happens you have to click the close button and it takes you back to the desktop and you have to start all over.

I have spent many hours on the phone trying to correct these problems with Proteva. When I get a hold of a tech support person they either say that someone who knows about the problem will call me back, and then nobody ever calls back, or they tell me to reinstall Windows 98 and that should solve the problem. I think my Windows 98 CD is about wore out from all the reinstalls.

The current problem I am having is trying to upgrade my modem to V.90. I called my internet service provided to see if he could help me with these freeze up and illegal function problems. He said it sounded like a computer problem. He suggested upgrading to the V.90 to see if that would help. I went into the modems folder and it said the modem was a U.S. Robotics 56k Win INT RS Rev. 1.00.011.

I tried downloading the upgrade from the U.S. Robotics site but it said they needed a product code at the automatic upgrade site. The product code is not listed in the modem folder. I emailed U.S. Robotics with all the information I had concerning the modem. I received an email from them the next day stating that these modems were built special for Proteva. They stated that they weren't able to help me because Proteva is responsible for all updates and upgrades for these modem. I then spent an hour on the phone before I finally got to speak to a support tech. After talking to him for about fifteen minutes he said he didn't know anything about finding the product code or how to upgrade to V.90 and he gave me another number for a tech. that could answer my questions.

I have spent two days trying to get an answer at that number. Every time I call I get a recorded message that the line is busy. I have also emailed Proteva Customer Service with all the information two days ago and am still waiting for a reply. I have a son who became a support tech. for Gateway and he said if they treated thier customers like Proteva does they would be fired. ...

I also feel that the Home Shopping Network should discontinue doing business with Proteva until this problem is corrected. ... It is very frustrating when a person spends this kind of money thinking that they will have the support and backing of the company and then you find out that the only support policy Proteva has is "Too bad, You bought it your stuck with it". This piece of junk set my daughter back alot. She is also attending college and was trying to be nice getting a computer for the family and finding something for me to do with all the time I have on my hands.

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D.D. of Bear, DE:

I purchased a proteva 400 mhz with a k6 processor. But shortly after that I noticed that the sound was not working. After trying to get it to work with no success I contacted Proteva. They ran me thru a series of testz over the phone and determined that the sound card was bad. They scheduled a technician to relace the sound card. This took about a week

The technician diagnosed the computer and found that one of the settings was not correct in the software and now the sound works. How come the tech couldn't tell me that over the phone?

Next the DVD drive wouldn't play DVD movies. So I contacted technical support again. They went thru a series of test with me and decided it was a software issue. And that Windows had to be reinstalled and the DVD drivers. And that they I would have to pay a online technician to fix the problem.

I told him that the computer is just over a month old and the DVD drive does not work. I wanted someone to come out a find out why it doesn't work. They told me that there is only a 30 day warrenty on software.

And they were very rude to me. After refusing to pay someone else to fix the problem. I started toi play around with the settings. And discovered that it was not configured properly. Now the DVD drive works.

What bothers me is that there technical support are very poorly trained. Very unprofessional.  Both times the Phone Tech was wrong.

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K.B. of Riverside, CA:

I had purchased a Proteva computer from the Home Shopping Network in December and I have not received the rebates as promised from Proteva.   I contacted Home Shopping Club, which they said they have contacted Proteva, I called and E-mail Proteva and nothing has been done.

The computer has a few bugs, it stalls from time to time, it is extremely slow when downloading from AOL.  When I bought this, they promise me this is the lastest, fastest, 2000 ready,and now that I am starting to have more problems with this Proteva computer and considering sending it back.

I am angry, I probably never buy another product again from proteva or Home Shopping Club. I charged this to my credit card so now that I am paying interest on the balance of the amount of rebates.

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F.M. of Marlboro, MA:

FOR CHRISTMAS I BOUGHT A PROTEVA COMPUTER FROM THE HOME SHOPPING NETWORK WHICH INCLUDED A MAIL IN REBATE TO THE MANUFACTURER. I FILLED IT OUT COMPLETELY AND MAILED IT IN PROMPTLY. TO DATE I HAVE NOT RECEIVED IT. THIS REBATE WAS A SELLING TOOL USED BY THE HOME SHOPPING NETWORK. I BELEIVE BETWEEN HSN AND PROTEVA SOMEONE SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THIS REBATE. I LOST $170 .

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