Better than showing up at the door with 2 dozen roses

When ever I or one of my girl friends gets our hearts broken, we invariably go thru the routine of: okay.. if he shows up at the door with two dozen roses and his heart in his hand would you take him back. no? how about if he shows up with a bottle of champagne and a diamond ring? or the roses, the ring AND an Audi TT?  In essence the question is, were his sins forgivable or are you at the "what was I thinking stage." 

Part of the answer invariably hinges as much on the history and length of the relationship. Which is how I'm feeling about HP these days. HP was my first really big corporate consumer experience. I worked there back in the 80s on the introduction of the first laptop computer, the first ink jet printer and another little item called the LaserJet. For a 20-something marketing type it was the most incredible learning experience one can imagine. I got to work with the smartest people, launching the coolest products. So yes, I was young and in love with my job. Fast forward a bunch of years and I'm still drinking the kool-aid, working with them on some truly world class PR measurement programs. So our relationship has been long, and for the most part pretty happy. Yesterday they did the customer service equivalent of showing up on my door step with a dozen roses and a bottle of champagne. After all my frustrating phone calls, thier handheld warranty business manager, Ken Dobie,  emails me to say that he is on the case. The NEXT day, a brand new HP iPAQ 6900 PDA is waiting for me at home. It was up and running and fully loaded in about 10 minutes and it's dreamy. THAT is great recovery and great service.

While I still haven't gotten my thrice-broken Pavillion DV6000 back from its three weeks in the shop, so  I'm can't entirely forget the heart break,  I'm going to stop dating Apple and give HP another try.