SiliconBeat has the scoop on the new Friendster classifieds community for the Phillipines, Pusit. Is it just me or does that page resemble a get-rich-quick parked domain, right down to the font? When I first arrived, I assumed SiliconBeat had gotten the link wrong.

Earlier this month, I mused that my HP laptop was always in the press even though it rarely worked (reminds me of Congress). Some of you noticed a comment on that post from Ann Finnie, PR manager of PC’s at HP, and wondered if it was legit. It was; Ann followed up with me via e-mail and indicated that she wanted to resolve the problem to my satisfaction. It’s only fair, then, that I follow up and say that I’m indeed very satisfied with the resolution.

There were some stumbling blocks. The first person that contacted me began with “I understand you wrote something on a blog. What’s a ‘blog’?”, asked me multiple times why I bothered to contact HP when my warranty was expired (even though HP contacted me), and concluded by asking if I wanted to purchase a $700 part to replace the one HP broke originally.

But I followed up with Ann, who promised to work with the customer service department to prevent this in the future, reiterated that she really wanted to win me over, and thanked me for my patience while she worked to fix it. The next call I got was from Robin, an executive in the HP customer advocacy group, who walked me through the customization process for a free new laptop (”would you like one gig of RAM or two?”). The first line of Robin’s follow-up e-mail: “It was a pleasure to talk to you and fun to scope out a notebook that would shock and awe a Cray 1.” I followed up with Ann again, who told me that she’s worked at HP for nearly two decades and strives to keep Bill and Dave’s HP way alive.

One of the commenters on my original post said that “if Ann Finnie is legit, that says a lot about HP.” I agree, and maybe that’s why she’s at the bottom of this story. Thanks, Ann.

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