And it's finally over. I have a fully functional HP Compaq 2710p back in my greedy hands. Life is good. I'd nearly forgotten how much I like this system.

3/18 Day 47: After I posted the article on March 13th going over my repair story in detail, I didn't hear anything for a few days, then I got contacted by HP Executive Customer Relations. This was obviously in response to my post here on GBM since they used my GBM email address, not the one on file with my system case. The manager requested that I work with them. Since I was frankly tired of being without my system, I agreed. I got assigned a Customer Relations specialist, Byron.

3/19 Day 48: Byron called me at about 10am. He had also been unsuccessful in getting a decent status update on my system, so at least the problem is fully systemic. He really wanted to offer me a new system. The problem was that I had the top-of-the-line model and they were on backorder until 3/22, so none were available. He said he was going to do some checking and call me later. (They didn't have an option to upgrade me to a better model since I already had the top model.)
Later that same day, Byron called back. He didn't really have any new information, but at least he did call as promised.

3/20 - 3/21: I called and left messages asking for status, but no return calls.

3/24 Day 53: Byron called and had good news. He had a new system allocated for me, the same model I had before. He double checked the address and Fedexed it to me, Next Day Before 10:30am.

3/25 Day 54: I picked up my new system at Fedex. Hurray! It took one week after Customer Relations got involved for me to get a brand new system.

In the end, HP was able to make me a relatively satisfied customer, but I'm pretty easy to please for the most part. However, it did take 54 days from start to finish. I'm sure if I'd been more insistent or annoyed or rude that I could have gotten more traction on the case, but I was riding it out until I got Customer Relations involved.

After I got home with my new system I got to relive the incredibly unfriendly out-of-box experience that the 2710p has. As much as I really like this system, it has an awful first experience when you unbox it. Since I'd done it before I knew what to expect, so I just plugged it in and let it spend the next 2 hours installing the OS and getting itself set up. Then it started installing the 42 updates off of Windows Update. But that's another story.