I have a laptop I bought about a year ago and a few months ago the touchpad quit. We used it with a mouse but it was getting close to the end of the warranty so I made arangements to have it fixed. They send me the box, I pack it up and send it in, then go online to check the repair status:

Warranty expired, repair fee $298

I called customer support and inquired. The rep doesn't speak such good english and the best I can understand is something about scratches, cosmetic, keyboard and customer abuse. Now, crumbs in the keyboard from my kid, maybe. I can't figure out how they get the  rest. The keyboard always worked fine, and it was an electronic failure of the touchpad that I needed fixed. No liquids were spilled in it either btw.

After discussion with the rep, he promises to have someone call within 48 hours. Nobody calls. I call back and request that they return the laptop.

I received the laptop back Tuesday.

Now I understand what they were refering to. The laptop had been dropped on its front left corner. Beause of the scratches I don't think it happened during transit. It also broke the bezel around the edge and cracked the case underneath.

Not only am I out of the factory warranty, this also screws me out of the extended warranty I purchased because they can claim the same thing.

I called back the and a rep again promised that someone would call within 48 hours. He told me that no call had been arranged the first time. Its been 24 hours and I figure its about time I climbed the mountain.

If anyone has any experience or advice to share about dealing with HP lets hear it.




Update: I got the call today. They are going to fix it. After "I've never seen this before" and two minutes on hold it was "we'll repair it this one time only." Thats all I need, thankyouverymuch.

IBM/Lenovo seems to have the best CS.
HP went to shit years ago.
Sorry I can't be of more help.

HP merged with Compaq.

Compaq is worse than Hesse.

You're screwed.

I deal with HP all of the time.

Don't let them push you around and keep pleanty of asprin handy.

If it was damaged in their facility, they should make it right.

I spent about a week on the phone with HP for a Proliant warranty issue. Found out several things. First, if you do not purchase a Care Pack, you have to call the Mexican Call Center of HP. Otherwise, you get to call the Canadian one. Canadians are much better and I kept calling them instead. HP kept asking me to call the other one next time. Okay!

Your notebook may be the same if it is a business-class notebook. If it is their home edition, then you are probably stuck with the "low-cost" call center. Down in Mexico it is a hit-or-miss. Oddly, out of about a dozen or more calls, the most helpful was a guy in the Mexican call-center. He was able to dispatch an HP technician rather than their subcontractors which left the server in worse shape then before they arrived.

Frankly, they all suck but I do agree that it seems IBM/Levano sucks less. My personal notebook is always a Thinkpad T-series.

Sucks to be you. We deal with HP all the time and no issues what so ever in the past 7 years.

Quoted: I deal with HP all of the time. Don't let them push you around and keep pleanty of asprin handy. If it was damaged in their facility, they should make it right.

Most of the time Business customers are treated VERY differently than lowly consumers.
I suspect this is the way it is with HP. Why piss off a large customer?

I will never anything HP/Compaq again, even thier printers. They are all shit.

My father had two of their laptops shit the bed. I have had two HP inkjet printers..overpriced cartridges and they both broke after less than one year.
Every HP/compaq PC that I have worked with turned out to be a total piece of shit.


Want a good laptop? Get a Toshiba Satellite...they are wonderfull, no bullshit laptops.

Quoted: HP merged with Compaq. Compaq is worse than Hesse. You're screwed.

HP bought Compaq... No mergers involved.  I believe they paid 25 Million.

Compaq's CS has left something to be desired for a very long time now.

HP seems to have caught teh suck.



Good customer service is VERY hard to find nowadays, from ANY computer company.  Probably has something to do with people not wanting to PAY more than three or four hundred dollars, for a machine.  

Sadly, you get what you pay for, as usual.......


Touchpads are easy to replace, unfortunately and spare parts are easily found on eGhey most times.  More often than not, it aint WORTH the aggravation to send it back to the manufacturer.  

You're not giving me any hope here.

This is my first time dealing with HP. I guess I was a little trusting.

What really sucks is that Sams Club (Very good service) just let me trade in another troublesome laptop toward a new one about the time this was starting. Guess what I brought home

We are trying to fix some e-commerce issues with our business to help get it to profitability. We need to be able to dig in intensively for the next couple of months without distractions like computer problems.

Errr... I actually work there

No I have nothing to do with warranties :P

Just be persistent. You could prolly hit the thing with a hammer and send it in, and if your persistant enough they'll fix it eventually.

Next time you call make sure they understand that you've been put off twice with the "48 hour" response and you want somebody now. Make sure to get their name as well. No dont take "chip" as an acceptable name.

If it makes you feel any better they moved our internal support to India as well. They seriously dont know their ass from the keyboard over there. YAY FOR SENDING OUR JOBS OVERSEAS WHERE THE REUIREMENTS ARE "Speaking english" WITH A BONUS FOR "Speaking with an english accent".

Now thats more like it

Thanks

Good customer service is VERY hard to find nowadays, from ANY computer company.

Except with Apple.  That's why all of the laptops I've bought at work the past two years have been Apples with the AppleCare warranty.  My employees are very rough on laptops, but Apple has never refused a repair even for a broken LCD that was obviously our fault.  The laptops and the service hasn't been perfect, but it's great compared to my horrible experiences with Dell.  Now that you can also run Windows NT on Apples, I see no reason to ever buy an inferior laptop from someone else.z

I walked into Fry's a couple months ago and told the salesguy: "get me one of these 'Great Quality' laptops -- I want one."

He pointed to the one next to it, saying: "You can  get a re-furbished Compaq for $100 more."

Me:  "I wouldn't buy that if it was the same price."

About about 25 years when I was in college I got pissed off working a math problem and through a fastball pitch against the wall with my HP33e. The sucker "exploded". I put the parts in a box and mailed it off to HP with a check for about $6 dollars?? and they rebuilt it and shipped it back. Since then the only calculators I have bought have been HPs.

Quoted: Want a good laptop? Get a Toshiba Satellite...they are wonderfull, no bullshit laptops.

I guess you missed the whole Lawsuit/settlement thing because of their shitty ass hard drives (IIRC, it was IBM deathstar HDDs) that had a very high failure rate.  I've been leary about Toshiba since.

This sounds like a job for buzz word bingo.

Buzz words:
“My I speak to your supervisor?”
“State Attorney General Office”
“Better Business Bureau”
“Media – Online and off”

Try them. See if you bingo. If not, call back with complaint numbers.


<ETA>
Start documenting every tech that you talk to. Write down every ticket number, every detail. After your third call, file a complaint with the BBB and your State AG. Snailmail ticket numbers and BBB/AG complaint numbers to the corporate ombudsman / VP sales and CEO.

You should get a call from an English speaking person that can do anything up to and including giving you a new laptop at that point. It takes about a month though.

Don't forget Buzz-word bingo:   "Post on Arfcom"!

Quoted: Quoted: Want a good laptop? Get a Toshiba Satellite...they are wonderfull, no bullshit laptops. I guess you missed the whole Lawsuit/settlement thing because of their shitty ass hard drives (IIRC, it was IBM deathstar HDDs) that had a very high failure rate.  I've been leary about Toshiba since.

I own two of them...problem free after very rough use.

Never did check to see who made the HD.

Very Happy with Gateway so far...  Had been using Dell for 15 years, but I can't speak indonesian so give me an American speaking the english language rep and you have my business.

I have an awesome Gateway laptop, paid $1600 with the 3 year warranty at the beginning of the year. It's pimpass.

I would only trust Dell and Gateway as commercial computers. Anything else, I'd have to build it myself.

Quoted: Good customer service is VERY hard to find nowadays, from ANY computer company. Except with Apple.  That's why all of the laptops I've bought at work the past two years have been Apples with the AppleCare warranty.  My employees are very rough on laptops, but Apple has never refused a repair even for a broken LCD that was obviously our fault.  The laptops and the service hasn't been perfect, but it's great compared to my horrible experiences with Dell.  Now that you can also run Windows NT on Apples, I see no reason to ever buy an inferior laptop from someone else.z

I can actually give you a good one. The second you are out of warranty on one of those you will never feel as much anal pain as when you take it in to be repaired.

I worked for one of the few authorized places in Denver to repair an Apple. Parts and labor are instantly doubled even though in many cases the parts are actually MAC/PC neutral. Software work was all double rate. People paid too.... OMG did they pay. PC people lost it when we charged $200 to replace a hard drive and recover all the old data. Mac usuers routinely paid over $500 for basic repair. Even replacing a battery was $120.

Combine that with lack of software, lack of performance running Windows or Windows apps, initial cost... They do look much more cool, and Mac's OS has always been more intuitive tho!

You did get lucky on the LCD FYI. LCDs are something many computer companies are leery of replacing and I myself never saw Apple authorize a broken one at all.

Quoted: HP bought Compaq... No mergers involved.  I believe they paid 25 Million.

 Not quite

We must have a few HP'ers here. Myself.... HP, then Agilent, and now Philips.

Quoted: Quoted: HP bought Compaq... No mergers involved.  I believe they paid 25 Million.  Not quite

LOL  I didnt even catch that! Hell I woulda bought it at THAT price!

I have the laptop back now. It is whole again. The only thing they didn't fix is a minor cosmetic issue on the lid from when they dropped it but I'm happy just to be back working again.

They were actually pretty fast. They send a box Fedex Express and it goes back and forth on their dime. They couldn't have had it more than a couple of days.

Now if they fire the monkey that caused this problem in the first place all will be good.