Are you going to buy a HP notebook? Be careful of HP's low quality and awful service

Are you going to buy a HP notebook? Be careful of HP's low quality and awful customer service.

Several months ago I was planning to buy myself a notebook. There are many brands of notebooks in the market, but I finally select HP only because I have some experience of buidling enterpirse applications on the platform of HP servers. So I selected one of the most popular models of HP notebooks.By the way, I am living in Sydney and I am working in IT. After I first saw the new notebook after opening the package, I found several faulties of LCD screen and keyboard, though they are not serious enough to cause application disaster. I requested to get the refund, but was refused by the HP agent.
Here I think it is my responsibility to tell you the name of that HP agent. It is 'Computer
World'( http://www.ddcc.com.au/). This company has serveral branches around Australia but its service and attitudes are really very much awful. I hope my experience would help you be careful with this company. Anyway I have to pay the money and take the notebook away.


Serveral days later I noticed something was wrong with the cool fan of the notebook. When working with AC adapter, it works well, but it releases much high pitched noise when
switched to battery. And this situation has become more and more serious when I am using it. So I called the HP customer service center, they asked my to send the notebook to the
center by myself. Then I did. Waited for three weeks I was told the problem was fixed and I was asked to pick it up by myself. I did not know how to get there so I asked if it could
be delivered. The answer was 'yes' but I had to be charged.

I received my notebook then. But I found no any problem was fixed and the high pitched noised even became more serious because they said they replaced the fan. Also the keyboard was not fixed at the right position. Some screws was loosen. The most serious new problem was the fan can not be controled well. It's well know that the fan of notebook is controled by the temperature and it can run at different level with different noise volum. But now the fan of my notebook nearly keeps run at the highest level with the highest noise! Let alone the high pitched noise. It also becomes more serious.

Then I made complaints to the customer service center, but got nothing.
Then I made complaints to socalled 'feedback to HP CEO', but got nothing.
All I have got is just a mechanistic response letter. One month has passed, I still have to used the annoying HP notebook with annoying noise. I feel hopeless and very depressed and very angry.

Be careful of HP's low quality and awful customer service!!

Welcome to talk to me.

Trey
[email protected]

 

I am sorry to hear that about your computer. Which model of HP was it?

I have had only positive experiences with HP in their customer service and technical support. There is a great disparity amongst third party dealers, I suppose.

 

Making your posts like that makes it diffucult to read and just annoys people. My experience with HP has generally been positive.

 

It would be interesting to know the model. Mabye someone else has had that problem?

 

I've used HPs and Compaqs, almost all my life, both Compaqs before and after the takeover, and I've had no problems with them that weren't of my own making.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but please don't say the entire company is horrible because of one faulty machine. Though the service could have been better..

 

I'd certainly have to agree with the above... Look at this post, and then resize your web browser window horizontally. Notice how it will adjust to comfortably fit the width of the browser window, even when fullscreen.. That is important for us on a widescreen display.
Now try doing the same with the double spaced post.. So much wasted space horizontally.


Anyway, although I did have a bit of trouble with getting a USB Mouse replaced, I must say that my laptop itself (Compaq v4000T w/ATI X700) has been designed and built to exceptional standards. I was playing Warcraft III all day yesterday, and the fan didn't spend more than about 15% of the time at full speed. In fact, I totally forgot I was playing on my laptop since I'm sitting at my desk and hooked up to a big external monitor..

I don't get a high-pitch whine from fan noise.. I do get a little bit of whine from the brightness settings of the display (higher brightness, slightly higher whine).. BUT it is so unnoticable unless running off of battery power with the GPU set to max battery mode (so the fans stays on low/off most of the time)

What model laptop do you have?
What does it have for a CPU&GPU?

 

I'm guessing it's the DV5000 series, as someone who had one had the AC/Whining Noise problems. Forgot where the thread was though...

 

i cannot generalize and simply state that hp's customer service is horrible, however i have had my share of certain bad customer service reps (hereafter refered to as csr).
i purchased a v2000 series notebook in canada, and within 6 months the optical drive ceased reading all cd's. although i am not a technician, i know that dvds and cds read by 2 different lasers using 2 different frequencies. the failure also occured while i was watching a vcd with no other applications running. thus, this was most obviously a hardware failure, and not a software issue. taht being said, the csr guided me through a lengthy process of resetting, updating, deleting, etc drivers and so forth. even after i had insisted that such a process was futile. i guess they have a policy they must follow, so i followed patiently. after their tests had failed, they arranged a pickup and repair. the actual repair time was not bad...i guess, roughly 3 weeks (which coincided with my winter break). however, they returned the notebook, unaltered and obviously, still defetive. i called back to get an explanation. after a lengthy conversation, they decided to send me a new drive, and arranged to have my drive sent back. 1 week later i recieved the new drive. it was even worse than mine, refurbished, and could not read any dvd's this time. i called in again, and they arranged to send me a second drive. 1 week later, i recieved it. it was a fully functional brand new, 2 year old drive with half the read/write speeds of my current drive. at this point i was fed up with dealing with them, so i had decided to settle with this functioning drive and sent the 2 drives back to hp. 2 weeks later i realized i had been charged for these drives on my visa, so i called in yet again. the csr assured me that i would be properly refunded within 4-5 weeks (which is a ridiculous processing time). 2 months later, i had finally been fed up with waiting, and called back because i had not been refunded. the csr i spoke to admitted it was their fault and ocne again, assured me i would recieve the refund within 4-5 weeks. i am in the midst of waiting.
i would also like to note that i used my father's visa (long story), so he is holding the charge and building interest on that charge. they have not mentioned any form of reimbursement for their mistake.

that was experience with hp, and i must say, i am severely disappointed.

 

Sorry about the text arrangement of my post. I did it too quickly

The model is dv1303ap with 521M ram, 60G hd and 128M shared video memory gma900.

I am geting so angry and disappointed just because the way that HP deals with customer complaints. They keep not doing anything about, even I do not receive any response followed.

Thanks for evey attention here.

 

And if you are looking at other ideas on the subject
Check this

 

Stop whinging, you make me embarrassed to be an Australian.

I have had nothing but great experience with HP and their products, currently have a DV5121TX that replaced a DV1000 and had no issues with either.

I did have a problem with a XB2000 Expansion Base, the USB ports burnt out, did they repair the ports.......... NO! they replaced the whole thing and within 3 weeks.

So your ****py experience is in no way indicative of HP and your so called warning is way out of line.

 

For all HP's defenders here(I don't know if they just work for HP), I don't meant to criticize HP; I just tell the TRUTH!! Of course it's my experience.
You have choices to believe the truth or not. It's totally up to you. But I believe if you try to buy HP's notebook, you will be likely to be risky.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience. I wish you luck with whatever brand you decide to go with.

Couple things to think about though - I dont think folks here are necessarily "HP defenders" - they are simply stating their own positive experiences and suggesting that yours might simply be an exception. They are not implying they dont believe you, just that you were one of the unlucky few that had a bad experience. ALL companies (and I mean ALL) have customers with positive and negative experiences. No company / product is perfect - but they should not be condemned for occassional imperfection.

I personally have had only positives with HP/Compaq. I have one negative with Sager, although it was resolved very satisfactorily and I would still recommend them. Although I had one negative experience, I am not going on a public forum and suggesting that ANYONE who purchases a Sager is "taking a risk". That would be a GENERALIZATION based on solely one experience, and while I would certainly be entitled to my opinion, I would be remiss in making a blanket statement about the company based on my experience.

To each his own and we (at least I) do appreciate your intentions here. I am sure you were simply trying to inform others in an effort for them to avoid your experience.

 

I am looking for a notebook, and HP (especially the business line) is pretty high on the list.

According to recent IT magazine surveys, they come right after IBM and Apple in customer service satisfaction (although far from the first two). Mind you, this is HP USA. HP Australia might be different. But HP is considered one of the top (notebook) brands in the US, and one bad experience won't erase the many positive ones, no offense.

Thank you for sharing your story, and good luck with repairing your notebook.

 

At this time, as far as I know, HP is one of the most lenient companies as far as customer induced damage in warranty repair. For the most part, only spills, cracked LCDs and recently, faulty 3rd party memory/hard drives, and some AC adapters (under specific circumstances). Pretty much everything else is under warranty. You break a USB or AC port, and it's covered. Plastics are covered. Most of the other companies automatically charge for this stuff.

Now, on the other hand, if you break a connection 3 times + within a small amount of time, yes then they will charge.

 

I am not comdemning the HP's PRODUCTS! The main complaints of mine is its CUSTOMER SERVIE! got it?

 

I can't help asking you a question. What do you do? why are you so familar with HP's service?
I Am a customer of HP because I currently bought its notebook. But I have never found any service term you are talking about both in the borchure accompanying the laptop and HP's offical website.

So where did you get your information? Can you post the url of that?

 

I wasn't really planning on divulging my sources on this forum..
Let's just say I have inside information, yet do not work for HP directly.

 

Calm down sparky!

Your OWN thread title states the following: "Be careful of HP's low quality AND awful service". It looks pretty darn clear to me that you were referring to their service AND their products!!!! What else did you mean by "HP's low quality"?? You were VERY clear on your complaints about your product (i.e. the noise from your fan, etc...), and stated again as a warning to us all to "expect low quality and awful service". You also commented: "I still have to used the annoying HP notebook with annoying noise." - Again - sounds to me like you are unhappy with your PRODUCT as well as your service.

And BTW - I was trying to "smooth" things out a bit and possibly explain some of the reactions to be nice - do you "GOT IT" now?! I guess thats what I get for trying to be helpful.

Also - you can color your fonts and increase their size all you want but you wont get any additional effects, sympathy or advice by doing so.

 

TO THE MEMBERS OF NBR: This guy has posted on many websites including CNET, and NotebookForums.com;
http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=151208

Either way, you had a bad experience with HP and their customer service. Get over it! It happens to everyone. I have had many times where I wanted to cuss at the Indian service rep in Bangalore in Hindi and give them a piece of my mind( this is with Dell and RioAudio) . But posting all over the place just over one occurance is too much. Also you come from Australia I believe, and there are probably different regulations and rules there aswell. So you may be mad and ticked, but calm down and see if you can solve the problem.

 

So it's not necessary to say more about what you have said here, right? Please make the threads and responses based on TRUTH.

 

Is there any problem to post on several forums??????? I CANNOT understand you.
I absolutedly have the right to tell the public of my own experience, especially for the bad one. If not, how can the low quality and awful service be improved? So these days I keep searching more good forums to post.
I CANNOT understand you.
you had many times of bad experience, but you kept slient. I don't know why you kept slient. do you think it is helpful for the users or for the company? do you want other customers have the same bad experience as you?

Really cannot understand you!

BTW, I also cannot understand why you keep tracking the posts related to HP, if you don't work for HP.

 

Just miss a single word' Mainly'. that's ' I don't mainly criticize HP's products'. I certainly need to criticize it. why not? only in this way, can the low quality products be improved quickly!

BTW, for service, we can also talk about 'quality', right?

 

I never said that, nor accused you that you shouldnt. Yeah you have a right to tell everyone about your problem, but not everyone will hear your problem like that and many of your posts are rants aswell. Why dont you try to solve the problem and go on with the rest of your life than arguing this into the ground?

 

I have a separate thread about the dv5000 series I purchased...what a complete piece of junk.

Stay away from HP.

 

Well, I hadn't intended to post where I get my information, but if you insist..
I work for an HP Repair Depot. (It also repairs Dell, IBM/Lenovo(sp?) and Sony). What I repeat here is what we are told by HP. As a technician, I determine under their guidelines what is, and is not billable. They review the decisions. We are told to not bill for broken connectors, unless alot of damage is done (basically the plastics around the connector is severely damaged). So, in truth, where we'd bill you in a heart beat for some damage we've seen (Customer Induced), HP does not allow us.

 

And stay away from Bluesteel310 Since his notebooks are made by the same companies who make HP, Dell, Sony, and IBM.

 

I don't get it ..

If you guys believe this thread is worthless, just stop replying to it and let it die

I know I just replied to it, but I felt I had to

 

Hi Wipeout,
It's not worthless.....a good laugh always has some intrinsic value.

 

I'd like to know more about your story.

 

You are just talking about outsourcing. An outsourcing manufacture make outsourcing products with quite different quality according to different standards, some are really quality, but some are low quality.

 

I'm just trying to solve the problem. but it's just because HP's service I am experiencing that makes me disappointed, then I have to inform everyone here.

 

A completely silly remark.

HP/Compaq are made in China. IBM is no more...now a chinese company. Sony is made in Japan and Dell is made in Thailand. Different companies, different factories.

Quality control looks like the issue with HP. Do they actually test these things before they leave the factory or do they hope they break only AFTER the warranty period.

 

Obviously they do, otherwise a lot more members would be complaining instead of just a few.

Go take a look at the Alienware forum, check out their bad threads, did you have an experience as horrific? I doubt it, they payed several thousand for theirs.

What I'm saying is, don't base a company's entire quality on a few bad cookies, and count your blessings...

 

Only slightly more silly than your last remark ("Do they actually test these things before they leave the factory or do they hope they break only AFTER the warranty period."). Do YOU actually believe they send them out without testing?

Shouldnt chastise tongue-in-cheek remarks if your just going to do the same...

 

Not completely true, since Quanta is the largest, and makes notebooks for Dell and HP. I believe Compal makes the dv4000 and 5000 lines, before I bought my dv5000, I talked to some friends who repair them, and they told me that most of the issues they see are hard drive and memory related.
For me, I'd avoid Quanta like the plague, heard horror stories from people who worked in the Dell part of the Depot, and current ones within the HP lines... Compal on the other hand, my previous notebook zt3140 was a Compal, and it still works. I sold that to a friend and bought this one.

Oh, and yea silly remarks are fun ^^ Just remember, everyone can have a horror story about anything. All it takes is the wrong thing to happen at the wrong time.

 

When I first bought my Compaq Presario M2000 from Fry's in the US it had a bad pixel so I brought it back the next day.. they immediately replaced it.

My only complain with my Compaq Presario is that it easily becomes hot.

I like the design though and the touchpad scrolling.