HDX dies, repair center sucks and china has a shortage of motherboards!

April 10th 2008 - Purchased HDX 9200
June 1st 2008 - HDX dies
June 3rd 2008 - sent to HP repair center in Houston Texas
August 29th 2008 - Expected delivery date when repaired

So one day my notebook decides not to boot. I can't even get into bios, all the function keys are useless. I can't boot from CD, the screen is completely black from start, though lit. This is clearly a motherboard / bios issues and I haven't even updated any drivers or firmware. I tired every possible thing tech support asked me to do. That includes, taking the battery out and holding the power button for 30 secs, take out ram and putting it back in, same for the hard drive and a few other things.

I've been on the phone with HP for hours because they keep extending my expected delivery date. They claim the motherboard is somehow damaged even though I never updated the drivers or firmware and that they would have to replace the entire motherboard. They told me that there was a motherboard shortage and that I would have to wait a few weeks. At first I was suppose to get it back by June 18th, then June 23rd, then July 1st, then July 21st, now August 29th.

Does anyone have an experience on this matter? Is waiting 3 months for a motherboard replacement for real!?!?!!? I'm really annoyed. I wish I could just return the notebook and buy another one but it's pass the 21 days. I use the notebook for work and I'm on it 70 hours a week at the least. The original tech guy told me it would take 5-7 days to repair and ship back. Never did I think it was going to be a shortage issue where I'd have to wait 3 months!!!!

I can't wait until Monday when I can call HP customer service center and speak to someone higher up. Anyone have an experience or advice on a situation like this? I wish they could just replace the entire notebook.

OFF TOPIC re: service center calls

If you decide to call the repair service center be ready to speak to someone from another country who can't speak english well. They transferred me back and forth 5-6 times because they had difficulty establishing whether or not my notebook was consumer or commercial. It's a freakin' Pavailion HDX, it's consumer damn it!!!! I've spent 45mins -1hour trying to get answers as to why it would take so long to repair my notebook. Most of my complaints were based on expected dates changing so often. They are absolutely ZERO help. Whatever order status email you get is exactly what they read off their screen. They won't be able to do anything for you.

So at the end of the day, what are my options? I'm pretty much screwed huh? or atleast until latest Aug 29th which I'm sure by next week will change to September 15th! What can I do? can I request for a temporary replacement? I really would like to just return the notebook and order another one. 3 months is just unbearable and unacceptable - especially when it's not even my fault!

HELP! =(

 

dang... snuggles, dang

 

Escalate your matter to a case manager and ask for a replacement. 3 months is unacceptable.

Also file a complaint with BBB

 

3 months? That's sick. A new one only takes a week and a half to two weeks to your door out of Shanghai, China. Definitely call to have it escalated to get a new one. Motherboard shortage is hard to believe if the build dates are still 1 week from order date on their site. Let them know that too.

Stay on them. Be persistent. Call daily.

Insist on a new unit because of the projected repair delay.

 

I agree that's messed up. I hope you do get a replacement.

I wonder where the HP repair center in Houston is (like you guys I'm getting an HDX too, and while I hope it won't need servicing you never know). If I understand correctly, they will try to do the repair locally at the center instead of shipping the unit somewhere else?

 

Since the 24/7 customer support via another country can't help. They said I have to wait until regular business hours during the week day to call HP and speak to someone with "higher authority". They just keep blaming the delay on a supposedly big shortage of motherboards.

I will certainly bring up the issue that current brand new HDX build times are still roughly 1 week. That's a good idea.

 

try get a case manager, they can replace it, once it hits the 3 week mark of being in the service center.

 

How do you know this? It is written somewhere or has someone from HP told you this?

 

someone told me once

 

UPDATE: I'm still waiting for them to get back to me. You can't ever talk to a case manager directly. They have to call you and it can take a while. What's worse is when you have to work and play a constant game of phone tag. I've been without my HDX since it broke beginning of June. All I can say is, it hurts.

BBB is my only hope to speed things up.

 

Don't take no for an answer when you want to talk to a case manager. From past experience they would say a case manager will call me back, there isn't a supervisor, or the supervisor isn't available and I wouldn't take no for an answer. Eventually they would finally let me talk to the higher-up. You can't let them push you around and you have to be firm about what you are asking for, if they notice that they can push you a little bit, they'll keep pushing and pushing until you don't get anything from them. Don't be a jerk to them, but make them know you mean business.

 

I haven't personally seen any case where a NB was replaced after only being in service for 3 weeks. The original estimage is 7-9 Business days which is almost 2 weeks.

 

Just pray they don't have a shortage of whatever part needs to be replaced.

 

I was very firm with them and direct. Told them it was unacceptable and that I would need to speak to the higher up. They told me case managers only work on weekdays and call from a different department (calls from US service center). So when I asked to speak with a supervisor there (india service center) they put on someone else who had an accent also and explained that I'd have to wait 24-72 hours for case manager to call me starting monday. This is where the phone tag began and they don't leave you with a number to return the call only a voice message that's apologizing for the delay and reasons for it. My only option is to write a letter.

 

Yes. You. Can.
During business hours, Mountain time:
877-917-4380
x 79 goes to Desktop case manager
x 94 goes to Notebooks

Courtesy of Consumerist.
I just used this number on Tuesday, so it definitely works. After I dialed the extension, the next voice I heard was a case manager!

(I'm sending this to you in a PM also, just in case you don't come back to this thread).

 

You ought to contact the Consumerist about this, and give them your story. They might make a front page article out of it.

 

I empathize with you, Snuggles.

After switching to HP (HDX like yours) because of an even more nightmarish experience with D-HELL and my previous notebook, my HDD failed only 2 weeks after arrival from Shanghai. It took 40+ hours of tech "support" before they figured out the problem was the disk controller (exactly what I TOLD them it was in the FIRST conversation!!!). Then, even though I have the primo warranty/service plan it was a 2 week wait to get a new HDD, AND I had to ship them my bad HDD with all the data on it afterwards or they would cancel my warranty and charge me some ridiculous amount for the HDD.

Today, after installing Acronis and doing a full backup (native VISTA 64 backups FAIL for no reason), I also decided to give Acronis a small slice of the 2 GB of UNUSED space on the factory recovery partition E: so I could recover using Acronis, and I'll be damned if now I am in a BSOD loop because (as I experienced before ) it does a BSOD whenever anything is read from E: !!! Yes, I tried all the HDD troubleshooting blah blah blah. Its a SUCKY system! I am not sure if it is the VISTA 64 OS or the hardware, but I am about to go postal!

It just hangs when I try to boot from the USB drive boot disk that I made so that I can just do a complete restore from my Acronis backup. AND booting from the recovery CD or Safe Mode also gives a BSOD! Aaaaaaaargggggh!

I hate this HDX!!! I'm ready to buy a Wal-Mart trenchcoat and head over to HP!

 

UPDATE: I made the call to the case manager and my delayed notebook was expedited quickly. Instead of having to wait a long time for them to repair the notebook due to the shortage of parts, they decided to send me a brand new notebook with the same specs. After speaking with the case manager I had the new notebook sent to me in a matter of 7 business days from Shanghai. I suppose it took 7 days since my HDX was a custom build. I'm very impressed with how the case managers handled and expedited the whole process, not to mention they would call me to give me updates.

 

Good to hear it worked out.

 

NICE! Glad that worked out for you the way it did.

Head on over to the HDX owner's lounge. Lots of good folks there with lots of good info and advice.

 

Well im happy it all worked out for you ^^. But, even though a case manager isnt the first option you should resort to, it is still the best, since if you just keep a good tone with them they will help you. So my process looked as such:

Broke last week of school,
2 weeks later in the us send it in the first day i arrive.
2 weeks later comp comes back, i start playing cod4 it dies after 40 seconds when i got my first kill.
Yaddi yaddi yadda, i end up repairing it three times, and it still doesnt work, so now the forth time, ive sent in to replace it and all thanks to my case manager...


P.s i was a little bummed out that i couldnt pay extra to upgrade my computer even more, since now i have a little more funds in the bank. But hey, getting a new laptop for a summer without one i think is kinda worth it, but i still say that two months of no computer i had to resort to the horrific, ps3 my mom bought for herself... Ohh the shame i feel so dirty ^^

 

This is key. After all, the person at the other end of the phone is human. Treat them bad, they'll treat you bad.

 

Wait? the person on the other end is human?... omg, i thought yelling at low level support was mandatory?... heheh, no but thats the thing, you dont have to kiss ass with them, just keep a good tone since most people in the world actually hate their jobs. So the smoother the call goes the better for them since than its just a monotone process whom they can handle efficiently.