HP Business Notebooks Repair and Warranty Service - An unbiased customers view -

I have created a thread yesterday about the display corruption of my HP 8510 P.

Since there are a lot of people whining and complaining about bad customer
service and horrible repair services, and only a few to none users writing about
successful repairs and beeing happy customers i decided to start this thread about
my "yet unbiased" experience with HP.

Usually you would not hear a lot about successful stories , because most of the
people are happy and see no reason to publish that, but those people that made
a bad experience of course are eager to write about it.

so i´d like to shed an unbiased light onto the the HP Services and Repairs.

For those that have not read my recent thread :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=288570


well, my HP 8510 P does have a display corruption that seems to be originated by
a broken or loose cable or plug. As soon as i fire up the notebook the display image
is corrupted. pushing and pulling a little bit at the screen housing will eventually
result in a stable image, but this takes quite some time and not counted efforts.
here are some pictures :







I tried to contact HP ( Germany) yesterday, and found out that i have no access to the
instant chat feature with my P/N - S/N combination. So no luck here. But after a few
minutes i found out about the online support portal.
the link is [B]http://itrc.hp.com[/B] , and it can of course be easily accessed from the HP homepage.

here is an exact schedule of my experiences :

20.08.2008 14.00h CET

you can submit your hardware or software problems here :

For Hp products ( consumer notebooks )
and for Compaq line products ( business class) : http://www12.itrc.hp.com/service/mcm/homepageRequest.do

you will have to register and login, since you can view , update and submit
new cases with your account.

if you need to check your warranty, you can do that here :
http://www12.itrc.hp.com/service/ewarranty/warrantyInput.do

Code:

I made my claim at the support case manager online,
filled out the problem description and started the service procedure.

Now Hp service comes into action

20.08.2008 14.30h CET

Code:

about 30 minutes later i received the confirmation email,
my request is beeing processed now.
this request is going to Atlanta, where the service headquarters
seem to be located, and from there to the local service agency.

20.08.2008 15.15h CET

Code:

another 45 minutes later a friendly german speaking technician called
me and we were shortly talking about the problem and then he simply
suggested to replace the whole display, instead of checking cables and
connectors.
well, that sounded good to me, so i agreed.
He told me tomorrow ( so this is today - 21.08.2008) the laptop would be
picked up for repair.
[B]
I feel very comfortable with the business class warranty :) [/B]

21.08.2008 10.45 h CET

Code:

i received the repair number and a manual for the actions and
procedures for sending in the notebook.
[B]a link was provided that contains all the repair data. [/B]
this page covers all the technical aspects of the repair.
And here also the pickup date is listed and it´s not as promised today,
but it will be picked up tomorrow.

[B]hmm, i thought the agreement was today[/B]. :confused: 

when i log into the http://itrc.hp.com site and enter my case number i can
see all the notifications about the case.
- the ones i made, and the answers of hp officials at hand.
i can also leave some messages / comments there regarding the case.


21.08.2008 13.27 h CET

Code:

so i thought i should leave a comment about the pickup date and i
mentioned that i canceled all my appointments for today, because the
technician told me the notebook would be picked up today. :rolleyes: 

21.08.2008 13.45 h CET

Code:

To my surprise [B]a very friendly HP representative called around 20
minutes later and apologized for the inconvenience.[/B] seems the technician´s
work hours were over right after we phoned, so he did file the pick up
request this morning.  

Well, that can happen, and i don´t have that much problems with it. 

But wow... i really feel treated well. The people at HP are really reading these messages
and they care about their customers.

well, looks like the notebook will be picked up tomorrow and probably won´t be in the
HP repair center before monday. i expect ( hope ) the new display will be mounted asap,
so i have the notebook back around thursday or friday next week.

So far so good. i have had friendly contacts, that did reply quite fast on my web requests.
Whenever i tried to contact HP via the web interface it did not take very long until the right person called me back. i have a good feeling about this, and hope this repair will continue for
me as positive as it began.

will keep you updated whenever something happens.


///////////update//////////


22.08.2008 16.15 h CET

Code:

well, the notebook was picked up by UPS on Friday.
So finally my notebook is on it´s way to HP.
A little downside the UPS Driver did not bring the necessary
package for the notebook with him. He said his superior manager
did not hand over a pick up package. I thought i´d give him the
notebook anyway, since it would take till Monday for the next possible
pickup date.

25.08.2008 12.00 h CET

Code:

The notebook is at it´s destination - Jabil Electronics in Poland.
Looks like Jabil is the contractor for repairing HP Notebooks in Europe.
Today the notebook will probably not be repaired.

27.08.2008 08.00 h CET

Code:

the notebook is marked as repaired in my repair case at hp.
technical solution to my screen problems was :
- Def Display changed - , like agreed.

27.08.2008 08.17 h CET

Code:

Ups sends me the shipment note. 

27.08.2008 13.28 h CET

Code:

the notebooks gets picked up by UPS.
Finally it´s on its way back.

27.08.2008 20.59 h CET

Code:

The notebook leaves Warsaw. If the package is transported by
car it would need about 12 hours to Cologne, the UPS import center
here in germany. that would be a little late for a next day delivery. 
i figure the package is transported via plane and it´s import scan is
23.40 h CET the same day.

27.08.2008 22.28 h CET

Code:

HP sends me an email to inform me about the repair
beeing successfull and they tell me that the supposed delivery
date is the 28.08  Oooooh yeah !!!! :)  

looks like i will get the notebook back again today. if it wasn´t for the HP tech that did fill out the pickup request and the weekend it would have taken HP 4 workdays to complete the repair.

5 days is quite good actually, especially when the notebook has to travel around 2000 kilometers to the repair center. i feared it could take much longer, but HP managed to do the logistics and repair without any problems.
i am a very satisfied customer now. i´ve had very friendly contacts and the repair seems to have gone perfect.

now i just can wait for the notebook to arrive. i hope the technicians have treated my notebook well, and i don´t have to complain about scratches , dents or other problems that did not exist before i sent the notebook in.

In case something is wrong with my laptop, i have made hi-res pictures from the outside and the inside with a daily newspaper beneath the laptop.

Waiting for it to arrive ....

// Edit
merged another thread i posted later with this one //


Good to hear all of you guys have made positive experiences with hp´s customer service.

the reason i started this thread was because i always read about the bad support, bad case managers..blah,blah, and i thought i should post my experiences here. form the beginning i have hoped that the whole thing turned out positive, since i would not wanna write about the the bad hp support like a lot of others here at the forum.

and luckily i was not disappointed

i got my laptop back two days ago, and i am quite happy with repair.
as i mentioned earlier the repair was done at Jabil in Poland.
Jabil is a big contractor in the electronic business and they do the repairs for HP ( probably even other companies have contracted Jabil for the repairs).

At the beginning i thought it would be a problem if some contractor does the actual repair, not the HP techs themselves. But when i look at the my laptop i know even HP techs would not have done it better.

repairs :

Code:

Well, i have sent the laptop in for changing the defect display,
and those guys did not only repair the display, they :

- installed the new lcd
- updated my 8510p to the latest bios
- cleaned the inside of the laptop from dust  :)

what a nice service. and on top of that i could not see any traces of the repair, no scratches, dents .... nothing, the laptop looks and feels like new

Overall i´m very positive about the Customer service from HP , the logistics and of course the contractor Jabil , that has made the repair successful.


And there is something about my new lcd, i think those different screen manufacturers have been discussed here in another thread.
Well, i had a quanta display before, and now i have the CMO display.

Overall the CMO seems to better in my eyes. some people here have complained about the CMO lcd, but that one is actually quite good.

difference between the wsxga+ panel from quanta and the one from CMO

Code:

CMO pro´s :

- it´s brighter than the quanta
-  more evenly lit
- zero backlight bleeding
- viewing angles are much better than the one from quanta

Quanta pro´s :

- the CMO looks a bit grainy. guess it´s a matter of the matte
   glass shield in front of the display

the graininess of the CMO has been discussed here already (can´t remember the thread or threadstarter), but now that i have one myself i can judge that better, i can see that it´s not that bad as someone here at the forum described it.

i don´t know if i have said that too often now... but yeah, the repair went very well for me.

hmm... guess i am biased towards HP now and might have to change the thread title

 

They are good and honoured International warranty+pick up from home.

 

Glad you have a great experience. I always use the ITRC tool and recommend others to use it too. It's a quick and easy way to track the progress of your warranty claims so they can be escalated if necessary.

All major parts like the LCD screen, motherboard, hard disks, optical drive and RAM are usually stocked and readily available for quick replacement. If not, they will be flown in direct from the distribution centre or factory overnight, hence the quick response.

 

Good to hear, I've also contacted HP a couple of times, and just sent my laptop in for a screen replacement. Very good cs overall.

 

I value the HP name. They stand by their products.

 

looks like i´m gonna get my laptop back today.

basicly from pick up date to delivery date it have been 5 workdays, and i am very satisfied with the speed of logistics and repair service.

for the whole story pease read the the first post. i updated that one......

when i have my notebook back, i will write a little about the success(?) of the repair.

 

Keep us posted

 

HP Business support has, for me at least, historically been very fast and very good. Except for when the lemon law kicks in and a replacement is warranted...then they take as long as any other company would .

 

i also had great service from HP . they called back 1 hour after i sent the repar chat and problem was solved in 2 days . great service . they got me buying HP business class from now on .

hope your repairs work out as well !

 

This is a very positive thread! lol Good to see!

 

good to hear the news.
I personally have a good impression of hp's CS.
85% out of 100/100 scale..

 

I also got nothing but praise for hp business support. Just recently I had to send my laptop in (just cause I felt that when your laptop's exhaust starts smelling like a hair dryer on max, you need to get that heatsink changed) they gladly accepted the repair. HP chat took no more then 10 minutes before they issued me a return box, and turn around time was amazing, my laptop was only gone for 4 days, 2 days to send in and return, and 2 days for repair. This is why i recommend business class laptops to those who ask me for my opinion, cause the service is always great.

 

Recently, my old nx8420 died after the motherboard shorted out. The notebook has been heavily used and abused over the past year. I called HP and because I needed multiple repairs (keyboard keys popped off, motherboard and dying LCD backlight), they agreed to issue me a new replacement as they ran out of parts for my discontinued model and got a new 8510p which I ended up giving to a family member.

 

Good to hear all of you guys have made positive experiences with hp´s customer service.

the reason i started this thread was because i always read about the bad support, bad case managers..blah,blah, and i thought i should post my experiences here. form the beginning i have hoped that the whole thing turned out positive, since i would not wanna write about the the bad hp support like a lot of others here at the forum.

and luckily i was not disappointed

i got my laptop back two days ago, and i am quite happy with repair.
as i mentioned earlier the repair was done at Jabil in Poland.
Jabil is a big contractor in the electronic business and they do the repairs for HP ( probably even other companies have contracted Jabil for the repairs).

At the beginning i thought it would be a problem if some contractor does the actual repair, not the HP techs themselves. But when i look at the my laptop i know even HP techs would not have done it better.

repairs :

Code:

Well, i have sent the laptop in for changing the defect display,
and those guys did not only repair the display, they :

- installed the new lcd
- updated my 8510p to the latest bios
- cleaned the inside of the laptop from dust  :)

what a nice service. and on top of that i could not see any traces of the repair, no scratches, dents .... nothing, the laptop looks and feels like new

Overall i´m very positive about the Customer service from HP , the logistics and of course the contractor Jabil , that has made the repair successful.


And there is something about my new lcd, i think those different screen manufacturers have been discussed here in another thread.
Well, i had a quanta display before, and now i have the CMO display.

Overall the CMO seems to better in my eyes. some people here have complained about the CMO lcd, but that one is actually quite good.

difference between the wsxga+ panel from quanta and the one from CMO

Code:

CMO pro´s :

- it´s brighter than the quanta
-  more evenly lit
- zero backlight bleeding
- viewing angles are much better than the one from quanta

Quanta pro´s :

- the CMO looks a bit grainy. guess it´s a matter of the matte
   glass shield in front of the display

the graininess of the CMO has been discussed here already (can´t remember the thread or threadstarter), but now that i have one myself i can judge that better, i can see that it´s not that bad as someone here at the forum described it.

i don´t know if i have said that too often now... but yeah, the repair went very well for me.

hmm... guess i am biased towards HP now and might have to change the thread title

 

Well, it appears that if you buy "business class" you get treated like a real human being, but if you buy "consumer class" their service stinks worse than an outside commode!

 

I bought a Pavilion ZD8000 a few years ago. It was a return so got 10% discount at store. When I got home I could not figure out how to connect to my home wireless, so I called tech support and chose the home computer support. In two rings I has a support person on the line and he spent 45 minutes with me till we both ran out of ideals. So He asked if I had anything on the machine I needed which I did not, since I just got it home, he then walk me through a total recovery and made sure it worked.

Two months later Motherboard died and I called home computer support and they picked up call after less then 1 minute and said it sounded like the motherboard. So they had Fedex pickup machine the next day which was Thursday and on Monday morning at 8:30 am Fedex was at my door with my fixed machine. Now that was service. That is why I bought another PC again from them.

May everyone be blessed with the same service.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. !!

 

great to hear positive stories ! I had positive dealings with HP service as well .

 

Here's another reason why HP business support is much better than IBM/Lenovo's Solectron service.

It took me a maximum of 5 business days to get a screen replaced with HP via their enterprise support and all along the way, I receive status updates via the ITRC site.

It's now almost 10 days since I broke my LCD screen on my X300 and Solectron is taking their sweet time working on it. No status updates are provided and the customer is left in the dark as to the status of the repairs. Great product, but the support level pales in comparison to HP business.

 

I don't think HP service can surpass IBM, Lenovo is a hit or miss.

 

IBM provides the support for Lenovo. The service is OK, but Solectron is slow. The only way to reach them is to phone, which can be frustrating too. HP's ITRC tool is way more convenient.

If IBM is better, they certainly haven't responded quickly enough.

 

I have had a good experience with HP so far, but at this moment my dv2000z is being repaired under Accidental insurance after I accidentally droped. Initially I was supposed to received on 08/28 but it never came.

I called HP and they told me they were waiting on the motherboard and they told me I should receive it on Sept 6. After a few days I called again and they told me that they had the Motherboard and that I was going to receive it on the Sept 11.

So far every thing was good until a few days later I checked the website and it said that I had to pay for the repair . So I called again, and I told them that I have insurance and even gave them the order number and ticket number for the repair. But they kept saying that I needed to pay.. I asked to speak to a manager and after a few min I was transferred to a manager. I explained the situation and he told me not to worry about it since I have insurance.

I next day a HP representative called and left me a message in my voicemail, saying that I needed to pay in oder to get the computer repaired . I called HP right away and what a surprise I got to talk to a US representative. I explained every thing and he checked the records and updated the system. which felt great since all the previews calls that I always got a CS representative from India.

Right now I am waiting just waiting, just chatted with a customer representative and it was way faster than over the phone. She confirmed me that it is going to get shipped today 09/11 and I should be getting it tomorrow 09/12.

I really like HP for their good quality, but they need to get their act together with the Customer Service. It seems that they want to make your life a living hell.

 

Not really anymore, since the contract of using IBM brand is up, and Lenovo has started to provide their own Customer support.

 

Don't know if it's the same as the US, but here in Australia, Think branded products are still supported by IBM and serviced by Solectron.

 

Yeah Thinkpads are still using the same service centers ran by IBM in Hong Kong.

Here is my experience with the HP business service... (well sort of)

Problems: the j and 6 keywas non responsive on my 8510p. Also the battery was showing only 67WHr instead of 73Whr as advertised and printed on the battery.

Before I found ITRC...

I used the HP online chat service, during that time i was located in Hong Kong. I was connect with a non local rep, was led around in a circle with broken English and lots of waiting...then he concluded that I should go to the service center which I could have done during the time when ''Raja'' wasted my time. He also told me that he consulted his senior and he told him that batteries tends to show lower capacities...which I agree, but to that extent? No.

Then i found ITRC...

During this time I was located in Ottawa, Canada.

I got an email reply 30min after I submitted my case (this was 1am thursday evening/friday morning, i was bored). Mr Tulasi Shetty (was alittle worried) replied with good English unlike Mr Raja. He then provided my clear instruction with how to test the battery using the HP test thingy... Which showed that the battery's capacity after 1month is clearly lower than expected. So then a replacement battery and keyboard (didn't even ask about the keyboard) was sent out early afternoon on Friday.

On Monday (today) both of them arrived via UPS, the battery now shows 72.2Whr which I am satisfied with and the keyboard is now fully functional.

 

Make sure you return the keyboard back to them.

 

I don't thnk I have to return the keyboard, but I have to return the battery for sure.

 

Yes you have to return the keyboard, otherwise they'll call you.
Anyhow, you can call them to verify, or use the Instant Customer support.

 

ar just spotted the email about returning the keyboard too. Thats ok, I just wanted the extra battery if possible hahahaha.