HP Tech Support Story...

I just felt like posting as I've heard absolute horror stories about HP's tech support. I'm typing this from my Envy 14, which up until now has worked flawlessly. Unfortunately today I started getting crashes when I did anything that put the 5650 under load. I'd get heavy visual artifacting (colors everwhere) on my screen, then it would freeze completely. I tested with multiple programs, ensured the GPU was not overheating, and tried a few more things. The only upgrades I personally did to my Envy 14 was swapping the 500GB hard drive with a solid state drive I bought separately a while back.

After exhausting my options, I mentally prepared myself for the hell I thought would be HP tech support. I called in, went through the brief automated questionnaire, then was put on hold for a few minutes until an agent picked up. I explained my problem, and he gave me the whole "thank you for choosing HP" spiel that I assume agents are required to give, and then told me he personally would choose the Envy 14 if he were in the market for a notebook. I told him I had fallen in love with this notebook ever since getting it.

Anyhow, he agreed that it seemed like it was the GPU, but still wanted to try to troubleshoot a few things. He had me check the BIOS version (admittedly, I had not done this, but I figured it was not related). We were both kind of surprised to find out my Envy 14 had shipped with the F.06 revision, despite my Envy 14 being built before the F.06 revision was ever available (publicly, at least). So we ruled out the BIOS, and he asked about my video card drivers. I told him I had the 10.7 drivers installed, but the problem had not cropped up for the week I had been using the 10.7 drivers. So I went and downloaded the 10.3 drivers from HP's website, still assuming this would not solve the problem.

While the drivers were downloading, we actually got sidetracked and discussed our phones (he was using a Motorola Cliq and I use a Nexus One), the Android OS, and programming. I installed the drivers while we were chatting (he was actually very knowledgeable), when he warned me that replacing the HDD in the Envy 14 actually voids the warranty (I had no idea). Still, he said he could tell I knew what I was doing, and told me if I send it back for repair, to just replace it with the original hard drive. I thanked him, and I proceeded to attempt reproducing the problem.

So, I loaded up Battlefield: Bad Company 2, as it would stress the GPU and I was able to crash it within 5 minutes on my previous attempt. We were discussing Linux when AT&T's poor service at my house dropped the call. Luckily he had given me a support number. I continued to attempt crashing my Envy 14. It took a while, but eventually it happened, just as it had before.

I called HP back, and was connected with a different agent, who I told my support number to, and she attempted to connect me to the previous agent. Unfortunately, he was on another call, but she told me he had already cleared me for a repair ticket. She set up my repair, said it would cost me $0.00, and I'm now waiting for my pre-paid box to arrive.

Just as I was typing this message, my confirmation email arrived in my inbox. Unfortunately I'll have to drive back here this week to get my box, as I'm moving tomorrow. Then I'll have to drive back again to get my Envy 14 when it arrives. I'll also be stuck on my aged desktop for a week or two, and I'm starting classes real soon.

I used to own an iPhone 3G, and when it broke, Apple's customer support was extremely helpful. I bring this up, as I have to say HP's support was definitely on par, maybe even a little better which says a lot. Maybe I just got lucky, but they made this as painless as possible. I'm still a little sad I could not properly thank that first agent I got-- he was amazing.

Anyways, I am really hoping things will keep going smoothly from here. I would have loved a free upgrade with some better components or something, but hey, that might be asking a little too much. I have to say I'm pleased, and it's going to be hell going without this laptop for a week or two.

So, did I get lucky with my agent or something?

 

I so agree on this point. My iphone 3g began dropping calls, and they replaced it on the spot. Then I dropped my Iphone 4 (My fault I know) and the earpiece stopped working and they still replaced it free of charge even though I said I dropped it.

I hope I never have to deal with HP's support (I would love to not have this laptop break. It's so awesome), but a story like this makes me glad I purchased a 2 year warranty from costco for them. Now I know I'll be fine for those 2 years.

 

When I called HP support, I got a friendly knowledgeable person as well, and he was very informative. I could tell he knew what he was talking about as well, but I don't think I'm going to end up sending mine back. Overall I was surprised at how awesome hp support seemed. Although, you know that hp has an entirly separate support line for the envy series, so that might be it.

 

Well, I just really hope that the story ends on a happy note. As in, I hope that when my Envy 14 comes back it will be working properly. I'd really hate to have to go through the process again.

 

i find that EVERY time ive called in in the past few years, people have been polite.

id say 85% of the time, they have been knowledgable as well.

the other 10%, seem like they are so scripted. Everything is so monotone

and the other 5%, they are just annoyed, or have had a bad day and dont seem too friendly.

 

Well its the same in Germany, the sales team is very polite u know why ...

And as soon as u have to deal with the so called " post sales team " its getting problematic, thats the reason why I will never again buy a laptop or an electric device at the manufacturers shop ...

Just rubbish, especially, u know we are paying premium but we are getting ing low service ...

just my 2 cents ...

 

I had same problem three weeks ago, every time I ran a game, the system crashed with black screen or color stripped screen. I called HP support in my country (Spain) and they told me that they are not responsible of programs that are not included with the PC, so I couldnt demostrate them the overheating. Afortunately, I could return the laptop, cause I know is not a software problem, but a hardware problem and this can not be fixed easily. Good luck.

 

Here is my tech support story from a couple days ago. I originally posted it in the forum but it was insta moved to the Envy 17 owners lounge thread? Anyone know why?

I just received my Envy 17 a little over a week ago. It came with a slight wobble and this past weekend I started playing some SC2 on it and really noticed the heat. Two days ago I noticed a whine that would come and go if I unplugged the battery. Finally there is an issue with the power button where it sometimes needs to be pressed 2-3 time before turning the machine on. I spent an hour on the phone yesterday with tech support and they told me the following:

Laptops get hot and unless you have documentation of being burned by it we won't do anything.

The wobble doesn't exist we can't get our test models to wobble.

Our test models don't whine so that isn't possible either.

You could send it in for the power button, but there is no guarantee anything will get fixed.

I was quite disturbed by their reaction to say the least. What have some of your experiences been with tech support and how have you got them to actually do anything for you?

Specs for the machine (if you want to know):
720 i7 (do the 740 or 840 actually run cooler or is that just a rumor?)
6 gigs of ram
160 gig SSD
High res screen
9 cell battery (all the heat issues took place while the machine was elevated with the 9 cell on a flat surface).

 

I'm really hoping that they'll actually do a good job on my repair-- I absolutely don't want to get back my unit with my problem not fixed.

 

I just called HP to see what they could do about my computer crashing to a black screen/vertical green lines within minutes of playing a video game. The rep said they couldn't do anything about it because it was third party software but I'm pretty certain this is a hardware issue...

 

I know how to fix the crashing, see here.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...t-goes-black-why-please-help.html#post6597994

It's a semi fix, until ATI resolves this.

EDIT: We should let ATI hear about this so there is an official driver update that fixes it. Make some noise on their forums, call them about, etc.

 

If the GPU has to be underclocked to run without crashing, that implies that it is a faulty GPU that can't run at its intended rating.

I'm okay with the 5650 running at 450MHz compared to 550MHz, but if I have to underclock it in order for it to work properly, there is a problem.

I don't think a driver update can fix this-- it's definitely a faulty GPU, which is unacceptable.

HP is willing to repair mine (likely replacing the entire motherboard, I figure), so we'll see when I get it back.

 

My mood went from "optimistic" to "absolutely irate."

I got my Envy 14 back today, and it's physically damaged. The light on the HP logo is off center, and the notebook actually came back with fingerprints, oily, and kind of disgusting. I sent the notebook back in pristine condition, aside from the finicky GPU.

Did I mention even though the HP tech and I determined this is clearly a hardware issue, all they did was reinstall the operating system?

Both the tech and I (on the repair form) left an extremely detailed account of the problem and what was determined not to be the cause.

I'm on the phone with HP's customer support, and this is a joke.

I don't even know where I want to go from here. I guess I'm giving a repair one final shot. The rep this time around told me she was going to elevate the order since it's the second time it's needed a repair. She also said she was going to phone back on each step and ensure the repair techs know it's actually a hardware issue.

If it comes back not fixed, I am going to demand a return and use the money on a different laptop.

So... angry...

 

egh. that sucks man.

 

I went through the same process as you did and had similar worries except I had a display problem. First round of repair: they open the box, looked at the sheet, repacked the laptop, and send it back to me without any repairs. Now I called back HP to get it "elevated" and send it back in. Now, I got lucky on the second round since it seemed like the person that replaced the screen knew what he was doing. The laptop came back in the same condition with the screen replaced and the OS intact.

Now if only they did what was requested the first time, we wouldn't have to go through this hassle.

Wasted about 1 month on this whole process and many calls to HP. Now, I do have to applaud HP totalcare for their friendly and somewhat helpful CSR but they need to get their act straight on the people down at the repair center.

At the end of the day, I am just glad I now have a near perfect(keyboard flex with one unlit subpixel on the new screen) Envy 14.

 

Hey ExodusC, what is the number you called? Also, I didn't realize that replacing the hard drive voids the warranty, is this seriously true? I put in an SSD the first week I had it. But I don't know whether they would be able to tell if I swapped them back, right?

I'm trying to get them to send me a replacement optical drive because mine refuses to burn the recovery disks and in general sucks at life. I actually first called the customer resolution line on page 1 of the Owner's lounge and they gave me $70 back and referred me to tech support, and then tech support said I needed to put back the original hard drive so they could verify that it was a hardware issue. The guy didn't listen to the fact that this wasn't working before I put in the SSD (obviously, how could I try to burn recovery disks without the original HP stuff). I guess absolute worst case, I just have to buy an external optical drive with the $70 I got back.