HP Warranty Service Case Study Log

I am a diehard HP guy who currently owns 5 HP notebooks(4 DV6's and one DV7). Have owned these laptops an average of one year now and overall, they get an A grade, which is not an A+ only due to a few problems. I should also note that these laptops are mostly used as primary desktop systems and get used an average use of something like 6 hours a day. One DV6 is at college with my daughter and so far, has been perfect. Another DV6 is my wife's and mostly stays in the bedroom for her to use although it does travel with her on business trips. That one perfect too. Another DV6 is being used as a home music/movie/online HT PC and not problems there either. My DV7 has been perfect except for that iritating Window's update problem where it can never install 4 pesky old updates which just sit there and continually remind me to install the really old "critical" updates which will never install apparently.

That leads me to the only DV6 giving me problems and how HP is responding to the problem. First, a little history on this unit. Within a month after buying this DV6 the hard drive just died. No warning at all, but after troubleshooting the problem, it was obvious the HD was dead. Called HP and they said to replace the HD under warranty I had to send in the entire laptop to them and would be without the unit for at least 2-3 weeks. At the time, that was unacceptable... so I had them note the HD failure and told them I would buy a new HD and then send in the entire laptop whenever I got a chance to do so and could do without the laptop for that time. Now, move forward in time by approx 10 months. Yesterday, the laptop just went black/died in the middle of some work. No warning, no messages about shutting down...it just stopped working. Did all the troubleshooting stuff including the one minute power button reset and tested the power adapter on one of my other DV6s.

So, today I chatted with HP and since it is still under warranty for more than another year they are having me send the unit to be repaired, free of charge, including shipping, and I should have it back within two weeks or so. I refreshed their memory as to the original HD failure and therefore reinstalled the original failed drive and have it ready to send it back to them once I receive the prepaid FedEx box... probably on Monday.

Will post the process as it happens and will also be glad to answer questions from others who are considering HP and/or their extended warranty units.

In the meantime, wish me luck!!

 

Good luck with that process, I love your sig btw! I wonder if the screen might just be dead and you can't see anything, does it sound like it's booting -- is the HD spinning up etc.? Can't quite tell if you're saying it's not showing any signs of life or that it is and you just can't see anything on the screen.

 

Nope, no sound, no HD spinning, no LEDs even when plugged into verified working AC adapter. This DV6 is a paperweight right now.
One note concerning your question on the LCD which does bear mentioning - the LCD screen cable is a tiny bit short and has been known to become disconnected over time. I had that happen on one of my DVs and it was a simple fix of reconnecting the LCD plug and slapping on a tiny piece of electrical tape to hold it in place.

Hoping to receive my prepaid return FedEx Box today.

 

UPDATE: Got the PrePaid Fed Ex Box from HP yesterday, packaged the unit according to instructions, filled out the Unit Problem sheet and put an entire page of details on the back side of form according to instructions.
Noted three problems with DV6:
- Dead Original Hard Drive
- Glitchy Wireless Card which occasionally would stop working and then require a hard boot to be once again activated and working
- Dead Unit which died while working without warning and now refuses to power up or show any life at all including when plugged into the AC Adapter.

Also included the troubleshooting I have done with regard to the above issues.

During the chat with the HP tech support agent, he told me that I should not send in my batter or AC Adapter with the DV6.... BUT, the written instructions I received with the PrePaid Fed Ex box said that if one of the issues had to do with the unit refusing to power up, I SHOULD return the battery and AC Adapter with the DV6... so that's what I did. I figured written instructions overrode oral ones.

Dropped it off at a Fed Ex pickup point today around 3:30p and since Fed Ex picks up at 5pm, my DV6 should be on its' way to the local Houston area repair center. Might even get there tomorrow in spite of being sent via 2 day Fed Ex. I was tempted to just take the unit and drop it off at the repair center, but wanted to be able to report on the hopefully excellence of the HP warranty repair program just as how a customer who was not local would experience.

So far, so good... in fact, so far, very good!

 

I have to point out that for the most part, I am a perfectionist and when it comes to someone else fixing my stuff, I am very critical and beforehand usually cynical of their ability or desire to make me happy....

HOWEVER, in this specific case, HP could not have done better by me, IMO.

I shipped my DV6 back to them in their own prepaid FedEx Box on the 13th and got it back in my hands via Fed Ex on the 18th. That time period included a weekend so I got it back in 4 business days from the day I shipped it. IMO, that is freakin incredibly good.

So, you can imagine my skepticism as to what I would be getting back and opened the box, plugged in the AC adapter and fired up the laptop with a smirk on my face. I expected to be sending back the laptop that day for more repairs which were not done. HP wiped that smirk off my face and replaced it with a huge happy grin.

First thing I saw when I opened the box was the report from the HP service center which noted that the Hard Drive and Motherboard were replaced. I expected/hoped to see that... but did not expect to see that they also replaced my DV6's wireless card AND the LCD screen! I had included a list of problems which included the HD, non-power up problem(motherboard?) and the intermittently glitchy wireless card... but only casually mentioned that my LCD panel had gone black and upon searching the internet learned that the LCD cable was a bit short, aka perfect and sometimes came loose when you opened and closed the lid a bunch of times. I mentioned to the online tech that I just replugged the LCD cable back in and added a small piece of tape to hold it in place and it was fine. Well, I guess that wasn't fine with HP because they replaced my LCD and also replaced the cable to the new LCD.

I have been holding off from posting this 5A+ rating(the best) because I wanted to "run in" the laptop just to make sure it wasn't going to fail after I sang HP's praises ......but, after extensive use and recharging and use and recharging over the past week and I had my son play LOL online for probably at least 30 hours over the past days has been perfect. HP has returned to me a virtual NEW DV6.
I cannot imagine any company doing better with a warranty repair.

I have read of other on-site problems with HP warranty repairs and since my warranty site is local(part of why I got it back so quickly), I think I have decided to buy an extended HP Pack Warranty on this laptop, my primary PC a DV7 for $129. OR, maybe just use that $129 to buy another new DV7 and pass this one down to one of my kids or wife.

If you have questions, please post them and I will be glad to answer them.