HP quality/customer service?

I'm thinking of buying a custom ordered dv2700t from hp.com, but I decided to do some research, and I came across horror stories, as well as this website. So, a few questions.

1. What is the chance that my laptop will crap out, and I won't be able to fix it myself(i.e.: a hardware issue)?
2. How accurate is the "shipping date"?
3. Is customer service really that bad? What will I need to do if I want to get some decent support, and have a hassle-free repair/replacement for my laptop, should it unfortunately come to that(DOA)?
4. How is the quality control at HP in custom laptops?

Thanks.

 

1. HP has close to the best quality available. Anything that stops working, HP should repair, if not, most things you could.
2. Usually arrives before it, its late to cover their selves.
3. Support is probably the best you can get for Main Retailers (ex: Dell, HP, Gateway, Acer, Toshiba, etc) "The Big Brands"
4. As said: close to the best you can get.

 

Thanks for the reply but that raises an obvious question in my mind:

But then why does hp.com have an 0.89/10 on resellerratings.com?

 

I've had the laptop in my sig for a month now and I absolutely love it. I did have problems with their customer service getting a new hard drive and recovery discs sent to me however. You have to remember that this is the internet and you will mostly hear the negative side of things. And that goes for any major company. If you don't have a problem then you're most likely not going to 'vent' on the internet.
Customer service aside, I am enjoying my HP laptop. As for the shipping, my CTO went from China to my doorstep in just 2 days way ahead of schedule.

 

Thank you, this makes me much less worried.

Glad I found this place

 

1. No worse than any other laptop crapping out. I don't think HP has any greater or less % of defects compared to other major manufacturers.
2. Not very. Mine ended up shipping and I received it before the build date. (about three days before).
3. Yes, oh my dear lord yes. Out-sourcing a service that relies on communication between end-user (possibly not very comptuer savvy) and technician is perhaps one of the single worst ideas ever thought of. Don't get me wrong, they are polite in India, and I really do think they try, but there is such a language barrier with terminology, verb tenses, even common computer slang. When I call MS to get a product key verified, perfect job for out-sourcing. Sure its a little confusing with the 't' and '3', but we muddle through. But I find it despicable and misleading that HP first-time sales departments are manned by americans just so in order that you get a good feeling about the purchase and out-sourcing doesnt even come to mind. However, they throw you to the wolves (out-sourced tech support) when it comes to resolving a problem; it just makes me madder because I'm already mad I had a problem in the first place. I spent 1.5hrs on the phone with them yesterday when someone who spoke English as a first language could have helped me in 15min flat. Personally, with very few exceptions, I don't deal with companies that outsource if I can help it. Symantec? Screw them. My Symantec sales rep tried to pitch to me that a volume license included tech support. I asked him where it came from and he told me India. I said, "If I have a problem, why would I want to wait in a hold queue for an hour just to explain my problem to someone who isnt going to understand and just frustrate me more?" And lastly, Dell makes me mad because they tout "100% North American" tech support as an added cost to their higher end warrantys. I'm sorry, but that should be standard, hence me picking the lesser evil and buying a dv2700t.
4. Refer to answer 1.

 

Reseller ratings has 2 entries for HP.

HP Home and Home office store. (HPshopping.com) and Hewlett Packard.

HP shopping.com 5.83 six month/5.30 Lifetime

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/HP_Home_Home_Office_Store_3

Hewlett Packard 0.83 six month/3.77 Lifetime

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Hewlett_Packard

Same type of issues on both so I guess you can average them. That would give you 3.33 six month /4.53 lifetime unweighted average.

Compare that to Dell's 4.17 lifetime rating. http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Dell

Plus Dell has a bona fide six month review that comes in at 1.69 (bona fide in that there are greater than twenty 6 month reviews, 77 to be exact. Both HP entries combined [9+3] only come to 12 six month reviews.)

So you can infer that people are more dissatisfied* with Dell currently and overall than HP. Not to mention that Dell has 1300 lifetime reviews while HP's combined lifetime entries only amount to 124 [83+41].

Consider that in the US, HP and Dell sell millions of units per year.

*We know that people are more willing to leave negative feedback than positive.

Hope that helps.

 

I should mention something about when you do have a problem with HP. As long as you are within the warranty, you can *USUALLY* get your problems resolved. However, it's a pain to ship out your lappy and wait. And you will spend lots of time on the phone 1. getting to who can help you, 2. explaining the problem to every person along the way to getting to the one who can help you, 3. waiting on hold while they "document" what you are saying, verifying who you are, and transferring. WAY TOO MUCH RED TAPE!

 

Currently...

1-HP
2-Acer
3-Dell
^In units sold. Although in my opinion, Dell is almost last on the scale of quality and support. Right before Gateway.

 

I agree with the support being top notch. Granted, I sent my laptop for repair and it came back more broken then when I sent it out, but, I called the HP case manager and he gave me a laptop that was near 3 x the value of my last one. In the end, the company did me right.

Only beef I have with them is their underpowered video cards on the dv2XXX and dv6XXX series. Besides that, their support is top notch and a mountain better than Dell's, I know that because I am dealing with Dell's right now (just bought an xps 1530) and they are honestly like the company from hell - no offence to the people that work there, they just outsource their tech support way too much and they have a mountain of a bureaucracy before you can reach anybody with any actual power.

 

1. In the last 5 years, I've gone through 2 HP laptops and am on my 3rd. My third is in for repair as of this posting because of a defect in the motherboard/cooling. They've had it for 30 days and estimate 2 weeks before it's shipped back. For the record, they've pushed the date back twice already. My 2nd laptop went dead just 5 days after the 1year warranty expired. My 1st laptop never died, but the USB ports stopped working, the CD ROM stopped working, the disk drive stopped working...of course, just shortly after the one year warranty ended. The laptops never left my desk at home and all had/have proper ventilation etc. (I.E. i'm not beating them to hell).

I'll never buy another hp after this one craps out, and i'm confident it will.

2. Shipping dates for repair, horrendously inaccurate (in my experience). Shipping dates for orders, I don't know. I've always store bought my laptops.

3. Customer service is outright terrible. Did I mention they'll have my laptop for 45 days if they stick to their scheduled ship date for my repair? Ever try explaining to someone in India that a screw is stripped? good luck. You go through endless transfers and endless explaining. If you have a more complex problem, then you'll do it all over again and MAYBE get some help. HP often promises a "case manager" will call back within 48 hours. Out of 3 promises, I've never gotten that call.
So what you're really left with is dealing with lower level grunts on the other end of the line that can't do much of anything with the slim possibility of being able to speak to someone more able to address your concerns/problems. To top it off, you have to navigate a terrible automated system before getting to speak to a real human.

For this reason alone, my next purchase will be with someone providing native english speaking reps and less "red tape" to get my problem resolved. Even better, face to face communication....Apple is starting to look pretty damn good.

4. Have no experience in this area, but I wouldn't expect any different treatment than their standard production practices.

This is just my experience. I'm sure I fall in the minority (although I've read other horror stories), but to me if a business wants to remain a business, it should practice and conduct good business practice ALL the time to ALL customers. HP decides to cut costs and pass those savings on to the customer, but in the end the customer loses.

In the past I've choosen to forego customer service for price. In the future, I'd much rather pay a premium to get quality service then to have to deal with knucklheads like HP. Just remember, my story COULD be yours so you'll have to decide if it's worth the risk to save money.

My experience has taught me that it's not worth the risk.