HP's customer support is truly awful.

I can't believe the awful treatment I'm receiving from them.

To make a long story short:

Bought an HP DV5030US in March of '06. Noticed motherboard problems in June. Finally had my case handed over to a case manager after dealing with god knows how many hours spent with outsourced Indian tech support.

Case Manager Roy Herrera basically tells me I'm SOL because his "engineer" has never heard of the problems I'm having. Arguing goes on for months until the motherboard finally croaks just days before the 1 year warranty is up.

It took 2 full months of sending the system back and forth to HP to finally get it fixed and then replaced.

Replacement comes and it locks up a couple of times on the first day. I write it off as a Vista issue, because I was a Vista tester and I knew how unstable the OS was during testing.

As time goes on the locking up gets worse and worse. I'm not talking about software freezes. I'm talking about full system lockups where I have to force the system to shut down, or the system shuts down on its own and restarts.

Bluescreens start happening. Even when I'm trying to INSTALL Windows, it bluescreens and restarts.

System gets sent in for repair because the DVD drive went bad. Which is a miracle because I never even had the opportunity to use.

System comes back all scratched up and still locking up. Another month of arguing with a case manager and filing another BBB complaint against HP goes by.

Now HP has my system, they haven't even updated the website to acknowledge they have received it and its been more than 2 days (FedEx shows it as delivered and signed for). And I'm dealing with someone now from the "corporate office" who is only in the office until 2PM Pacific. So I have to wait until MONDAY to hear from her again. Meanwhile, HP has had my system for THREE days now and not even acknowledged it.

Ridiculous.

 

Roy is the worst case manager at HP. Sorry to hear you got stuck with him. Executive customer relations (ECR) is nice to hear for a change, but they are equally useless. They don't actually do anything, they just follow up and make you feel better.

The best thing you can do is make yourself comfortable because you are on a train ride of HELL. If you have had it with repairs not working out (lemon), just keep sending it in. After the 2nd or 3rd repair, ask for a replacement if they don't offer you one. Eventually they will realize it's cheaper to replace your unit than it is to keep trying to fix it. If you hear no word or keep getting the run around (lost laptop or backordered part), tell them you are out of options and can wait no longer.

Once you get a replacement, it will go well from there. You will have a brand new unit with a brand new warranty.

 

What kubel said is true.
The last time mine was in for repair they had it for 28 days. It worked for 3 or 4 days and turned paperweight again. They did finally replace that system. Now the good news. My upgraded replacement is working great. I have even upgraded the primary hard drve to a 7200rpm 160gig Seagate. I still have the 100 gig Seagate in drive bay 2. Now I run the original 120 gig hard drive in a SATA USB drive caddy. I backup up my system to that drive. All is working fine.

Jim

 

Sauron I would suggest you send a complaint regarding your Case Manager to Mark Hurd and request your case and future cases be switched to a different Case Manager.

If you feel like putting forth the effort, summarize all the issues you've had since you received the laptop, normally any Case Manager that reads it will offer a replacement no questions asked.

When being issued a replacement, be sure to confirm the specifications with the Case Manager, because *some* Case Managers will try and shaft you on the replacement specifications. Luckily, the two Case Managers I've had have been fairly helpful, understanding and polite.

 

FYI, Random system lockups could be (keyword: COULD be) caused by bad RAM. If you get the machine back, and it still crashes hard, try running Memtest. I don't know the details, but perhaps someone can provide more info on this RAM-testing program.

Of course, there are other possibilities, as well.

Sorry you've had such a bad time with HP. They seem to be very much hit-or-miss when it comes to build quality and customer service. So much so, in fact, that it's usually one extreme or the other. Either you get a machine that goes on for years w/o problems and/or great tech support that will follow up on you AFTER you get your machine back, or you get what SauronMOS is going though.

 

If you don't mind me asking, how did you install Windows without using the drive? Or do you do the same thing I used to and shove it onto a flash drive then copy to the HDD?

 

Let me put forth a hypothetical situation:

It seems customers' experience w/HP tech support is--or can/will be--hellish. If a customer has purchased the Accidental Damage Protection/Extended Warranty, might it not be simpler, if the system seems to be having a hardware problem, to chalk it up to accidental damage and go that route for relief? The case need not show exterior damage for something internal to have broken--i.e. say the laptop slipped out of your hands and dropped flat on its bottom on a wood tabletop. The case is okay, but interior elements appear to have become damaged.

This would not be fraud, as there is a contractual agreement w/HP, whether via the warranty or the ADP, to repair or replace the computer and return it to the customer in working condition. If HP can't/won't repair under one mode, would not the other be just redress?

This, of course, would exclude those who might run over their computer w/their car one month before the ADP is to expire, w/the intent to deceive and receive a new system. I'm only speaking, hypothetically, of getting from HP what they have promised in the first place, in a reasonable time frame.

As "tech support" seems to have become a synonym for "f*** off and die" from, not just HP, but most computer companies these days, and since it seems the end user has so little power to receive justice, what choices are there?

 

wow! sorry to hear all ur troubles.my hdd has to replaced. only had it a week,but im lucky they are replacing the notebook for a new one.or i shouldnt say hp are. the store where i got it are.

 

Claiming it's accidental damage won't solve the problem, since the same person would be handling the case and it has the same coverage. The problem now is likely a back-ordered part or a lost laptop, but that's hard to say for certain since they have only had it for 2 days which is well within their repair time.

 

Its amazing how many people here have gone through similar bad things with HP.

I wonder how much it cost to buy that JD Power and Associates "award" for customer service?

Anyway, I received a funny email Friday night at almost Midnight.

Somehow, my system showed up at HP on Friday night at 11:50PM. A full 2 days and nearly 16 hours after FedEx delivered it.

Now I'll be expecting a call from "Ginger" tomorrow.

I've run some tests on the system.. the RAM passed, so I don't think its bad memory.

It just seems to be another faulty motherboard.

It really is a miracle that the DVD drive went bad though. It didn't even get used! And it was a replacement for the other!

And then theres the physical damage that was caused by HP.

I just can't wait to get this call back from "Ginger". She seems to think that I was just disappointed with the laptop and that it had no problems. So I had to leave her 10 minutes worth of voice mail (3 seperate messages) to explain the entire situation.

If I don't hear from her before noon, I will be calling her myself.

 

If you are withen the 30 days you can always just send them back the laptop

 

Waiting for a call back, again.

HP always seems to deliberately call when you tell them you won't be available so they don't have to speak directly to you.

She leaves the office at 2pm so I'll be calling her in a couple of minutes if she doesn't call me.

And for the record, my first BBB complaint was handled by an older sound woman named "Annette". I'm dealing with a younger sounding woman named "Ginger", but shes even worse at handling this than Annette was!

 

Received my system back today.

What was replaced?

The DVD drive.

The HDD that has gone bad as a result of the motherboard locking the system up was not replaced.

The motherboard itself was not replaced.

And the scratched up casing is even more scratched up now and obviously not replaced.

I've let both "Ginger", a woman whom I have never spoke to and never returns calls, and my case manager know that I will be filing complaints with the FTC, Consumer Federation of California, and the California Division of Consumer Affairs if this situation is not taken care of.

 

Wow.... That's pretty bad.
Really dumb question: You told them the HD and MoBo were bad, right? Assuming you did (which is 99.9% likely that that was the case), then....you've had some really bad luck with HP.

 

"HP's customer support is truly awful."

Guys, I just want to add my rant to the post and say "AMEN" in big bold letters....

HP SUCKS!!!!! I spent 8 hours on the phone with 5 different reps trying to get help with getting an English version of the recovery DVDs since the current one is in Spanish. Its a simple yes or no answer if that is available or not

they create a case (which takes an hour) and every time u call they ask u all the details again "just to confirm"