Looking For a General Sense of HP Laptop Reliability & Customer Service Satisfaction

I purchased a new USA HP Pavilion dv9700t laptop recently (configuration below).

- HP Pavilion dv9700t Entertainment CTO NB
- Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)
- Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo Processor T9300 (2.50 GHz, 6 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
- 17.0" WSXGA+ High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1680 x 1050)
- 3GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
- 50% OFF 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS!!
- FREE Upgrade to HP Imprint (Radiance) + Fingerprint Reader + Webcam + Microphone
- Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection and Bluetooth(TM)
- 240GB 7200RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (120GB x 2)
- LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
- No TV Tuner w/remote control
- High Capacity 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
- System Recovery DVD with Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)
- Microsoft(R) Works 9.0

I had initially purchase a 15.4 inch dv6700tse. I kept it for just short of the 3 week period return period. A $500 coupon became available so I opted for the larger 17 inch screen. I had no problems with the first laptop and none so far with the second. I had some trouble connecting at my favorite coffee shop but I now think the problem was with their router and not my computer. It connects fine now.

I love the computer. The screen is beautiful and it runs very fast. Vista hasn't been a problem either. I like to watch movies and Windows Media Center is great.

From my perusal of the this forum I have read a number of HP service horror stories. I am mindful that these are probably isolated incidents and that most customers are very happy with their HP laptop purchases and never have a reason to post to any forum.

I have also downloaded a freeware version of SiSoftware Sandra. It is a system analyser, diagnostic and benchmarking program. I am going to run it and check out my machine before my return period lapses.

I wanted to to get general feedback from the many HP laptop purchasers, particularily those that have the dv9000t Series. I wanted to get a broader sense of HP laptop reliability in general. Any experiences and opinions would be appreciated. I am interested in drawing out more of the positive experiences as the negative ones are already more at the forum forefront.

Thanks in advance!

 

Glad you're happy, HP is the bomb-diggity =D, mine is coming in a couple of days, and I am sure of the quality, because my sister has had her HP for a few years now, and it still runs fabuloso.

 

I've never had any issues with my HP to begin with. I called HP once because of a problem with Vista, but they redirected me. The customer service reps were friendly and very courteous.

 

I'm copying most of my response from another thread that asked a similar question a while back but let me say up front that I love, love, love my DV9700T...when it works.

I've had a mixed bag of good and bad experiences with HP and my latest experience has sent me to buy my first non-HP computer (Dell) to give a Vostro 1700 a try.

I got my first HP about 15 years ago. I traded my weight bench for a friend's clunky HP desktop -- back in the days when they used to brand their computers with "Hewlett-Packard" instead of HP.

I've been buying HP's ever since.

My first laptop was an HP ZE1230 bought from Best Buy. I overpaid for it but was too dumb to realize it. I didn't even know HPShopping.com existed back then.

I think it's about 7 or 8 years old. It's now my mother's and she loves it. She just watches videos, looks at pictures, Emails and uses the Internet but this laptop has served both of us well and it's still going strong even though my Mom carries it everywhere with her on a daily basis. Never had a single problem.

A few years ago, I bought a customized ZX5000 series from HPShopping. About 6 months later, the power jack went out and since it was attached to the motherboard, the motherboard had to be replaced. The DVD drive went out a couple of weeks after that and I sent it back in for repairs. Less than a week after it got back, the audio card started making static noises like something had been knocked loose when it was in for repairs. Back again it went -- 3 times in one month. I was shocked!

When it arrived back from the audio card repair, it had the deepest scratches on the lid like the whole thing had been keyed. I had been so careful with this laptop -- it had never even left the house and was in mint condition. And now it looked like it had been put on its lid and used as a soccer ball in a metal factory.

I called customer service and they got a Quality Control Manager involved. He called me, I explained about the repairs and then this new issue with the lid being so bad. He then told me he was going to send me a brand new computer. I didn't ask for it. I was so naive about the whole situation, I didn't even know it was a possibility to get a new one.

In about 2 days, I had been sent a ZX5280 with better specs and the QC Mgr even told me to keep the one that had been damaged for as long as I needed so I could get my files off of it. I sent my old one back within a week and the ZX5280 is still going strong about 4 years later and has never had a single problem.

My 1 year old even discovered it on my bookshelf and threw it in the floor. Dropped from the second shelf and it's perfectly fine. I had it on the bed (lid closed and turned off) and the darn thing slid off and onto the floor. Still fine.

I only bought a DV9500T CTO because of the great coupon HPShopping had going on back in Dec. I had that thing for 48 hours before I tried to burn some data and noticed the DVD drive was taking 5 hours to burn 150 MB of data. Back it went and they built me another one to replace it - a DV9700T since it had just come out and replaced the DV9500T about a week before.

The DV9700T had a dead pixel I noticed right away. Then I noticed the backlight in one spot on the left side was going out near that dead pixel. I asked everyone about it here and they said to send it back because there was something going on with it that I didn't need to be strapped with since I was still within my 21 day return period.

Customer service wanted to build me another one but I was gun shy at this point. They offered to have a production team of 4-5 technicians run a new one through a bunch of thorough tests after it was built and before it was shipped to me. I didn't like that offer because it just seemed like they should be testing these components before they decide they're going to stick them in customers' laptops, you know!?

I almost bought a Dell Inspiron 1720. Had it in my shopping cart and just couldn't submit my order because I had never seen an Inspiron in person. We have a Dell XPS desktop that we won in a contest and it gets so hot. I just didn't know what to expect from Dell, even though I hear great things about them.

I had my eye on another DV9700T CTO through Costco. Costco offers you a 90 day return period and doubles your manufacturer's warranty to 2 years. But the prices and rebates were just too much of a difference with HPShopping releasing coupons all the time.

In the meantime, HP released a bigger coupon than the one I had previously used. A $500 off coupon. After way too much time wondering if I should do this and using too much of my brainpower to analyze every little pro and con, I decided to give HP one last chance. This is it. Just one more try before I make the switch to Dell or some other manufacturer.

I bought a DV9700T CTO with better specs for even less than I had originally paid using the $500 off.

With my previous 2 laptops in Dec having something wrong, I asked people here what I should test. From their advice, I tested the processor and RAM, monitored the temps, tested the drives. I've never done anything like that before but after people here told me what to do and how to do it, I was able to come to the conclusion that this one was a keeper.

Day 32 of ownership - I boot up my DV9700T. The LCD is totally black. It will hook to my external monitor but off to repairs it goes. I'm without it 13 days before it returns from HP repairs. Got it Wednesday afternoon.

I ordered a Dell Vostro 1700 around 1 a.m. Wed. morning before the DV9700T came back. We'll see how I like that and the DV9700T and my time as an HP customer may come to an end if I do.

I love my DV9700T (when it works). As a long-time customer, there's no way I would have bought this laptop if I hadn't had a good experience with HP over the years. Now I just don't know...

I'm not going to go through this every month. I just want a computer that works out of the box and I don't think that's too much to ask for.

Anyway, my customer service experience with HP has been decent. Pro - They have been very good to me any time I've had a problem. I'm never treated like I'm stupid and have never turned on a computer in my life. I always get some sort of result that I'm satisfied with.

Con - I don't like having to call customer service...especially when I've had my laptop a week or, worse, the DV9500T that I'd had for 48 hours. Another con is that you have to spend a lot of time on the phone with them. Even when I returned the first one, the returns dept. made me go through technical support so I could re-explain the DVD problem, get a service ticket # and then go back to the returns dept.

Doesn't sound so bad reading it in a sentence like that but this entire process took an hour and 15 minutes. If I'm well within my 21 day returns period and can just return it because I simply don't like it, why should I have to go through this long drawn out process when I have a problem and need to send it back?

The second time with the LCD problem, same exact thing. Over an hour on the phone and then they said they had authorized my laptop for a repair and it would be back to me within 10 days. I told them politely that that wasn't going to happen on a one week old laptop. I wasn't going down the repair road right from the start. And that was no problem. They processed my refund right then.

I spent another hour on the phone with technical support when the LCD died. I was on hold forever while they put everything into the system.

Another con is that you will talk with more people that you can barely understand when calling customer service. I'm not bashing anyone but you may find yourself asking the person on the other end to repeat themselves a few times.

Pro - If you have to have a repair, they overnight you a box, you can have FedEx pick your laptop up or you can drop it at a FedEx. They overnight it back to HP repairs. HP repairs overnights it back to you when it's complete. It sucks to have to take this option but at least it doesn't spend 3-5 days shipping one way and then back another.


My 2 cents, for what they're worth.

 

Hi

I haven't had to use HP's support other then downloading drivers.
My previous laptop was a Lenovo T60 which was very good but I have to say HP 8510w which I have now is even better. It's better built and HP's site is much better when I need to download software for a clean installation. I chose this laptop over the Lenovo T61p as the screen is much better and I thought it looked sleeker too.

Simon

 

I have been dealing with HP/Compaq for years and have had numerous products from said company(ies). In general I have been very pleased and consider their products to be top notch, That being said, I have had a couple of bumps in the road dealing with warranty issues(They wanted to put a hold on my credit card for $330 to cross ship an $85 drive, language barriers, etc.) but in generaly I'm happy. Especially with my current laptop(specs in sig). For the price, its really hard to beat HP's Compaq line.

 

Thanks for your replies.

 

This thread tell several warranty stories.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=233974

 

I you one of the few lucky once that yours works without trouble...YOU ARE Lucky...

but when it break down & you have to rely one HP Repair starts a steep learning curve....too steep for me and many others here.

I received my 3 monts old dv9500t back today ...(2nd time around repair) with a problem HP repair caused after the fixed the repair and shipped it back 1/2 finished.

The repair place claimed on the the sheet "NO Trouble" found...but updated bios... The dam laptop did not close properly...but I guess the fixed it quietly..and claimed "no problems found" to cover up their mistales.

I called HP Corperate and talk to Customer Service there ..that's the only way I got the laptop back because it was laying around "ON HOLD" don't ask me way!

I'm done with HP..I'll spend my money some place else next time!

 

Until it fails for the first time it will be a beatiful machine... after that it will be like a piece of junk that you will keep sending for a repair... at least that is how it was with mine...

But the business cust. service is very good. ok. it is good. nothing more.