Maybe a happy ending for my DV9000

I have written about my disappointing, unreliable DV9000 in the past, but now -- thanks to a case manager and my 3-year Care Pack -- the ending might turn out to be happy after all.
I ordered my DV9000 CTO in November 2006, and it turned out to be a nightmare. The display hinge split, the DVD drive kept popping open, it had two replacement system boards, and it ultimately spend more than two months out of 24 being repaired. (Yes, I know many people suffered even worse than that).
My DV9000 was such a piece of crap that I bought a Vostro 1400 to use during its frequent trips to "rehab." My wife later declared that the $700 price was a bargain compared to listening to me "p*** and moan for two weeks every six months."

When the laptop failed yet again this month -- it suddenly shuts down like flipping off a light switch -- I started my initial contact with HP laptop support by telling them I expected a new laptop to replace "this obvious lemon." This got me nothing but a ticket number, but that was all I wanted: I used it to call the case manager hotline (877-917-4380 x06).
To my surprise, the guy who took my call agreed that they should replace it. He spec'd out a new dv7t-2000 and put it in as a CTO order, telling me I should have it in about two weeks!

If that actually happens, it would restore a great deal of my faith in Hewlett-Packard products and services. This will benefit HP more than one might expect: I run a home PC repair company with about 700 customers -- all of whom ask me what brand to buy before they make a purchase, and none of whom would have been advised to buy an HP... until perhaps three weeks from now.

(I wonder if HP will sell me another 3-year care pack for the new machine? It might be well worth another $200, especially if the dv7t sucks half as hard as the DV-series...)

One important thing: the case manager only found records of one warranty repair -- the most recent -- under my laptop's serial number. Fortunately, I had complete records on each repair, so I was able to give him the depot service number (three letters, three numbers, hyphen, two more numbers; e.g., MXX-123-01) for all four of the laptop's trips back to the depot. Without that, I might be writing a much different and angrier thread here today.

 

Sorry for the incident and congrats for the new laptop. Do you think hp customer service has been good? I mean you've had to argue with them each time you phoned. You literally begged them to give you a new laptop. I think you should write a complaint letter to their customer service when you receive your laptop, telling them about the deficiencies in their csr.

 

HP knows all about the deficiencies in their offshore support, but they will never change back to a North American call center for first-level support because it would cost too much.
I hated talking to the offshore technicians, but not for the usual reasons: I'm a 'retired' corporate technical support team lead, XP image designer and malware expert. I already know what's wrong with the laptop when I call, I wouldn't be calling them for a software problem because I handle those myself, and I lack the patience to work my way through their lame troubleshooting Q&A scripts. The only "arguments" with the offshore call center consisted of me repeating "I WANT A CASE MANAGER" over and over again, more and more loudly, until I obtained the direct number and cut them out of the equation.

Once I reached the case managers, there were never any arguments: they treated me quite well. Each time I described the obvious hardware problems, they immediately send a repair shipping box. Each repair took two weeks or less including shipping. The one time that the laptop case was damaged during the repair, I got another box right away and the damage was fixed within two more weeks... a huge inconvenience, to be sure, but as good as one could expect from mail-in service.

After the most recent failure, I didn't have to "beg" for the replacement: I asked for it on my initial Email contact last week, used the ticket number they issued to get a case manager, and got immediate agreement that the four previous repairs and the CarePack added up to a new laptop! The guy didn't try to gyp me on the specs, either. Assuming it comes in on time & as promised, I will be quite satisfied with the way HP handled the fifth warranty failure of this laptop.

Bottom line: the defective laptop itself was a long waking nightmare, and the call center in Jalalabababooeybai is hellish, but HP's repair service was as good as one can expect in this globalized mess of an economy.