V5000Z DDR2 and HP support. Just read future customer

Hi,
I got my new V5000Z. The best thing about that supposed to be the DDR2 support. The day I ordered I did not know that it just cannot be true. After ordering I called HP twice and emailed them. After the last call I was assured that it can work with DDR2 PC 4200. Yesterday I think, the web page was changed (after a month). I talked to a friend and he just convinced me that I did not get what I ordered and paid. So I decided to email the manager Mr Hurd with the following words. When (if ever) I get the answer I will also post it here and that will be the second part of the story (if i get the answer) . Just read, think and think twice if You see some fancy feature with hp laptops. I would be glad to hear Your opinions on that.

"Dear Mr Hurd,

The reason to send this email is the way I was treated (and I guess also others customers) during buying Compaq presario V5000Z laptop from HP, which involved your website and phone/online support. That model was advertised online as working with DDR2 memory which was not true.

The first day I found on the website new laptop model Compaq Presario V5000Z I ordered it. The great thing about that suppposed to be the support for DDR2 memory. I got very exited about that. After litle searching online I got suspicious. I send an email to the tech support. The answer I got convinced me that the person knows less about computers than me (I keep the email). Then I called the tech support; I was trasferred somewhere and the first person did not distinguish the main RAM and the graphics RAM and never heard about a memory specification except the memory size (model I ordered has its own dedicated), the second never heard about this model. I could not get any info on the memory specification. Finally I called HPshopping and talked with the representative who did a little searching and told me exactly that my computer would support DDR2 PC 4200 memory.

Yeasterday I (after about a month) the website was changed and there is no more false option of buying DDR2 with that model.
Bbefore that I called the cusomer support and finally HP confessed that V5000Z does not have anything to do with DDR2 memory. I ask for a compensation and all I got was short appologies.

First, for me it looks like cheating and marketing trick (please,correct me if I am wrong). Many pople are very interested in buying this model (just check the forums) and already many could be fooled as me. The apologies is not enough beacause I did not say just "thanks" when I bought it but I paid with money and did not get what I ordered. These kind of tricks maybe are frequent in banana republics but here in US is just surprising, furtermore HP is an international company which I thought cares about customer's opinion.
I am a student and I need a computer to study and work. The semester already begun and I just do not have time to play with returning etc. In other case I would do that and not bother myself and You. I think others customers could be in similar situation. I am not a lawyer and I do not know if that what happend is legal, not legal or close to the line. I know it is unfair and and shows disrespect to customers.
I wonder if HP is willing to give any real compensation for its cheated customers (I think many pople bought it during that month it was advertised as going with DDR2) and what is more important try to avoid such situations in the future.

I will keep the laptop and will not call the support with that case anymore. I just got tired of uncompetent representatives.
Whatever the anwer is, I am posting it online along with this letter to let future customers know what they might expect.

I wish Hp good luck for future and ever more luck to its customers."

I promise to do a detailed review soon. If You need short info on V5000Z ( except the DDR2 memory I can help. :hp: ????

 

As much as HP may of made a mistake, I mean you should of known or researched that Turion that didn't support DDR2.

I mean, when you chose a laptop, you probably researched about Turion's performance and power consumption.

But anyway, to make you feel better. DDR2 won't offer much improvement to the Turion even if it DID support. DDR2 SO-DIMM has such high latency, it offers about the same bandwidth as DDR400, just a tad more. The real improvement you would see from DDR2 over DDR is if DDR2 is signicantly faster in bus speed (ie PC5400) or its latency improves (3-2-2 or 4-2-2).

The small increase in bandwidth isn't as beneficiary to the Turion as opposed to Pentium Ms due to Turion's HyperTransport compared to Pent M's bottlenecked 533Mhz bus.

 

Don't worry about DDR2, there's hardly any performance increase over DDR, plus the latencies are signifigantly higher.

Yes - I think that you should have looked up to see if the Turion supported DDR2 . . . pretty easy to find the answer.

In order for AMD's to support DDR2 memory (which AMD's new processors will later this year), the chip would have to be revamped - on AMD64 processors, the memory controller is located on-chip, much more difficult to change than in Intel's - their memory controller is on the Northbridge. All they pretty much have to do is change that, and BAM! DDR2 support.

 

Yes AnycZ,

I'd really see the design of this new baby. Please us some pics, all around - LOL. That would be spectacular..


tx

 

just got my new v5000z last week. Of course I knew the DDR2 was bogus after a little spelunking - so what? For $1200 I got a machine with xp pro, Turion ML40, 80 gig 5400 hard drive and 1 Gig ram - along with the usual wireless, usb ports etc. etc. Difficult to understand what AnycZ is crying about. Its a beautiful little machine. Not being into the comic strip fantasies of the gaming crowd, I can't even gripe about the Graphics unit (128MB ATI Radeon® XPRESS 200M with Hypermemory™ ). If I had a camera, I'd do a review.

 

I think the point of the original post is being missed here. If a company, like HP, posts on their website to the open public that the computer supports DDR2 or whatever else then it should, end of story. And if a person bought the computer based on the misconception on the website then they have mislead him. This is bad business. Personally, if I read in black and white that it supports ddr2, I probably wouldnt have checked it..but I admit that Im not that technical anyway(but more so than the average person shopping online). It's about principles and a "legitimate" company selling a product should have some. No matter how great the product sold was or is, the buyer was still mislead.

 

It was a mistake, jesus. People make mistakes, they're only human. Salespeople, especially on a phone line for HPshopping only know what they read on the stat page. If they're not techies, they're not going to know anything about AMD not supporting DDR2 memory modules until the M2 socket premieres.

 

I also found the info on HP's website to be not reliable. They have also changed the memory info for DV4000 3 months ago. It originally said with their new technology, you may use unmatched DDR2 SODIMM in dual channel configuration in the new DV4000. Then they changed to "when matching pairs are used". Their live chat support on the web also told me that my DV4000 does not support the IR media remote since it has no IR sensor. This turned out to be wrong again. I almost return my laptop within the 21-day satisfaction guarantee period. If you do, they'll cover the return shipping charge and refund the total cost. I can definitely see your flustration and I have also decided not to waste my time with their so called technical support anymore.

 

Legally, HP should recognize the issue and release official message to all buyers during that period. They could simply apologize and send small gift or offer full refund on those who has purchased.

While many people know Turion (and I think the WHOLE AMD family) do not support DDR2, it is not the responsible for customer to know all the detail. It is misleading and might turn into ugly lawsuit if they are not acting fast. Says, if a car advertised with 8 cylinders but it is actually 6 cylinders (while the same HP-horse power), would you take that to consideration when buying?

Hopefully, they are working on this. I currently have good experience with HP and I think they would work this out. (Maybe, they will send a stick of 1 GB for you for compensation )

 

Finally I got the feedback from HP. It does not fulfil my expectation but at least something. I would not cal this "typographical error in the description " because HP kept that error almost a month!. Finally it is first time HP confessed that there was an error. I only wonder if this applies only to me or other customers? here is the answer:
"Dear Valued HP Customer:


Thank you for your purchase of a Configure-to-Order HP notebook computer, we hope you have enjoyed using this product. We are writing to inform you that during a recent internal audit, we discovered a description error on your V5000Z notebook.

Our records indicate that at the time your order was placed, there was a typographical error in the description of the memory speed for your unit. The description on your order should have read “DDR”. We want to assure you that you were charged the correct price for your memory as the only error was in the description.

At Hewlett Packard, we hold ourselves to a high standard of quality and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. As compensation, we will be sending via email, a $25 hpshopping.com coupon to be spent as you wish. You will receive your coupon in 7 to 10 days from the date of this letter. Our goal is simple; we want to keep you as a customer for many years to come. ......"