Where should I buy warranty for my HP Pavilion?

I've just bought an HP Pavilion dv9220 one hour ago from a Best Buy which is right across my office (in Toronto). The warranty that I want - 3 yrs onsite excepting accidental damage - is $320 from HP and $455 at Best Buy. What should I do? The Best Buy seller said there are 2 advantages if I go with their product. First, I can just bring it in the store and have it looked at on the spot instead of having it shipped out for every minor thing. Second, if smth happens to the laptop in one-two yrs and they have no similar model, they might upgrade to a better one (while HP will always have similar models in stock). Does this justify a difference in price of $135? (Actually, the difference would be $155 with taxes, in Ontario we still pay 15% taxes when buying online) At the same time, HP support has a great reputation (that's one of the reasons I chose HP); I have no idea about the Best Buy technicians... What would you suggest I do?

 

Go with HP.

Best Buy is known make problems worse than actually help at all.

I dealt with HP's accidental protection last summer, and they had my severly damaged notebook (I dropped it) repaired and back to be in 7 days, with a bigger hard drive and DVD-burner (I had a combo drive before) installed.

Couldn't be happier with HP's service.

 

First, congratulations on your new HP. I received my dv6275us on Monday and have enjoyed it greatly. I was torn between it and the dv9000t but decided to opt for the 15.4 in. model.

To your question: I see that bestbuy.ca sells the dv9220 for $1699. HP's warranty is about almost 19% and BB's is almost 27% of the total price of the computer. To me, each is too much. Perhaps I've just been fortunate, but I've never bought an extended warranty on a notebook computer and I've never regretted it. I've used notebooks for the past ten years, but I transport them in a computer bag and try to exercise care with them.

However, if you deem you must have extended coverage, I would go with HP. They will give you the later computer, too, if your model has been phased out. There is a lot of money in extended warranties, and Best Buy (as well as other retailers) love to sell them. There is no way I would pay close to 30% for an extended warranty.

Bill

 

Best Buy Technician? I can think of a few names and none come close to technician. What you get, at least in my neck of the woods, is some smuck, fresh out rehab with a freshly minted Comptia A+ cert, possibly hacking into your baby. Most couldn't find their ass with a guide dog and a map.

Pray that's all he does is look. As for the second part, there's enough wiggle room to slip a sea crane through. We "might" replace it with a better model. Right, stinky, and I "might" hit Mega Millions (tonight's jackpot estimated at 177 very, very large).

Do yourself a favor and save a few bucks...get the HP warranty...then learn Hindi.

 

spatialanomaly, Why learn Hindi? Are you implying HP has moved its customer service to India, just like Dell? This is a scary thought... When I was shopping around, I called Dell to ask some questions about Inspiron 9400 and was stupid enough to give them my contact info (so that they can get back to me with a quote). Although I specified that I'm not ready to place any order and plan to do some more comparing, I got harassed with 10-20 calls at home and office. I don't care you work on commission or not, this is not proper manners - at least not in Canada.

 

go with HP...my experiences with these retail stores who offer tech "support" hire those who can find the parking lot on hiring day each week. At least with HP and other name companies the on-site techs they send out are supposed to have some experience and training.

Another tip, never buy something like a support agreement from someone who knows less about computers then your grandmother.

I would suggest that you seach the web for HP Resellers who you can also buy the HP service agreement through...and save at least 10% but I bet there is someone out there selling them for a larger discount. And it is the actual HP warranty not via some dude in a tired gimick of a vw...

BTW, thanks for the reminder I really need to get mine before I forget...again...I have 10-months but really wanna get one done soon as possible.

 

Pretty accurate description...funny though smaller shops always seem to have the good techs who stick around for years. It's the big stores that simply cannot find anyone with solid experience and work ethic.

Yet another reason to buy a BUSINESS CLASS system...US based support. BTW as far as I know HP support is sort of all over isn't it? And to be honest I never had a single really awful support call with the folks in India working for Dell. I always made the effort to let them know I was interested in where they were and it was actually amazing that they could be half-way around the world giving me support in real time...you know blow some sunshine. Anyway it made really seems to all the difference, for them and for me...it costs me nothing to be polite, it's not their fault in any way they are just earning a living...

 

It sure isn't a Brooklyn accent. My guess is that they've (HP) outsourced some levels of support to India. I've got an extended warranty (3yr accidental/quick ship) so I actually do get someone in the states when I call for my nb.

Unfortunately, the dock (XB3000) I have is covered by a standard warranty which means crap level support. They're nice and all and I'm sure they're as frustrated as I, but it sure does stink up my day.

 

My guess is depending on the support level you've purchased, you can get any number of folks. For my notebook it's First Class, my dock gets steerage.

Don't get me wrong, and like I said above, I'm sure they're as frustrated as I when our worlds collide. They're doing the best they can given the language barrier and sometimes ****ty tel lines.

That said, I start to lose patience when it takes me 2+hrs to explain that my WLAN adapter went south and it needs to go in for repair.