Why not to buy from HP.

Here is my plight from the recent encounter with HP support people.

I have been using a Compaq presario R4000 notebook pc for more than 2 years now. It cost me around $1500 then from HPshopping.

While it was new, it worked as every new product works. A charm. But the problems started as soon as my warranty was finished.

The pc started to overheat and shutdown by itself without warning. THe problem remained even after multiple fresh installs to make the cpu downclock properly (i.e. if the problem lies with the cpu.) The laptop got so hot, it can burn the skin.

Now recently the hinges have started opening up for no known reason. As if that was less, Now the laptop also gives electric shocks from various places.

Lastly my charger gave away making it a complete paper weight.

This is only my experience with the product. Now here comes the support center.

I came to India with this notebook pc in February. Since the charger died, I had no choice but to contact HP again. I called their toll-free number in US which is not toll-free if called from outside(valid enough on their side). An agent just said they cannot provide me with the charger because it is not a model sold in India. He also added that neither can they repair the notebook pc as they dont have any spares here.

At this point you should have seen my cousin bro using his Dell laughing at me like crazy. DEll people called him up from US and made sure his pc was running in 3 days. Mine's died completely for more than a month now.

I also requested them that I will pay whatever the shipping charges, but the request never went through. I requested a call back from Special support. The Agent's name is Tanuj with whom I talked during the last two calls.


The call never came( no missed calls on the mobile phone screen). Instead an e-mail was waiting in my inbox. It read


"Hello,

My name is Egor Rapoport and I am an HP Case Manager for HP consumer line Notebooks. I have received a escalated case today regarding your HP/Compaq Notebook. I have attempted contact to the phone number provided with your file but have been unable to make contact with you. If you receive this email before we speak could you please contact me directly so that I can ensure that whatever issue you are facing is resolved. Please contact me directly at XXXXXXX Extension XX for the Case Management Offices. Please refer to your Ticket# XXXXXX.

My office hours are Monday to Friday 8:00 - 4:00 PST. I look forward to speaking with you soon.
Thank You.


Egor Rapoport
HP Case Manager
Phone# XXXXXX
Fax# XXXXXX
Monday - Friday
8:00am-4.00PM PST "


When I called back (This was the Nth ISD call) I came to know that the ticket number is wrong. So I was put on hold by this agent until EGOR picks the call up. Egor was available but my call was in wating for the next 20mins until I hanged up and called up again for the same treatment.

my costs in just reaching HP have been more than what it takes to get my notebook repaired. And I am still on step 1 with nothing still done. I.e. even when I was ready to pay.


Ultimately I decided to take the case through Notebookreview to post my grievance.

Hope somebody can help.

Thanks for hearing me out.

 

Are u going to be in India permanently or do u think u might come back?? Maybe u can have a friend in the US call HP on ur behalf to find out what's going on.

HP tech support really sucks

 

I am going to be back in US in a few months. But that's not the case if you see. HP is currently No.1 globally. THey also sell well here in India. Now if Dell and Apple(which hardly sells here) can provide international support, why cant hp do the same.

And I tried calling N number of times. Belive me. Not a single positive or promising response yet. Dunno how my friends or relatives can do better.

 

So your whole rant is the result of you going to India and HP not offering global support services? So can you simply send the laptop to the US to a friend, have him ship the laptop to HP for support, and for the power supply...same thing, ship it to your friend and have him ship it to you. Most warranty's are not global unless you pay for a business class warranty. So in the end, you're your own worst enemy. After all we are talking about a laptop that's 2+ years old and you've gone international with it so it sounds to me like its done pretty good for an old laptop. Maybe its time to buy a new one.

I'm not a fanboy of HP or any other line but take some responsibly for moving to a country where your warranty is not covered (even if you are willing to pay for the extra shipping). If you had been in the US would you have been able to have it fixed under whatever warranty you have (if you have any warranty left)? If the answer is Yes then suck it up and take responsibility.

 

well, if the warranty is up, I guess he would have to pay for the charger. If the model isn't sold in india, then I guess they're obviously going to have issues with the power adapter. But even then, power adapters are pretty standardized, so you should be able to get a brick that provides similar dc output. But it seems like your laptop is pretty trashed, may have to get a replacement.
reby, that's not really feasible, shipping internationally, especially to india is really pricey and risky.

 

devarshi, which city are you in?

If you are in Chennai, just take the notebook down to Mount Road. The service center is located there. Not sure about the other cities. I think you might have to courier it or something.

Also, you can get the charger in any of the HP authorized stores. Not sure of the price though. Some stores might sell you a used one for a low price

When you get back to the US, drop by at Radio Shack and just get yourself a power cord to attach to the adapter. Should cost you about $10 or so.

 

Dell, HP, Acer, and Lenovo all have poor quality customer service. That's #1, 2, 3, and 4 of the laptop market. The larger a company gets, the cheaper they can sell their laptops, but at the cost of customer service.

 

Spookoman, The charger is not the standard one. Its a 120w brick with a very differeny kind of pin.

Flyinghigh, I tried HP India and their various service centres. None have this kind of charger. And going to Radioshack aint a problem, My laptop not working for that much time is the problem. Most of my work is done with it. And work is suffering at the moment.

Reby, Dell, Apple, Toshiba, Asus, acer etc and almost all other companies provide international warranty.

Secondly, I wasnt demanding anything for free until now. I said I will pay for shipping to India for the charger. Just for your knowledge that works out to $270 US or more approx. I can always get it repaired when I get back to US.

Getting the laptop sent to US for repairs and get the charger will take almost the same time and money compared to me reaching back and buying a new one.

And I am ready to pay just because the warranty is not covered.But atleast let HP take that much initiative. They are the sales leaders in India. Isnt much of a task for them to get a charger here.

 

Is this some rare type of laptop? Why haven't you just bought a power adapter on Ebay or from some online store? How hard can it be to buy a power adapter?

You might even be able to repair the power adapter. I have repaired them before. Often times the fault lies in the spot where the power cord enters the "box" of the power supply. The spot where the power connector is soldered to the board is under stress and the solder joints crack. I have seen similar problems a few times, easily fixed with a soldering iron, the hardest part was actually opening up the "brick".

 

Thankyou yet another overheating problem with compaqs, the more i read about them, the more I find people with the same problems. I'd never buy a compaq again- their tech support in Australia is just as bad.

 

I don't understand. If your warranty is over, HP can't (and won't) provide service for your product. No company will do that, and HP isn't renowned for its flexibility either (in fact, they are pretty stringent comapred to Dell).
I have had generally good experiences with HP, including their service and support, even in Australia. On the other hand, I had very poor experiences with Toshiba's support here, but I don't go around telling people not to buy Toshiba just because of my personal experience on ONE notebook.

 

If my laptop is two years old and not 10 years old. Cant I even expect it to get repaired by HP for a price which they are asking and I am ready to pay?
I was even ready to pay for them shipping to India. so what's wrong with it? It surely aint necessary to have a warranty to get a product repaired?

Giving me a wrong ticket number, no return calls and blank promises on long international calls is what has pissed me off.

yes it is a different rare type. I tried to get it fixed once. Not possible again according to the techie guy.

 

My bad. I thought you wanted to claim warranty service for it. You should be able to get them repaired, but it seems like this model was never offered in India.
However, my HP contact once told me that they can repair any models as they have a centralised parts ordering system, hence they are able to order any parts from their warehouse and repair it even if the specific model isn't sold in a country since the techs get access to any resources on HP's internal system. Parts are usually shipped from their regional centres if not stocked.
If indeed HP has turned down your request, I think it's time to speak to someone of higher authority there. HP India might be difficult to deal with.