how reliable?

I'm setting my sights on the dv2710us and it looks great, but I fear the HP label because i know they've had issues before with bad customer care, but i was wondering if anyone could give me any feedback on some of the positive experiences, or maybe even reinforce the negatives? I dunno, i think i'm going crazy with all the customer service horror stories and i know every company has their share. And I'm looking at the buydig price because i wouldn't be paying tax/shipping, but would it be better to buy from somewhere like Frys or Best Buy where i could take it to their store to fix any issues as opposed to online?

 

Please try to remember, most of the stories you hear will be negative. I started years ago with an old Compaq 1525us. Sent it 5 times for overheating issues. It was never fixed. A case manager contacted me after the fifth time and I recieved a new laptop. My wife now uses my old zv6005us. Never a single glitch. The other day the AC adapter finally died. Bought the replacement on e-bay for 24USD, she's back playing the SIMS with no problems. I recently purchased a dv9700t CTO and I have to say I absolutely love it. My family has two desktops and two laptops, one desktop and both laptops are HP's and we couldn't be happier. Understand, we are computer geeks and have ours up and running all the time. My sons and I play over our lan alot. I use my laptop at work to listen to music at least four hours per duty shift. Yes, tech support is a pain in the ^&*. It takes patience and persistence to get things done, but you will do well if you stay calm and curtious, yet firm. I hope this helps. If the computer your looking at meets your requirements, go for it. As far as buying from best buy, they knew nothing about my computer. I asked them if they could install a second hard drive in my 9700 and they said yes. They were wrong, they didn't even know that it would require an HP bracket and adapter. Needless to say I ordered what I needed and installed it myself. I think ordering it directly from the manufacturer is best, it allows you to customize it to your specs.

Rob

 

There are no absolutes except for death and taxes!

 

I've had a mixed bag of good and bad experiences but I'm still an HP customer.

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.

Now I just received this laptop Monday but I have run the heck out of it, torture testing the processor and RAM, monitoring the temps, testing 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's a keeper....for now. If something goes wrong between now and my 21 days, it's going back to HPShopping and I'll be moving on.

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.

The only complaint I have about this new one is that it has a slight smudge on the inside of the LCD. It's very tiny and grayish, definitely not a dead or stuck pixel. I was scrutinizing the screen looking for any dead or stuck pixels and saw it.

It's toward the bottom and is barely noticeable. I would never have noticed it if I hadn't been squinting at the screen trying to find any imperfections -- which I wouldn't have been doing at all if the second one they sent me hadn't had that backlight and pixel problem.

I was even looking for this smudge last night and it took me forever to find it. That's how small and insignificant is.

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 and 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.

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.

Why am I still an HP customer, you might be asking, after reading this? Despite the problems I've experienced I've still had way more positive experiences with HP than negative ones. I love my HP CTO desktop, my ZX5280 that I was just using last night when I was running the DV9700T through some rigorous tests and my mom is in love with her ZE1230, which is being handed down to my sis so my mom can inherit the ZX5280.

I know a lot of people here wouldn't be this patient with HP and maybe, or even probably, rightfully so. But personally, HP customer service has always treated me well and despite a couple of fluky experiences, I am still a loyal customer.

My 2 cents, for what they're worth.

 

I bought an HP8510W in September of 2007 $1852.57-3 year on site Business warranty.
In November the notebook died completely. After 2 weeks of waiting HP replaced the motherboard in it. One month ago the display died. After 2 more weeks of waiting HP showed up with the wrong part. I’ve waited another 2 weeks and they showed up with the wrong part again! This notebook hasn’t worked for me over 30% of the time that I’ve owned it. The 3 year on site business warranty is worthless, because they stock no parts for it. I'm just trying to get a replacement or my money back at this point. I'm sure my scenario falls into a very small percent of users. But it is a distinct possibility for any one. I'm in Seattle so my location shouldn't pose an issue for them. I'm very frustrated.

 

I have just received the dv2700t, my first HP laptop. I can say that I have quickly fallen in love with the laptop in the 2 days I've had it, but obviously I cannot comment on how reliable it will be in the future. Having been a Dell customer up until now, I can say that the laptop exceeds my expectations and is competitive with, if not better than the Dell machines I have grown accustomed to.

During the process of obtaining my machine, I had to contact HP about a few issues. The first was clarification regarding what kind of RAM I could add to the machine, and the online tech support was quite helpful. The second was a rebate issue having to do with a "free printer" that was supposed to come with my machine. Customer service was very poor in helping me deal with this issue, passing me around to 6 different service reps, who sent me in circular patterns and all of which sounded entirely ignorant. Not one of them pointed me to the appropriate solution, which I ultimately came to on these boards.

So, my feeling is that the machine itself will leave you satisfied. Should problems arise, the HP support might give you the runaround...it seems like a bit of a crapshoot to me. Of course, if the laptop is reliable enough, you won't need support, right! I went with HP because it was the best machine for the price (after the infamous $500 off coupon). For the same price, however, I might go with a company whose support I have a little more faith in, but it's up to you what price tag you put on good service. The machine itself IS very nice.