Quality of HP Warranty Service?

i like the fact that you could sort of im with tech ppl because it is sometimes hard for me to understand the tech ppl on the phone. and they give bs solutions sometimes but i understand that they are basically reading off of a script. oh and hp needs to have good warranty because of the crap hardware that they sell to you lol

Hello I'm new to this forum but I saw your post and thought I should chime in...

Most I know have either HP, Dell, Lenovo, or Apple and those who have HPs or Lenovo are pretty happy w/ them...

Having owned three HP notebooks, I've sent two of them in for service; one for just a hard drive, the other for a remote that stopped working. The latter of the two was trivial but it ended up having to go back a few weeks later for a minor adjustment to the AC port (not damaged, just misaligned).

All repairs were done for free under HP's original warranty, and each one was done rather quickly, and done well.

In contrast, I have owned three Apple machines (12" Powerbook, two 13" Macbooks) and each has had issues ranging from costmetics, hard drives, LCD and hinges, to poor workmanship. My g/f owns a MB and it works just fine, but she bought a refurbished model--no repairs needed...yet.

I think your experience is uncommon, but not unusual--for what HP can do, they do well and I have no complains about getting things serviced through them. In the last 6 years, I've probably had to contact them on average once every other year about something or another, and it's been quite painless.

My exp. w/ Apple was quite the opposite, and while I enjoy my mac Mini as a media server, I shiver about the day I have to get it serviced through them. When I had my 12" PB and would contact Apple, I was usually either at the mercy of their repair staff in the store, or waiting to see what condition my notebook will come back in the mail as.

The PB was eventually replaced w/ a new one after it was received w/ screws rattling around in side the box and incompletely put together...the top case wasn't even put on straight or screwed down. I brought it to the store that same day and they replaced it on the spot--I've since hesitated sending anything in for repair through them and insist it is repaired in the store.

No worries... good luck w/ your computer, let us know how it turns out.

My last exp. was w/ CompUSA (late '01)--they had the computer for two weeks, didn't hook up the keyboard, kept it for another two days...when I went to go pick it up, the moron behind the counter "dropped" it on the floor.... "oooops....sorry." I got a full refund on the machine (2 1/2 yr old HP notebook...all it needed was a new modem (fried it in a PBX system that I didn't know was a PBX system).

Cheers Mike--glad to hear your lappie is home safe, and in good shape. I hear you on the "service" part... I equate it to making the customer happy, than trying to screw him/her out of their money (restocking fees, anyone?!).

Just want to comment:

Have a v2410 laptop.
Couple issues. Sent notebook in at 6 PM on a Monday and both times had the unit back by 12 noon on Wednesday.

Also they replaced my battery 11 months later free of charge.

The service has been excellent for me here in Canada

===========================

Anyone that buys an extended warranty from best buy, comp usa, FutureShop, etc, needs their head checked. Just buy the extended right from the manufacturer and not worry about the incompetense / slow service from the aftermarket warranties.

Just out of curiosity, was your notebook "upside-down" (laying on the lid) in the box when you got it back? Mine was, both times....strange.


I've got a few extra minutes before I go in this morning, so I thought I'd share a contrast to the HP ...

I bought a 12" Powerbook in 2003 and it went out a total of 4 times for repairs...

Repair 1) Bad hinge...sent out for repair....back in 48hrs, yay!

Repair 2) Six weeks later...screws falling out of the display...

Repair 3) Boomerang...went right back out for repair after I got it--missing bluetooth, screws were stripped, dent in battery and scratch on display lid.

Repair 4) Kernel panics started....bottom-case warping...sent in for repair, got it back in worse shape...not completely reassembled, screws in box...took it into an Apple store. Sent in for repair again, called Customer Relations and they replaced the machine. Sold the new machine right when I got it.

The product quality is one thing, but the repair quality was a whole other thing.... I thought I'd try it again last April w/ a black Macbook but it had quite a few cosmetic issues...took it back, was given a replacement.

The replacement started to creak really loudly when closing the screen....they decided to try and repair it by taking it apart and putting it back together, later making it worse. I was told (not kidding) by the repair guy at the counter (a Mac Genius) that it was "...cheaper than the Macbook Pros and therefore will creak."

When I got it back, it still creaked but I decided to live w/ it until something else broke or it got worse. A few weeks later, the creaking got REALLY loud and I took it in. The repair guy said that he would fix it, but later called me (about a day later) that "...I can't find anything wrong w/ it...it creaks, so there's nothing I can do..." HUH?! I demanded it be fixed or refunded, and then he offered to replace the plastics.....it would take a whole week for them to get parts. Forget it.

I went in and asked for the computer back b/c I was going to take the issue up w/ Apple directly. They decided to replace the machine w/ another one, and I decided to give it another try. When I got it home, I left it in the box for a few days b/c I wasn't very trusting of it and hadn't decided if I was going to sell it or not. My HP wasn't jealous...hehe.

The following weekend, I took it out of the box and started to tinker around on it. I noticed that the top-case was separated from the bottom case (the seam was uneven and separated). I figured it wasn't a big deal and if it got worse, I'd take it in or call Apple. The following weekend, it looked more profound and so I called the store and told them I was bringing it back. When I got there, I came w/ my wife (who has a white Macbook) and was flat-out told it was "normal". I popped out my HP (which I had w/ me, but not for this reason...just came from campus) and showed them that all the seams are flush and the keyboard isn't *separating* from the case... not to mention none of their display floor had this issue (i checked).

They offered a complete refund and that was it--a check would be mailed to me within 10 days, and I got my apple ext. warranty refunded directly thru Apple. Customer service all around was very good but the quality control was obviously very lacking. My buddy bought a cheapie Acer for $400 at Micro Center last year for his kid, and it's not had any quality issues (cosmetic or otherwise).

HP's repair service (for me) has always been dead-on with repairs and the chat service is far-and-away better than having to wait on the phone.

I've had a completely different experience with both Apple and HP compared to some of the other posters here. My HP experience can be described more as a horror story than "customer service".

I'll start with the Apple service first.

But before that, I have to say that Apple hires a third party company to do their repairs. So does HP, to an extent, as well as Toshiba, Sony, and others. One of the companies they all hire is Flextronics. That company is notorious for scratching up systems, botching repairs, etc. If you've had a bad repair experience with Apple, I can guarantee you Flextronics is behind it.

Anyway, I bought my first MacBook at the beginning of March of this year. I was pushed over the edge because of my experience with HP. More on that later.

The SuperDrive in my MacBook went bad during this Summer. So I called Apple up. A day later it was on its way to Flextronics in Memphis. Thursday of that week, I receive the system back. DVD drives not fixed, mouse button no longer works, and the entire outer casing is scratched up. As soon as I take the system out of the plastic I see the scratches. I immediately call Apple before even checking to see if the DVD drive or any of that was repaired. My case gets escalated to someone from the corporate representative department immediately. My Mac goes back out the following Tuesday (I couldn't send it out sooner) and I get it back Thursday. It's a new case, but scratched anew. So she sets up one more repair. The following day she calls me and tells me Apple is going to replace my MacBook with a new one. She sets it up, I get the email with the link to print out the labels to send it in. I pack it up in the original box, as she tells me to, and it goes out that Friday. The following Tuesday I have a new system. Works beautifully. It all took what? A little over 2 weeks?

My second experience with AppleCare was with my new 3G 8GB iPod nano. It had a tilted screen. I call AppleCare and a couple of days later I had a new one delivered right to my doorstep.

Now on to HP.

My first HP was purchased during the middle of March of '06. First OEM computer I purchased after many years of building my own. It was a dv5030us. I didn't use it too much until June. I used my desktop as my primary PC, but decided I'd make my notebook my primary system with Summer coming up. You know, 450w PSU + big CRT monitor + air conditioner = high electricity bill.

I hook up my USB devices (printers, iPod, other things) and immediately notice problems. The devices fail to work, or writing to the device (iPod, external drives, flash drives) results in errors. I reinstall Windows myself with various driver and software configurations to try to resolve the issue. I spend hours dealing with HP's Indian tech support trying to resolve the issue. I do lots of research online and everyone basically agrees that the motherboard is bad.

My case gets handed over to Roy Herrera. The worst Case Manager in the history of case managers.

He basically tells me that he will not do anything about my problems because his "engineer" has never heard of the problems I am having. He tells me to take it to the store where I have the extended warranty and let them deal with it. I told him thats not financially reasonable, as that warranty was meant to cover the system AFTER HP's warranty expires and the store is (at that time) about $40 in gas away. Why do I have to spend $40 in gas when this problem is covered under warranty? Still, he tells me I'm out of luck.

This is around the beginning of July. So for weeks I continue to try to contact him to no avail. He ignores my phone calls, emails, etc. I speak to several other case managers who are supposed to be telling him to call me, filing complaints with supervisors, etc. Nothing happens until OCTOBER when the system starts having other issues. The system always had the keyboard issues that were typical of the dv5000 and dv8000 series. On top of that, the DVD drive failed to burn reliable discs and was SCRATCHING discs. The battery also started dying rapidly. According to HP's "Battery Check" software for XP, it lost about 20% capacity in the course of one month. I don't mean "charge", I mean overall capacity. FINALLY my system is sent in for repair.

It comes back about a week later. DVD drive is replaced, keyboard is fixed, "no problem found" with the motherboard, and the battery was not replaced. It had to be sent in and exchanged.

Motherboard issues continue and HP just sits back and twiddles their thumbs.

March of this year arrives. 10 days before the 1 year warranty is set to expire, the motherboard completely dies. Now, I have an extended warranty through Fry's. Even though I have that warranty, Fry's sends it out to HP to let them deal with it because it is still under HP warranty. That's fine. I knew that would happen. I only went through Fry's because of the "loaner" they give you as part of their extended warranty. The paperwork and all that is properly filled out. I get my "loaner". It's another HP. A dv6215us. It's defective. The DVD drive won't open. So I say "Forget the loaner" and just buy my MacBook.

HP gets the system and replaces the DVD drive. Somehow it's easy to ignore a dead motherboard.

So the system goes back out again. This time they finally repair the motherboard.

HP, however, decides its best to replace the system after I pointed out California's consumer protection laws and filed a very detailed complaint with the BBB.

My replacement arrives at the beginning of May. A dv6345us. The system locks up twice the first day. Full system lockups. I didn't think too much of it, because I know how unstable Vista was at that point. But as time went on, it got worse and worse. The DVD drive, being a TSSTCorp drive, started acting exactly the same as the drive in my previous system. Bad burns, unreliability, etc. Combined with the multiple daily full system lockups, I decide its time to deal with HP's Indian tech support. After logging more than 300 minutes on my cellphone with them over the course of 2 days (good thing I had a 2100 minute plan!), the system gets sent in. It comes back ALL scratched up (I learned my lesson and took pictures after my first HP repair came back scratched!), the DVD drive fixed, but the crashing persisted.

I try calling my case manager. WEEKS go by. I hear nothing. He finally sends me a letter at the end of August stating they had been trying to get ahold of me. Which is a load of BS. I had no missed calls or voice mails on my cellphone or home phone.

So I keep calling back, again, and my case finally gets handed to a new case manager. System goes in for repair, again. He tells me the motherboard and external case that HP scratched are going to get repaired.

HP gets the system on a Wednesday. They don't "check it in" until Friday at Midnight. I get the system back this last Tuesday. Still scratched, new DVD drive (again!), and it manages to crash even more now. It had begun crashing while reinstalling Windows before the system went out for repair and now its crashing even more.

So my case manager calls me again Wednesday and they finally agree to replace my system, again. But this time it'll take 2 weeks for the system to show up.

They only agree to a replacement, again, after I filed another BBB complaint and threatened to file complaints with the Consumer Federation of California, the FTC, and the state run Consumer Affairs Division.

I can't say that I have my hopes up. I'm just hoping I can finally have a working Windows PC again. I've had to use Windows on my Mac. One of the reasons I bought a Mac was to not use Windows.

It would be nice to finally have a working HP.

I've had 5 laptop replacements through Apple--3 for repair quality issues, and 2 for production quality issues. As a matter of fact, I've still got the paperwork for each in my filing cabinet. Their customer service has been good but whoever they contract (Flextronics was on one repair slip) for their repairs is just very poor.

I can't say where my N5190 or DV1660SE was sent b/c it's been a while, but each time it was sent back in good shape. I looked over the DV for the usual issues (scratches, screws, etc.) and it was in pretty good shape; the only thing that seemed iffy was that the laptop was on it's lid when I opened the box (not that it matters b/c the box gets flipped every which way during shipping).