HP laptop and HP Service Center sucks
A basic marketing tenet on Customer Satisfaction is that a delighted customer tells his or her experiences to 3 or 4 other customers, but a dissatisfied customer shares it to 12 others.
Now, thanks to the power of blogging I can share my recent unsatisfactory experience with HP’s laptop and their Service Center in the Philippines not just to 12 people but to thousands of readers and visitors worldwide.
Over a year ago, I bought an HP Compaq nc2400 laptop in South Korea for US$1,400. During that time, the unit was one of the smallest, lightest, and thinnest notebooks available in the market.
The laptop performed superbly during the first few months (no surprise there), but starting on the 8th month, its processing became slower (e.g., opening an MS Office file took1 minute) and the battery life dropped considerably to half. Those did not bother me much then because I thought these were the trade-offs for having a small, lightweight notebook.
But in November 2007, the left-click function of the TouchPad started acting weird. Clicking the TouchPad’s left-click button also opened the right-click functions and this could not be rectified by simply adjusting the TouchPad settings.
How bad can that get? Well, for one, I could not shut down the laptop using a mouse because left-clicking on Start > Shut Down always gave me right-click options. The only way to shut down the notebook then was through the keyboard (how many of you know how do that?).
In addition, I found it difficult to open a file or program because double-clicking its icon always gave me right-click options. Just imagine how annoying it would be whenever you left-click on something and what you get are right-click options.
On top of that, I noticed that the laptop’s battery was not fully charging anymore. Although it’s been charged for several hours, the unit charges up to 60-70% only.
So on December 5, I decided to take the unit to HP’s Service Center in Buendia, Makati. The technical support guy tinkered with the TouchPad properties first but gave up after 10 minutes. He also noted the battery problem and recommended that I leave the unit so they can conduct inspection. I agreed.
Fifteen days later, on December 20, I received a call saying they could not solve the problem yet because they were still waiting for a few laptop components that they requested abroad. The guy who called also briefly mentioned that the battery may be up for replacement and they can prepare a price quotation should I wish to buy a new one.
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If I wanted to, I could also temporarily pull the unit out because they would not be able to work on the laptop because they were having a 1-and-a-half-week Christmas vacation and would be back only on January 3. I decided not to pull it out.
Finally, a long month and three weeks later, on January 22, I received another call informing me that the laptop is ready for pick-up. I dropped by their office the next day and decided to test the unit while still in the Service Center to see if the problems were indeed solved. The left-click button did work well, but that’s the only thing to be happy about.
As for the battery, apparently it had already died — as in totally defective and worthless. They explained that when they called on December 20 saying the battery may already be up for replacement, they meant that the battery was already useless during that time.
Wait a minute, I left the laptop with them on December 5 with the battery still charging 60-70% and they’re telling me that within 15 days — while the unit was in their possession — the battery became totally defective? How convenient.
If only the battery was covered by their 1-year warranty then it would have been replaced, I was told. Still, don’t I deserve to get the battery, at the least, in the same status when I gave it to them? Do they expect me to simply accept their excuse that the battery became dead, useless, and worthless within 15 days while it was in their possession?
Oh, and they did give me the price quotation for a new laptop battery. Costs P8,700+ (US$212.00). Nice.
Wait, there’s more. When I finally got to test the laptop, a “User Environment” error appeared while the PC was loading. I then discovered that the original user profile would not load and when asked why this was the case, the tech guy replied that the original profile got corrupted. Uh ok, can you solve this? I asked.
An hour of tinkering later, the tech guy said they could not bring the original profile back and the only way to solve this is to reformat the laptop. They recommended me to back up my files and reformat the PC. Very nice.
A dead battery. Corrupted user profile. Tech support that took almost two months to solve. How Pathetic.
Thank you very much, HP, because of this experience I am not going to buy any of your products anymore.
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February 22nd, 2008 at 2:02 pm
to Christabel:
SPS-BD SYS PM/G72M-V FF PAV thats the motherboard and it cost money. u have to think twice between get repaired and buy a new one
February 6th, 2008 at 11:59 am
ive got a dv2224ea problem is the graphic card is fried, so i called hp support in london, i had to pay £260.00 sterling pounds wtf, and told me that they need to change the entire motherboard cuz the graphic card its in built in the motherboard, so i searched in ebay for the system board and it was like £100.00 so i decided as 06.02.08 to change by myself, ive got the tools and ive got the manual to disasembly the laptop. keep you inform a couple of days…
February 5th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Abangan and susunod kabanata Part2 from ruth2art
After chasing the customer service on the phone for updates on the delivery of the system board (which I was told was requested already 4 days ago), they told me that the system board already arrived and will now be fitted on my DV2200 unit.
So i asked them how long will it take before I can get my unit. I got a nerve-pinching “it will still take several days” because of the burn-in test they have to conduct. I do understand the need for the burn-in reliablity tests but just couldn’t take that generic answer. I told them that I will call again in the afternoon and I expect a specific answer from them.
After a few hours, I got a call from my wife, notifying me that the HP service center called our home and wants to inform me that after replacing the system board, they noticed that the HD drive was noisy and had to be replaced. I almost fell off my seat coz I was thinking of all the files in my disk that i may have lost - Oh, my God!!
My wife continued that she spoke lengthily with the caller. (You see my wife used to work as a CS Manager - Not IN HP). In just a few minutes, she was able to assess the weakness of their (HP’s) CS systems and procedures. My wife blew her top when the caller made a comment that “‘yun naman pong mga sira ng unit eh dahil na rin sa gumagamit”.
“Iha, who’s training you to answer that way to a customer? 9 months pa lang ang unit na ‘yan, nasisira agad. Product nyo ang may problema!! Let me talk to your manager.” And since it’s their CS procedure not to escalate the issues to their boss, the CS got a mouthful from my wife.
I hurriedly called HP again to confirm the HD problem. They confirmed the problem and that they have to replace the HD. Luckily, the data is still recoverable. But, they will again have to order the parts. And i told myself, “OMG, not another parts delivery cycle!!” I was told to call again the following day to confirm the HD spare delivery date.
The next day, somehow something changed with them.
The CS told me that a HD spare was already available in the repair center and that I could pickup my unit in the afernoon.”Are you sure????”
Everything went smoothly. Never mind that hour-long wait. I was able to get my unit with a new system board. I was able to get my old files and transferred to the new HD. But I have to reload the programs and drivers. I could live with that.
Now on my way home, carrying my repaired unit, I got a call from a guy who introduced himself as HP Customer Service. So I thought, “Wow!! Maybe the guy will conduct a Customer Satisfaction survey.”
“Sir, this is Greg of HP Service Center. I’d like to inform you that the Hard Disk for your laptop had arrived. But it’s already Friday afternoon. You will have to wait until next week before you can get your unit.”
WHAT?????!!!!!#### GGGRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
DON’T EVER BUY ANY HP PRODUCT.
February 3rd, 2008 at 11:26 pm
My HP laptop failed a year ago and a friend of mine diagnosed it that it might be the motherboard, which he said maybe expensive, since it’s out of warranty. I bought my laptop a little over a year ago and I’ve read a lot of posts in other forums regarding the high price of HP laptop motherboards. I’m a bit worried on this since I’m just a college student. Since I have no choice, I brought it to HP service center. The person that attended to me said that it looks like it’s the system board but he said that they’ll still check it to confirm and will just call me. After two days, they called and confirmed that it’s the motherboard. “Oh no”, I said to the person and then asked how much… he said that it will cost around 20k but after negotiation, he said that he’ll try to ask for consideration since it’s only 14months old. That means warranty expired two months ago. After two days, they called me again and that they’ll replace the system board free of charge. There might be known issue on the laptop’s system board, which is why they reconsidered but what the heck, at-least they changed it for free.
In fairness to HP service center staff, I think they treated my case professionally although it took another 4days to replace the system board, at-least, I didn’t pay anything. My laptop works fine until now.
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:34 am
I’m a 4th year IT student. Actly I was just crying a few minutes ago because my dad (who is an OFW) yelled at me because of the quotation HP just sent me. They sent me a quotation which contains an information about a part that I should buy to get my HP laptop repaired, it says there that I have to pay 37284 pesos. There were no explanation what’s wrong with my laptop, it just says there the part no. and the part description which is SPS-BD SYS PM/G72M-V FF PAV. I don’t even know what it means. Kasi nga, they didn’t provide any explanations and they didn’t even call me.
Btw, my laptop is HP Pavilion dv2081ea or commercially known as HP Pavilion DV2000 which is 1 year and 6 mos old.
The problem of my laptop actually is that when you open it, it beeps 3 three time and won’t boot up. It just suddenly happened one day in school. I panicked and I asked the people around me what could be the problem, they told that it might be the memory, it just needs tightening. I kind of panicked because I had a very important deadline next week. I brought my laptop to the HP service center in buendia. My ticket is #1 after the 100 customers they’ve entertained. I saw a lot of HP Pavilion laptops released and it made me think that my laptop’s model might be a low quality model (proved to be true). I got nervous actually. After 2 hours of waiting, finally, I got called, I told the receiver that it might just be the loosened memory part. He said that the 3 beeps is not an indication of that kind of problem. He said that, most probably it’s a hardware problem. I asked him if that is the case, how much will it cost me. He said with all the confidence that a price of the part depends because sometimes it has to be imported abroad.. A part would cause more or less 20K. That part made me cry in front of him. I told him that nothing happened to my laptop, I didnt bump it somewhere or drop it. I’ve never reached 2/3s of its memory, how can it happen. He didn’t provide explanation, he just offered me a box of tissue paper. And continued typing or whatever to his low-quality-HP-laptop. He told me that it will take 3-5 working days to repair it. which was a LIE.
After 3 days, I called them up, they said that my laptop is still in isolation, after 2 days of that phone call, they said that it’s still in isolation. After a week, it’s still in isolation. I made my mom called this time to pressure them. My mom called and pressure them for answers. They got scared I think that they said that it took them that long because they’ve waited for the laptop’s blueprint or whatever the hell is that. I know it’s just an excuse. That’s when my mom panicked, she told me that maybe they’re dissecting and changing all the parts. She got mad at me for bringing my laptop to the service center right away. But what choice do I have? It’s not like I can bring it to a repair shop in Gilmore or Greenhills. After 2 days, I received the quotation in my email. I actually found it in the spam folder.
And so, I don’t what to do. Neither my parents. 37,284 pesos? Will you ever pay that amount to get your laptop fixed? I think there’s something wrong with HP Phils. Service=ultimately poor, product=ultimately poor.
My advise, if ever you bought your laptop abroad, bring it to the HP service center of that country. Whatever you do, don’t take it to the HP service center here in the philippines.My laptop was bought in Doha, Qatar. After I get it from the service center on Monday, I will send it to my father in Qatar. He will bring it to the service center there Let’s just see what will happen. To make life easier, don’t buy any HP products anymore.
I’m so mad. I can’t even explain it. My thesis is coming up and it feels like it’s my fault when I didn’t do anything wrong with that laptop. My parents are mad at me. Please, just pray for me.
January 30th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
I have HP printer, deskjet D1360 ant it sucks, too. I avoid HP since I bought it.
January 30th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Haha. Good for you, VinVin, because you won’t ever have to deal with HP’s sucky service.
January 30th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
My HP experience was really annoying. I can’t believe it would take them a month and a half to solve part of my laptop’s problem.
And the battery! Just because it was out of warranty, they’re not going to do anything about it anymore. I should not have let them touch it. I’d rather have a battery that charges 60-70% than to get it back totally dead. Their excuse? It was about to die anyway! Grrr…
I still am not going to buy any HP products anymore.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I use NEO. (^_^)
January 28th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I’ve just checked-in my HP laptop in HP Buendia service center last week. The unit was really dead. I tried calling first their callcenter helpdesk. When I asked for the initial prognosis based on historical complaints received, I was told that the problem is system board failure.My unit was still within the warranty period, so the Indian guy (callcenter agent) advised me bring the unit to the Makati service center.
The first thing i noticed in the HP service center office was numerous people trying to get their units fixed. When I arrived, I got service ticket #15 on the queue while they were still calling service #65. My math would tell me that there were already about 115 complaints received and it was only the mid of the day. After almost 2 hours of waiting, my number was called and the frontdesk engineer told me that the system board failed and I have to leave the unit so they can replace the board. He said that depending on the availability of parts, it may take 3-5 days of repair.
I called after 4 days. The customer service person told me that the unit was still in isolation and diagnostics of the memory. I restrained myself from blowing my top. Being a electronics person myself, I know that diagnostics and isolation process should only take a day - at the most! And knowing that the problem was already on the system board, it was unnecessary to conduct memory tests.
I calmly explained my position to the CS and requested to talk to the repair engineer. After waiting for 5 minutes on the phone,I hanged up and dialled again after an hour. This time, the CS had an update on their screen showing that the system board was requested from their Makati warehouse. What a sigh of relief to hear something that should have been done on the 2nd day. I inquired again if the parts would arrive on that day since it was only in the same area. I was told that parts request will still undergo approval process and she cannot guarantee delivery within the day. I told her that it was unacceptable to get a government-like bureacracy process on a unit which still has full warranty. But she said that’s the best she can do. I requested for other senior person who I can escalate my problem but got a big no to no avail.
The weekend had passed and I made a follow up today. I was told the parts still has not arrived. I requested for a return call before noon to confirm the arrivalof parts. I indeed got a call but was told that the parts guy in the warehouse was on leave and she cannot confirm if the parts will arrive. I asked if there was a way to work around this blank wall, i was told - none.
I have a feeling that this is a start of “misery meets company” story. Abangan ang susunod na kabanata.
My wife who’s using a DELL laptop for 2 years have not had any major problem with her unit.
If anyone of you got David Tan’s (HP Phils. country manager) email or CP number, please let me know.
January 28th, 2008 at 1:50 am
That really sucks, Mad Economist. Can’t believe why HP would come up with such lousy customer service considering that they are losing market share and are losing money. Well if that’s their goal, then they’re certainly on the right track!
January 28th, 2008 at 1:46 am
I used to own several HP products before and all I can say is that HP’s quality of products and their service is on a downhill. Like Mad Economist above, I’m not going to buy an HP product anymore, even if they send virgins!
January 25th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
yes, i have had the same problems with hp. dell has improved so much over the last 18 months and hp has done so much poorly on the customer service end, i don’t shop anywhere else but dell.
January 25th, 2008 at 10:14 am
A few years ago, I bought a P30k++ HP Pocket PC. After the warranty expired, the product stopped working. When I went to the Ayala service station to have it repaired. They replied that for products that are still covered by a warranty, what they do is replace it. For those with expired warranties, they don’t provide any service except give a fucking minute discount for the next purchase. They don’t do any repair— EVER!!!
I had more than one year’s worth of work and a month’s worth of unsynchronized data in that hardware. I was unable to retrieve it. What I had was a service center that didn’t even try to service the gadget. They did not even try to open the damn thing!!!!
While talking to me, the guy was so insensitive and hardly looked at me. He was looking at his PC the entire time. I was really tempted to smash that item into his face.
Looking at the way he carried his sleek office attire and his inability to see how stupid his work was, I have an idea what school he came from.
No more HP product ever! They’ll have to send 30 well trained virgins into my bed, for me to even talk to them!