HP laptops, HP Service Center? They suck!
January 25, 2008
Rant mode alert! Rant mode alert!
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), but starting on the 8th month, its processing became slower (for example, opening an MS Office file took 1 minute) and the battery life dropped considerably to half. Those did not bother me much then because I thought those were the trade-offs for having a small, lightweight notebook.
Left-click malfunction
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?).
Also 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 double-click to open a program only to get the right-click option “Open” then if you click on it, you get the same option “Open” again — and the program’s not opening!
Battery not charging fully
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 first tinkered with the TouchPad properties 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.
Option to pull out
If I wanted to, I could also temporarily pull the unit out because they would not be able to work on it because they were having a one-and-a-half-week Christmas vacation and would be back only by 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.
Problem solved? Not really
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? Wow, I don’t know what to say.
I was told: If only the battery was covered by HP’s 1-year warranty, it would have been replaced. Yeah right. But at the least, don’t I deserve to get the battery 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 battery. The cost? A whopping P8,700 (US$212.00). Nice.
What? Another problem?
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.
“We can do it for you, if you want,” he said.
“No, thanks,” I replied. “You might just ruin this almost-worthless laptop of mine.”
How Pathetic
A dead battery. Corrupted user profile. Tech support that took almost two months to solve.
Thank you very much, HP, because of this experience I am not going to buy any of your products anymore.
How Pathetic.
April 29th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
Ive recently bought a tx2000 tablet pc last april 2008.Ive asked my tito abroad to buy it for me since it costs half as much as it does here.I thought I had a good bargain for my money.It was working quite well for a few months but started having BSOD’s last december(7mons later).It’s always having different errors and having to dump memory.So i thought I should try to use the restore CD and the restore to factory setting in the bios startup.But then it does not finish the whole restore process and always ends up with a bluescreen.I got desparate and tried formating it then installing a new OS(vista) on it.After numerous errors i eventually got it right but lost some functionality of the touchscreen.I wasnt sure if the warranty is still covered but I said i might as well try.So even if without the purchase receipt they still accepted it.I thought wow such good customer service.They then replaced the video card(it was defective daw).But then it still keeps getting the BSOD’s especially when i use wifi.(Maybe they didnt even replace it, one cant tell di ba?).I got it back but it still had BSOD’s so I returned it again.They were unable to find the problem and just updated the softwares so i started documenting BSOD’s even if I had 100 secs to get a picture to give it to the tech engineer as they suggested to me.I was able to capture quite a few before returning it back again last april 17.Last week they gave me a call saying that it was a software problem and they had to charge me 1600k for a reformat with a 3 mons warranty for the software.I eventually agreed since there seems to be nothing more that I can do.My warranty is almost up (may 1 2009 to be exact).I’ll be picking it up tommorow and I only have a few hours to check if they have resolve the issue.I hope i dont get BSOD’s anymore.Its just so disappointing because HP seems to entice you with such amazing features but you eventually find out the life of the product is almost disposable.Maybe I should have bought something japanese or taiwanese instead(my friend had an acer and she kept on dropping it yet it still works quite well,mine was well pampered yet it had these problems).To think it was the americans that invented the computer.
May 6th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
hp sucks believe me i had two hp notebooks and both of them got crashed !!! so i think i can say hp sucks!!!!!!!!
May 13th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
i had two hp laptops, both crashed. the first after a year and i even do not remember the modell. the second one hp nc8000 first a 80 gb HD broke down and i paid a lot to get all pictures recoverd from that disk. i both then a new toshiba 40gb HD and put inside my NC8000, some 8 months later motherboard collapsed- nothing to do, only 350euro to get a new one. I think hp laptops are programmed to break down , sth. like self distruction. than i see people who have their acer etc. working 24h a day for years and i wonder about globalised shit worth market and marketing campaigns.
it is time i stop to believe in hp etc which are considered longlife products(by whom considered)
and i follow what i see with my eyes, that an acer laptop working 24h a days after years is still fine.
May 13th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
i can say one positive thing about hp, i have printe deskjet d2360 and it works well after 3 years use
May 22nd, 2009 at %I:%M %p
I am the person who post a comment here last Feb. 5 2009. I might be able to help you with some of your problems on your pc’s and laptop free of charge. here is my blog site http://mikestechnicalpc.blogspot.com/. thanks
June 2nd, 2009 at %I:%M %p
HP customer care totally sucks!
I bought a wireless mouse only from them. It stopped working with in 2 weeks of the day of purchase.
I went to a service center near by with the dead mouse. and they said they won’t take mice!
To get service for a mouse that I bought for 1000rs, I have to take a day off from company and need to drive 25+ kms in bangalore. And it is not guaranteed that I will get back the mouse serviced with in that day or another. I may not get it repaired at all if something is broken inside the mouse. They gonna say I broke it.
I registered a complaint online and got a call back from customer care after 13-15 days!!
Even that guy was not ready to listen the problems properly.. He asked me if I am using the mouse with a desktop or laptop. I told its laptop. Then he told me another guy will call me if its laptop and hungup the call.. never got a call back after that from HP..
if you are thinking f buying an HP product.. please rethink. you gonna jump into trouble.
– by the way, I happened to meet a guy working in HP customercare. He told me the way that they have been told to respond to the customers. Can you believe it, whatever the problem you will report they will ask you to reinstall the drivers first. even after they understood that its an hardware issue actually. if that doesn’t work, they will ak you to reinstall the OS itself. Can’t you believe it? try calling their customer care once.
June 12th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
huonga abay walangyang hp yan
June 25th, 2009 at %I:%M %p
Hp totally sucks!!! they don’t know what’s the problem and even don’t know how to fix the problem of their products, I owned 2 nc6000 laptops until now they haven’t come up of a better solution, why it won’t boot up and only the charge symbol lights up upon pressing the power button the fan goes on and die…I have asked them what is the cause of this problem they cannot even speak a damn word out of their mouths to tell there customers that it is a design problem that we cannot resolve.