Coping with the Compaq CQ56-115DX - Life After the NVIDIA Settlement

[Deldrin]

FYI - e-mailed the associates at Milberg that Wolf suggested last night. I'll post what I found out once they respond.

[nambinhvu]

Meh, you feel the way you do because you have not been screwed and jacked around by HP on multiple occasions with 3 separate systems like I have. Any company would seem good if you don't need to rely on their service. If all you do is buy their product from a retailer and use it without problems, that's wonderful. That's what every customer deserves to experience. Nobody ever wants to have a warranty issue. Where the rubber meets the road is when you call on a company and they fail. Customer perceptions of companies are almost always driven by the way they are treated and the strikes against HP are overwhelming. And, in business customer perceptions are the means by which a company is judged.

There will always be customers with unrealistic expectations and those that want something for nothing. All I ever asked of HP was for them to fix defective hardware during the warranty period. Once I asked them to replace something that was accidentally damaged under an accidental damage warranty that I paid them good money for. They tried to deny I had the accidental damage warranty, even when shown undeniable proof that I did. Every time I asked them to fulfill their side of a contract on product defects, it was a royal pain in the bottom and they tried everything they could to squirm out of honoring their side of the contract. Twice they did so successfully by simply refusing to acknowledge valid warranty claims. And all of this bad service was the experience leading up to the NVIDIA defect, before that system even had an identifiable issue. To this very day, I cannot believe I actually bought that last system after all I had been through before. I was such a moron to give them their final chance after multiple failures.

It's nice to hear of a rare customer that has a good experience with HP. I would chalk that up to getting lucky and having the pleasure of working with one of their better employees and not because HP is a "good company." So, while I am genuinely very glad you had good experience(s) with them, I hope that you are able to benefit and learn from our misfortunes and not dismiss what some of us have endured only on the basis of your good luck. You can trust HP about as far as you can spit. I am judging them as a company, along with all of their better quality products, based on my experience as a repeatedly mistreated and undervalued customer.

The story you shared about the MacBook is a very good example of unacceptable service. I've seen that same scenario played out by people I know that own Apple products. They should have replaced that defective system or refunded the purchase price. Instead they blew her off and gave totally worthless technical support. Sounds remarkably similar to what I have been through with HP. Companies like that are unworthy of their customers.

Sorry for the rant, but this is a subject I am passionate about. I work for a large corporation where customer service is of paramount importance and I terminate employees that dish out the sort of crap I have been fed by HP.

I hear you and understand, I think the warranty issue was a problem with their system, it probably didn't record your extended warranty. Did you buy the warranty straight through HP, or was it through the retailer or other company such as square trade? HP doesn't honor those warranties, the retailers and square trade are supposed to take care of those things. If you had a reciept showing that it was an extended HP warranty then I don't understand why they would deny it except for the fact that people could alter dates on pictures and receipts and claim they have extra warranty, so maybe it wasn't in their system and the fact that it's so easy to manipulate things these days.

[Mr. Fox]

I hear you and understand, I think the warranty issue was a problem with their system, it probably didn't record your extended warranty. Did you buy the warranty straight through HP, or was it through the retailer or other company such as square trade? HP doesn't honor those warranties, the retailers and square trade are supposed to take care of those things. If you had a reciept showing that it was an extended HP warranty then I don't understand why they would deny it except for the fact that people could alter dates on pictures and receipts and claim they have extra warranty, so maybe it wasn't in their system and the fact that it's so easy to manipulate things these days.

Yes, it was a system I purchased directly from HP that included an 3 year extended warranty and accidental damage coverage at the time of original purchase. It was shown on my invoice online if I logged in with my user name and password and shown on the paper invoice and accompanying documentation that came in the shipment. They tried to tell me the warranty period was expired when I had owned it less than 2 years. I could not understand it either. But, that was just one of the bad experiences. I probably would have let them off the hook if it was just one. The last 3 HP laptops that I have purchased over the last 6 years have been regrettable mistakes, and the one provided by my employer for work is a miserable piece of junk they consider to be "business class" (Compaq 8510p).

[nambinhvu]

Yes, it was a system I purchased directly from HP that included an 3 year extended warranty and accidental damage coverage at the time of original purchase. It was shown on my invoice online if I logged in with my user name and password and shown on the paper invoice and accompanying documentation that came in the shipment. They tried to tell me the warranty period was expired when I had owned it less than 2 years. I could not understand it either. But, that was just one of the bad experiences. I probably would have let them off the hook if it was just one. The last 3 HP laptops that I have purchased over the last 6 years have been regrettable mistakes, and the one provided by my employer for work is a miserable piece of junk they consider to be "business class" (Compaq 8510p).

Ok, then I can see why you're upset, I can't really see any reason why they wouldn't honor that warranty, it makes no sense. I guess that's why I don't pay for extra warranty, I just wait till it dies and either fix it myself because I know the problem and can, or send it somewhere to have it fixed, though I've only owned that one laptop that died because of the video problem, so I can't say I've had much experience with other computers failing. I've only personally owned 2 computers in my life, the HP laptop that lasted me about 5 years, and some no name desktop computer that also lasted me about 5 years before it was too slow to be of any practical use, so that's 10 years of my life, and if I go back that far I would only be 12 and I don't think I had a computer that wasn't windows 95/98 or dos back then haha but yeah, I've been seeing all laptops having problems left and right, not just hp. I guess it has something to do with cramming too much power into such a small package and then having to make a choice between making it bigger and bulkier for more cooling, or smaller and nicer looking but it will die sooner. I'll probably be switching laptops/computers more often than every 4-5 years, so that probably won't be too much of a problem, unless they suddently stop increasing in performance/battery life/etc.

[Mr. Fox]

Ok, then I can see why you're upset, I can't really see any reason why they wouldn't honor that warranty, it makes no sense. I guess that's why I don't pay for extra warranty, I just wait till it dies and either fix it myself because I know the problem and can, or send it somewhere to have it fixed, though I've only owned that one laptop that died because of the video problem, so I can't say I've had much experience with other computers failing. I've only personally owned 2 computers in my life, the HP laptop that lasted me about 5 years, and some no name desktop computer that also lasted me about 5 years before it was too slow to be of any practical use, so that's 10 years of my life, and if I go back that far I would only be 12 and I don't think I had a computer that wasn't windows 95/98 or dos back then haha but yeah, I've been seeing all laptops having problems left and right, not just hp. I guess it has something to do with cramming too much power into such a small package and then having to make a choice between making it bigger and bulkier for more cooling, or smaller and nicer looking but it will die sooner. I'll probably be switching laptops/computers more often than every 4-5 years, so that probably won't be too much of a problem, unless they suddently stop increasing in performance/battery life/etc.

Yes, I agree with you. There are all sorts of hardware issues that can arise regardless of brand because many of the same or identical components are used by all of the OEMs. Those components can fail regardless of the brand name. I build my own desktops and generally repair all of my own systems. I used to have a side business building custom systems, network administration, and repairing computers before I began traveling extensively for work; but, I am still self-sufficient with respect to diagnosis and repair.

Warranty is important to me not so much for repairs as much as having to purchase replace parts for those that fail. I don't own cheap computers because they will not do what I demand from my systems. I push my systems very, very hard almost daily. The reason I am a Dell fan is because of their superior warranty, which is the exact reason I loathe HP. I am on my 4th replacement system from Dell in 4 years. That's not because they are bad computers, it's just that I am a very demanding user. (If they were cars, they would have blown motors and broken gearboxes.) With Dell, I have next business day on-site warranty and accidental damage coverage so I don't have to even think about how I am going to pay for replacement parts. And, I don't have to ship my system to some far away place and wait for days or weeks for it to come back either fixed or in worse shape than what it was when I sent it in for repairs.

Example: my AMD HD6970M CrossFireX video cards crapped out in my M18x. If you have priced those video modules, they're about $750 for the pair. I contacted Alienware and was greeted by a friendly employee that treated me like a prince. They verified the problem through a remote connection and shipped, overnight to my hotel, 2 replacement MXM modules and a new CrossFireX cable. I installed them myself last night. (The offered to send a field tech out to install them because that's part of the warranty I paid for, but I don't like other people working on my computers.)

This is not an exception, but the norm. I started out with an XPS M1730. Dell replaced it with a brand new identical system under warranty, then replaced that with an Alienware M17x R2 under warranty. And, then replaced that with my current M18x R1.

I've only paid for one computer, but with Dell's Complete Care 4-year NBD onsite repair and Accidental Damage coverage, I don't have to worry about babying a system to get years of service out of it. I don't have to worry about it being accidentally dropped or liquid getting accidentally spilled onto it. I use my system the way I want to, run resource intensive games for hours on end and just enjoy the heck out of pushing my hot rod computers to their limits. My $360 warranty was more than paid for the very first time I needed to use it. I have received roughly $12,000 worth of replacement parts and complete systems replacements for the cost of a $360 warranty. I have never needed to argue or "prove" that I had a legitimate warranty claim. I've never had to wait for someone in a repair depot to diagnose a problem that I can diagnose for myself and never had to wait in line for them find time to take care of me.

I cannot buy a warranty that good from another company because nobody else even sells such an awesome warranty. If all I did was web surf and play FreeCell, then I would not need a warranty like this and I would purchase $299 laptops. I think an extended warranty would be a waste of money under those circumstances.

[nambinhvu]

Yes, I agree with you. There are all sorts of hardware issues that can arise regardless of brand because many of the same or identical components are used by all of the OEMs. Those components can fail regardless of the brand name. I build my own desktops and generally repair all of my own systems. I used to have a side business building custom systems, network administration, and repairing computers before I began traveling extensively for work; but, I am still self-sufficient with respect to diagnosis and repair.

Warranty is important to me not so much for repairs as much as having to replace parts that fail. I don't own cheap computers because they will not do what I demand from my systems. I push my systems very, very hard. The reason I am a Dell fan is because of their superior warranty, which is the exact reason I loathe HP. I am on my 4th replacement system from Dell in 4 years. That's not because they are bad computers, it's just that I am a very demanding user. (If they were cars, they would have blown motors and broken gearboxes.) With Dell, I have next business day on-site warranty and accidental damage coverage so I don't have to even think about how I am going to pay for replacement parts. And, I don't have to ship my system to some far away place and wait for days or weeks for it to come back either fixed or in worse shape than what it was when I sent it in for repairs.

Example: my AMD HD6970M CrossFireX video cards crapped out in my M18x. If you have priced those video modules, they're about $750 for the pair. I contacted Alienware and was greeted by a friendly employee that treated me like a prince. They verified the problem through a remote connection and shipped, overnight to my hotel, 2 replacement MXM modules and a new CrossFireX cable. I installed them myself last night. (The offered to send a field tech out to install them because that's part of the warranty I paid for, but I don't like other people working on my computers.)

This is not an exception, but the norm. I started out with an XPS M1730. Dell replaced it with a brand new identical system under warranty, then replaced that with an Alienware M17x R2 under warranty. And, then replaced that with my current M18x R1.

I've only paid for one computer, but with Dell's Complete Care 4-year NBD onsite repair and Accidental Damage coverage, I don't have to worry about babying a system to get years of service out of it. I don't have to worry about it being accidentally dropped or liquid getting accidentally spilled onto it. I use my system the way I want to, run resource intensive games for hours on end and just enjoy the heck out of pushing my hot rod computers to their limits. My $360 warranty was more than paid for the very first time I needed to use it. I have received roughly $12,000 worth of replacement parts and complete systems replacements for the cost of a $360 warranty. I have never needed to argue or "prove" that I had a legitimate warranty claim. I've never had to wait for someone in a repair depot to diagnose a problem that I can diagnose for myself and never had to wait in line for them find time to take care of me.

I cannot buy a warranty that good from another company because nobody else even sells such an awesome warranty. If all I did was web surf and play FreeCell, then I would not need a warranty like this and I would purchase $299 laptops. I think an extended warranty would be a waste of money under those circumstances.

Wow, I can see that making me want to purchase a warranty haha

[Mr. Fox]

Wow, I can see that making me want to purchase a warranty haha

haha, $299 systems and no extra warranty are just the ticket for computer users like my wife. But, computer systems like hers cannot do stuff like this, or this, or this.

[Lonthom]

Interesting dialog here. I too work for an organization that is relentlessly focused on customer service. That said HP is a HUGE company, as are many of the other manufacturers noted and on some level it boils down to individual interactions. I have had a number of really great interactions with HP support that influenced me to stay with them. I had a bad battery in a G62 that was identified a week before the end of the warranty and they FedEx'd me a new one in 48 hours. That said... I do recognize some really horrific examples abound. The one theme I do agree with wholeheartedly is HP needed to deal with the Nvidia issue in the "background" and should have just replaced the offending products with equal or better models. I am one of the many that are getting a SERIOUSLY downgraded replacement that is nowhere near as capable as the entertainment laptop I had. Bottom line: HP has many faces but the TREND is towards declining customer service for the consumer PC line.

LT

[dchen2k]

The one theme I do agree with wholeheartedly is HP needed to deal with the Nvidia issue in the "background" and should have just replaced the offending products with equal or better models. I am one of the many that are getting a SERIOUSLY downgraded replacement that is nowhere near as capable as the entertainment laptop I had. Bottom line: HP has many faces but the TREND is towards declining customer service for the consumer PC line.
LT

According to the following article HP is losing market share big time in China due to this graphics chip issue:

Quote:
"
H-P, in particular, has faced challenges in China, with its market share dropping to 8.5% in the second quarter from a recent peak of 16.6% in the third quarter of 2009, according to IDC. Part of the decline stemmed from a technical glitch in some of its computers caused by a faulty graphics chip from a supplier. "Consumers in China are still wary of buying an H-P PC," said IDC's Mr. Sundaram. "This has had a material impact on H-P."

Source:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...2486131230.htm

I never had to contact HP support before but also could not contact them because the V6000Z died just slightly after being out of warranty. Then their attitude during the settlement is really unacceptable. They could have helped in so many ways that customers would have really appreciated. Also, not being able to ship a standard model quickly is quite ridiculous. The lead time is at least double or triple the regular lead time for custom build-to-order models.

[HPnomore]

After emails I got an estimated ship date of Sept. 5th on the settlement site. Check the site for yours.