I had great success with an executive email carpet bomb, as suggested here. I had a DV 2000 series laptop, with the exact same problem, overheating and motherboard/video card fried.

The result of my EECB got me in contact with Mr. Jeff Utigard, an extremely helpful gentleman, that settled my problem with one phone call (literally 90 seconds after sending the EECB).

Jeff Utigard
HP ECR Denver
303 649-5406
jeff.utigard@hp.com

I call dibs on slamming the poor pitiful HP corporate fool that posts here advising that they regret that mistakes were made & that HP cares.

And to think that HP used to have a good reputation...but that was in the 70's and 80's. Oops, I'm showing my age.

I am so glad the keys broke off the HP tx2 laptop/tablet convertible I picked up. Since I had only owned it for three days BestBuy refunded 100% of the purchase. If those keys had stayed on _I_ could be one of these unfortunate consumers. The horror.

Those Evil bastards, have nothing better to do.

This is ridiculous, and exactly why I stopped supporting HP after similar incidents.

I had a Toshiba satellite notebook that was "repaired" and sent back barely functional with a virus after they stripped my AV untility off the hard drive. Yeah, I broke that enough to get it lemoned before the warranty ran out. That'll teach those scally-wags!

cough,3rd,cough,party,cough,here,cough

use...AAA...at...AAA...ownrisk....CHOO!

@wvFrugan: I second this. I would love, LOVE to know the name of the PR firm that attempts to do this so we can have a "robocall session" to their office about how much HP doesn't care.

Anyone know if typical Lemon Laws apply to computers? Isn't it 3 attempts to fix the same thing and then they have to replace the whole product?

After several frustrating attempts to get a defective printer cartridge replaced, I finally got some satisfaction from executive customer support. Well, the second time I called them at any rate. I expressed that my frustrations almost entirely spring from their tech's complete lack of discretion in breaking out of their diagnostic flowchart. If that chart did not lead to a solution, then you must not have a problem.

If the tech had been able to say, "yeah, you obviously have a bad cartridge because it's the only logical conclusion to draw from the simple but illuminating investigation you've done," I would have been happy. Instead, they made me put in yet another new cartridge, even though I had already fixed the problem with a new cartridge. I just wanted a replacement for the dud that started the whole mess. Also, they made me wipe out all my fax numbers and settings. Then, when they finally decided they could give me a new cartridge, they disconnected me while trying to make a transfer to whatever knucklehead handles that; One hour completely wasted.

I related this story, and the short version of my other two previous disastrous interactions with HP support, and told the sympathetic rep that I would not be buying HP for two years. If, after that time, they looked like they had gotten themselves together, I might try it again. She offered me $50 off on a new printer.

I asked her to make the check payable to Epson.

I had an HP laptop that died after two months. Returned it to Costco with no problem. :)

Wow that's a pretty strong statement by Consumerist in the top paragraph. You guys do realize that HP sells far more laptops then most other manufacturers and there are bound to be some cases that slip through the cracks.

I work at a retail store which is an HP service center and HP repairs are almost always quick and accurate.

@Remi: I'll show my age too - I used to do some programming in HPL and (for a long time anyway) thought HP and their products were top notch. I now have an HP laptop which has had the motherboard replaced twice and am just waiting for it to die again. Had to call India numerous times, reload software and do endless diagnostic checks, then practically rip the computer apart checking for poorly seated chips before they'd allow me to send it in for repair. And each time I spoke to them they'd try to sell me an extended warranty.

Seriously thinking about getting an Apple next time, expensive as they are.

@dave_coder: While your local service center may be a shining beacon of all that is right and good with computer repair, HP's phone support for consumers is simply awful, their retail parts ordering system even worse, and the e-mail escalation system beyond useless. I don't know of any computer company that so consistently makes sure that, once the ball is dropped, it STAYS dropped.

@dave_coder: The problem is, the repairs that HP are handling are in-house and not by a more-qualified service centre, and nobody is communicating with anyone at HP.

Has anyone actually went direct to a service centre with a HP laptop to get it repaired and not have any problems?

@dave_coder: The problem with HP's service these days is (obviously) not the repairs that are "almost always quick and accurate."

The problem is that when a repair goes wrong, it often goes horribly, terribly wrong because HP seems more interested in covering themselves than in fixing the problem (or fixing the computer).

Any (every?) company will have something slip through the cracks. How they respond to those cases is what matters. I no longer buy or recommend HP computers (after 20 years as a mini-computer and PC customer) because they refused to acknowledge problems or to deal with them in good faith. I don't do business with a company I have to sue to force them to do the right thing.

My 1.5 year old HP laptop crapped out a few weeks ago for no apparent reason. I have wasted a lot of time on the phone with HP in the past so instead I emailed HP support.

I think people avoid the email option because they either want instant gratification, or someone to yell at over the phone. Then they sit there stewing while they are on hold. Using email was surprisingly fast- I always heard back within a few hours, and it was much less stressful.

They did screw one thing up- the tech actually sent one email all the way from India, saying "I believe your zip code is actually xxxxx so we sent your laptop there instead." And even though I replied saying "uhh noooope I know my own zip code thanks," they still sent it to the wrong zip code. But it found its way to me fine in the end and I was satisfied with the speed of the service.

As for asking to speak to the specific tech who fixed your laptop? Are you kidding? Why? If you start making demands like that, no wonder they aren't responding to you.

My wife had issues with Dell for a while, her little sub $600 laptop kept having motherboard/overheating issues.

After two failed repairs from a tech who came to the house, I took over the situation and within 24 hours of contacting Dell's executive branches my wife had a shiny new laptop that Dell was selling for over $2000 - with upgraded screen, harddrive, cpu and ram.

All it takes is the right phonecall or email to the right person and all the problems will mysteriously fix themselves. Keep trying!

I used to work for hp desktop computers tech support, the rule back when I was working for them was the 3 strikes rule. If the computer was shipped to be fixed 3 times then we could escalate them otherwise it was tough luck. Not sure about the laptop division they may have different rules there.

@JeffMc:

Lemon Laws generally only apply to automobiles, though companies will sometimes have a similar provision in their warranties.

You buy cheap, you get cheap. There is a reason why their laptops are priced that low. You are going to pay for it in the long term, one way or the other.

It's not just hardware support that HP's been having major issues with lately. HP's support for their software products (Network Node Manager, Openview Operations, etc) is severely lacking these days too.

I went to a local users group of people using HP software. HP had sent their VP in charge of worldwide support. You wouldn't believe the litany of problems that came from that room of about 40 people. EVERY company there had an issue with HP support, where tickets were ignored, tickets were marked "resolved" with no resolution, etc etc.

Even when buying a new product, a time you'd think they'd want quick support, they've now completely broken their license generating processes, by converting the whole process HP used to use, to groups that used to be part of Mercury (a company HP bought out.) It used to be you could get a new license, replacement license, or renewal license within 2 days of an order. It took us 5 months to get a permanent license on our OVO installation! Hearing from other people using HP support, our experience was not unusual!

It's actually pretty sad, as a lot of HP products are quite good, it's the support, and inter company logistics, that recently have been dragging the company down.

In my opinion, having gone through multiple repair attempts and given HP's lack general care in the matter, I suggest suing for the amount of the laptop plus aggravation in small claims court if HP does not respond to your EECB.

@RvLeshrac: Yes, many companies do, but you have to get a sympathetic CSR or one of those dreaded "extended warranties" from the selling institution.

In either case, you're usually stuck with the same sub-par product you purchased in the first place, just with a different serial number.

I actually just got my laptop repaired by HP too, but my story was a complete 180 from this. My computer (a dv6458se) stopped recognizing my wireless card, so I couldn't get onto the internet without plugging in, and hey, whats the point of a laptop if its not portable? So I called them, and found out that they were providing a free fix for this (and several other) problems some computers were experiencing, even if they're out of warranty.

They told me it would take 2-3 weeks to fix, and they shipped me a box next day. I (reluctantly) sent my computer back, and relegated myself to using an old ass computer for 3 weeks. 4 days later I had my computer back in my hand, fixed.

Now, I don't know if my experience was an anomaly (based on these reports I assume it was) but I just wanted to chime in and give my experience with HP.

As a former CC Firedog tech . . .

the only good thing about HP USED TO BE that they would ship us parts and we could do the installs. Screens, motherboards, whatever. They ship to us, we take care of it. After they changed that policy (on the CC end), it was awful.

And I will never, EVER buy an HP laptop because of their dismal motherboard failure rate. I picked up an Asus at Best Buy because I've had incredible luck with their motherboards. Seeing as that's the most important part of a laptop, I'd trust in a good mobo manufacturer, not some mass-market fuck up. :P

@dave_coder: ROFL!

I was an ardent HP customer/evangelist until my last purchase, and one recent purchase was a $10,000 workgroup printer.

That last purchase was an MFP that couldn't receive incoming faxes, couldn't make outgoing faxes overseas because it couldn't distinguish between a non-US ring and a US busy signal, and couldn't scan or duplicate US legal size documents. I did all the right things for six months to get it fixed or replaced under warranty and got nowhere. Their customer service consisted of refusing to do anything and telling me I should have bought a more expensive model. (I'm not sure why it's okay for a $500 MFP to not work per the manual.) I finally escalated to HP executive customer support and was bluntly told they weren't going to do anything but that I was welcome to slag them off on places like Consumerist. So I do.

Bill and Dave must roll in their graves on a daily basis.

@JeffMc:
@RvLeshrac:

Actually, the Magnusson-Moss warranty act covers any consumer products that are sold with a warranty. That goes from cars to consumer electronics. One of the parts of the act states that the consumer is entitled to a replacement product or a full refund after a reasonable number of repairs. Unfortunately "Reasonable" is a tad bit ambiguous. But I think it was worded that way because 3 repairs on a car for the life of a car warranty isn't a huge issue (depending on what the problems were) But with something like a laptop 3 repairs can be a big deal especially if its for the same issue.

Now actual "Lemon Laws" are state-level laws that apply specifically to automobiles and specify what classifies a vehicle as a lemon for a buyback from the manufacturer.

Their "Case-Managers" have an attitude too.

@gtc: ASUS mainboards are top notch I'll agree. However, I sure hope their Laptop service and support is better than their mainboard service and support. It took them three weeks to get me a replacement fan for my A8N SLI Deluxe...A fan they KNEW was defective because boards that were on the shelves the day mine failed had been updated to a newer design.

I even tried getting them to replace the fan before it failed but no dice. They said there's nothing wrong with it they can't do anything. It was a real nightmare and to top it all off I couldn't access my data on my desktop PC. After that little incident I moved everything essential for work over to my Dell Laptop which was under warranty and could be fixed by me in less than 24 hours.

@seamer: My friend fought with Dell for nearly two years to get an Alienware laptop replaced. It didn't work at all for the vast majority of that time. When her husband finally wrote the right letter to the right people, they only made it half-assedly right, sending her a new but chintzy computer on the grounds that it had similar specs to her two-year-old midrange lappy.

The thought of HP consumer tech support gives me a bad case of the thousand-yard stare. Never again.

@dave_coder: Can I get in on that local service center action? Sounds alot better than the schlubs that answer the emails, phones and chats.

@Shoelace: They really aren't, when you compare comparably configured machines. It's just that Apple doesn't do shoddy/crappy since they're more oriented towards providing value to their customers versus price "savings". Which, when you account for your time, isn't much savings. Just bitter tears and recriminations. And hold time. LOTS of hold time.

@haoshufu:

This is why you use laptop coolers and take good care of your machine. Also, that's what an extended warranty is for with ON-SITE repairs.

I've had two HP laptops in the past 5 years.

One, the motherboard failed after about a year's use.

I (stupidly) bought a second one but (smartly) bought the Fry's extended warranty. The second one, the motherboard crapped out about 2 months before the extended warranty expired. Fry's cheerfully ordered in a brand new (not refurb!) motherboard, replaced it, and my machine was good as new within about 2 weeks.

Oh, and the first machine? I found a flat-rate repair place that actually does component-level motherboard repairs on laptops, sent it in, and got it repaired for $125. It still works.

But I will never, ever buy another HP laptop.

Thank you TOSHIBA. I've owned 5 Toshiba laptops, dropped 3 of them, spilled soda and coffee on two of them, and guess what? They all survived, except for my last one, which broke after I splashed my martini on it.

I know that this may come off as an ad but in all honesty if you want to purchase a HP laptop purchase it from a place like Staples. Yes, I work at a Staples and we're an authorized service provider for HP. Basically this means that we deal with all the head-aches of repairing the laptop and dealing with HP for the customer. In cases like the one above we could have easily have gotten in touch with our HP account rep and probably have gotten his laptop replaced for him. Your local HP service provider will general have more resources and contacts then the regular customer will and in most cases will go out of their way to help if the laptop was purchased from them.

@Trai_Dep: "It's just that Apple doesn't do shoddy/crapp"

ahahaahahaha...

@Zclyh3: Laptop coolers and extended warranties with a crappy laptop are not equivalent to a properly engineered and built laptop.

@undefined: The problem with this post (like many others) is that you take one unsubstantiated gripe from a customer and extrapolate it to cover an entire company. Did Consumerist contact the OP to get proof of his claim? How do you know he doesn't work for Dell? How do you know when he first contacted HP he wasn't a complete a**? The "HP wouldn't contact FedEx" claims smell a bit fishy to me. I've bought 15 HP computers for our small company and 14 have worked great for up to 3 years with no problems at all. We had one that died and HP customer service fixed it without a problem. Somehow I doubt that Consumerist will post a huge headline that HP Customer Service is awesome because of my singular experience. Nor should it.

+1 for Asus laptops. Yeah, their customer service isn't top notch, but the laptop is built extremely well with high end parts, so chances are you won't need them anyway. HP? Well, there's a reason you got it ON SALE. Trust me.

But, but, they're cheaper than Macs. Think of all the money you're saving!

I've found with HP/Compaq that it definitely depends on which product line you're buying. If you're buying the consumer line (Presario/Pavilion), you'll get crap. If you buy the business line, yeah, you pay more, but you also get something that keeps working and is built with standard parts, not whatever HP is able to buy cheapest this week.
That said, for myself, I haven't bought anything but Toshiba in years. I finally replaced a 5 year old Toshiba laptop last year when I decided it was time to go to Vista, since the old one wouldn't support it. And I bought a new Toshiba.

@johnfrombrooklyn: "Somehow I doubt that Consumerist will post a huge headline that HP Customer Service is awesome because of my singular experience."

They will, though, have a headline (and a story!) on the off chance that HP actually makes good on this. And this isn't an isolated incident, as regulars here know. I'm not even opposed to companies messing up, they're bound to. I even mess up myself from time to time. But repeated mess-ups on a single account are indicative of a serious CS failing.

@ArleenVerres: I'm going to have to second the comment here on EECBs. I sent one out when I had a problem with the desktop my wife purchased and I was contacted almost immediately, they helped me resolve the problem, and even sent me an HP digital camera and photo printer as a gift for being an HP customer.

@JeffMc: HP has a policy where if they repair it 3 times and its still not fixed you get a new one as a replacement. My company buys HP Laptops and have had very little problems but when they screw up they screw up hardcore. We had 2 laptops that i went through similar things with for 2 months (and many headaches later) until they outright replaced both laptops with better more expensive laptops. OP keep with it and youll get a new one out of this.

I quit buying HP. They don't support their products, at least not their multifunction machines. When a new version of windows comes out, they do not develop new drivers for the product even if it is only a couple years old.

@Remi: Back when HP printers were made out of metal, stood for quality, and were very reliable.

That was also before that witch Carly Fiorina destroyed the company. I'm surprised she's still in the tech industry - I'd want nothing to do with that woman.