The day after we sent it in, I got a standard e-mail from HP with the subject "verification of receipt of computer". I opened the e-mail and it gave a link to check the status. I checked the status and it stated that they had been trying to reach me (BS) and that the computer was out of warranty ($421.00).

I called them and they started asking me about the serial number tag on the bottom of the computer, like was it "fuzzy" or hard to read when I called the original case in. I said No - why? Then he said that the serial number off the motherboard was torn or "missing".

I told him that the computer had not been opened up.

He said - okay, I've documented all that, call us back tomorrow for an estimated ship date. I asked if they were going to cover it. He said they would have to review the documentation and to call back after 24 hours.

Well, I did and whoever I talked to said they reviewd it and yes, they were going to cover it. "call back tomorrow for an estimated ship date"... So, today I called and "No, we are not going to cover it - who told you that? "
They stated the tag was missing from the system board. I told them I would have to contact my daughter to see if she wanted to pay for the repairs. They badgered me to "call her right now". I could not, she was at work.
AFter I hung up, they called her and left her a nasty message. My hubby called cust service and they told him the tag was missing from the bottom of the computer.
He asked to talked to a manager and got put on hold for over 15 mins. Hung up. Called again and was now told the SN was "erased" from the tag on the motherboard.

I finally found this site and was amazed at what I
reading - I hope we can get our situation resolved, but it doesn't look good

stacierunner

chrisj979

Oh, and btw, Apple has screwed me over even worse. I bought an iBook a few years ago that was assembled with a faulty mother board. Do you think they would repair it with a working board, or possibly replace the laptop all together? Of course not! They had to get rid of all those faulty boards somehow, so why not continue putting them in the laptops to repair them! Thank you Apple for selling me a 1400$ paper weight! All the other computer manufacturers may not be perfect, but Apple is no different...

Giuse

OrianaAugeas

The tactics described in the article I dealt with many times when customers would buy Compaq's and then they would be bad right out of the box.

HP now uses the same tricks that Compaq pioneered.

jaguarxjs

Moral of the story. HP sucks.

EvilSwine

bms

Back in the late 90's, my parents bought a HP Pavilion 8600C desktop. That thing sucked so bad. Froze almost constantly when online, HP's "tech support" told her to try uninstalling the modem, reinstalling Win 98, and did practically nothing else We just lived with it until we found out they put a really badly designed motherboard in it. (I was reading a tech magazine and saw the class action suit box thingy)

When it was time to buy a new PC they went with Dell, and couldn't be happier. (These were people who bought everything HP-Printers, digital cameras, etc.)

Seems that ten years hasn't changed anything about HP.

rickhamilton620

Charred

HalOfBorg

They once told me that damage that THEIR service technitians caused was not covered under my fully upgrade Accidental Damage Warrenty and wouldn't send me my laptop without me sending them ~$800. Of course I refused, and over 30 days later, I finally got my laptop back.

computerwiz3491

I tried to tell the techperson that it would not even turn on.
her: can you get go to safe mode?
me: hello? it will not turn on.
her:ok, boot it up and go to safe mode
me: click

hey the lappy was a gift.

redkatrampant

The Marionette

by far the best advice, nicely put

also its VERY possible that a first/second run of a new model of computer (as she stated bought it within a week of its coming out) that some idiot at some HP factory somewhere in the world forgot to put a little sticker on her motherboard as it rolled past him on some assembly line...

kalikidtx

Something's seriously wrong with this.

eskimo81

Here is what they told me, "I'd like to help you m'am, but we just updated our database, and we haven't entered your warranty information into our new database."

Too bad HP kept that stellar Compaq customer service post merger.

Mr_Burmie

Although I don't have the power to touch our department's budget, my bosses do! Just like any other tech, coworkers, friends and family do come to me and seek advice when purchasing technology products or when they have computer problems.

I don't care if HP business is going downhill or not. However, I care when my friends and family are stuck with "computer problems" that cannot be fixed, like my case.

HP's theory is, when you purchase a laptop/computer, you need to take it apart and check if every of the parts has a serial number on it. If not, too bad! Even it is still under warranty, we're not going to cover it!

HP = Horrible Products supported by Horrible Person!

DolphinT

The laptop is now 29 months old and it is rock solid. I recommend Compaq.

now the BUT.... I did play the india call center game where I was told the return box will be sent, no it wasnt sent I will send it now, no it wasnt sent etc for a couple of weeks. I found a number to a real person in north america who had it fixed for me in about a week.

kable2

TPS Reporter

The shop has 8 8510p's and 5 nc8430's and they are mostly running fine. The 8510p's had firmware issues initially but since a firmware update all issues are resolved.

I had to write to the CEO to get the issue into escalation but then I was getting phone calls from both engineering and esclation promising a firmware fix and they delivered within a couple of weeks. They delivered a firmware fix on Dec 27th or something. Fancy them working Christmas week.

We keep a spare machine around to swap HDD's when a in service machine dies and that broken one gets sent to depot. 3 year warranties on all. So far only needed to use the spare machine once.

Am I stuck with HP? Probably not, I'll buy whoever makes the product that I'm looking for at a reasonable price.

Lesson to learn from this? Only buy corporate level products. NEVER EVER buy consumer. Same goes with any device. All my network equipment is from the D-Link business line. My trashcan's are Rubbermaid BRUTE, and I've never been happier.

lysine

LUV2CattleCall

Hey, lookie here:
[h10025.www1.hp.com]

"Warranty and Support
1-Year Limited Hardware Warranty Toll Free Support (NA)

1-Year Free Hardware Technical Support

30-Days Free Software Support (Free 90-Day Software Support with Product Registration) from date of purchase"

Jordan Lund

Imaginary_Friend

I can't believe people purchase HP products in the first place (except for their printers). After assimilating Compaq into their business, I have told everyone I know to 'stay way'.

Compaq produced garbage consumer products, and so to now does HP.

The company I worked for used to only purchase Thinkpad's for their employee's. Last year they made the switch to HP's. In that 1 year, the standard laptop model which the company purchased has been swapped out THREE times due to too many defective units.

Complete garbage I tell you. And a story like this just reinforces my feelings about HP.

CrownSeven

You know who are the worst type of people? People who make sweeping generalizations about groups of people who are only different because THEY USE A DIFFERENT OPERATING SYSTEM.
You, dear sir, are douchier than any Apple user. Congratulations. Maybe you're just pissed that it isn't 1993 anymore?

trujunglist

viqas

This is interesting as I have been going 'round and 'round with Dell about a problem with my 6 month old laptop and they finally told me that it sounds like it is a software problem and that "the warranty doesn't cover software, only hardware."

emt888

I think if I were the customer I'd be on the phone with HP demanding proof that the motherboard is fake. I'd want it in writing. I'd let them know I'm filing criminal charges against Amazon.com (who has to be a major business partner) and that I'll need full names of the support personnel who inspected the hardware to subpeona. Ask for their legal department and ask who their subpeona processor is. Let them know that either Amazon.com or HP is commiting fraud and that you aren't going to let it go until the situation is resolved.

Jmatthew

But...if I were her, I'd do what someone above me said: Refer it back to Amazon, with HP's response about the missing serial numbers on the motherboard, etc. If there is no serial numbers on the motherboard, and Amazon claims the laptop was new and not refurbished, then the fault lies with Amazon for supplying a refurb laptop as new, even if they were not aware. Give them 48 hours to respond, and then hand it over to your lawyer to take care of.

thejynxed

taka2k7

I've had a horrible customer service experience with a Best Buy/Sony Vaio where the power source failed twice and Sony refunded me my money after Best Buy refused. I had to send in the computer for three weeks right at Christmas card season (busy time for photographers). I am completely capable of replacing a power source but was basically told "that's not a good idea, little lady".

I have a high-end/expensive Dell desktop running Vista which is slower than molasses that I use mostly for Photoshop for my photography business. My husband has a Dell that works fine now that he's had a local computer shop add on a bunch of extras to run some game he likes to play.

I've boycotted Toshiba also because they refused to pay me my $350 rebate on a laptop even though I sent in everything correctly and had the copies to prove it.

Now it sounds like HP customer service is also a nightmare...what should I do?

eeebee

winterak

P.S. This is exactly why I make all major purchases using my AMEX card.

schwnj

If by "these days" you mean "since at least 1995", then the opening sentence is spot-on.

VeeKaChu

bunch.of.wackos

I'm just wondering if there is some happy medium ground that can be reached for HP to verify laptop is indeed valid.

mike

The reason she'd be able to register it is because it could have been refurbished by a third party; the s/n on the outside would still be valid, and it's only when it gets opened up that it would be revealed as a refurb. The documentation could easily have been left in the box through the refurb process.

As for Amazon, I should have read the OP more carefully.

What a nightmare. Ideally what you'd like to be able to do is sue HP and Amazon at the same time, and let the court sort it out, but that's a tad sophisticated for small claims court.

salguod_senrab

I tried talking/writing to Amazon. Their response is:
"Greetings from Amazon.com.

I'm sorry for the issues that you are having with HP regarding the warranty. Unfortunately, Amazon.com did send you a new Laptop (AMD Turion 64 Processor TL64, 2 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) directly from Hewlett Packard. This item was not refurbished.

With most warranties you have to register the computer within so many days of it being purchased. If your warranty had been deemed invalid by HP, you would have been notified at that time. The order was placed June 19, 2007. Our returns policy for items is 30 days. If any problems were encountered with the item or with HP within those thirty days, we would have been able to help you out in some way. However, due to the time that has passed since your order was placed and when your warranty was registered, we are unable to help you any further.

I understand that you are upset, and I regret that we have not been able to address your concerns to your satisfaction. Unfortunately, we will not be able to offer any additional insight or action on these matters.

We've appreciated your business and hope to have the opportunity to serve you again in the future."

I wrote to them again asking for original invoice to prove their claim that they got the laptop directly from HP. So far no response from them.

DolphinT

Thank you for your kind words! Are there prizes for best comments and advice? A Best Buy gift card perhaps?

Note that it is unlikely that the OP accidently purchased a refurb, as she did contact Amazon about the problems and likely Amazon would have reminded the OP if this were the case. Additionally, it is unlikely that the consumer would have been able to register and produce warranty documention for the 1 year warranty, P/L if it were not a new product.

SkokieGuy

Tarpo

Unfortunately, even if 100,000 people did this, HP and other awful companies (I'm looking at you, GATEWAY!) still have enough global ties, business contracts, and clout to keep their CEOs' $bazillion paychecks flowing.

I work at a high school performing systems support. We recently switched from MPC to HP computers. I am going to post this story in the district-wide electronic message board for technicians. I hope to god that this isn't a sign of things to come...

blackmage439

I agree with Shaftoe. The most likely explanation is that Amazon sold a refurbished computer. In fact, the OP may have inadvertently purchased something advertised as a refurb (I've done this before). This may also explain "we only warranty software" -- on a refurb, the only thing "new" is the HP bundled software.

If Amazon didn't overtly sell a refurb, then the OP can also go after Amazon in small claims court.

salguod_senrab

thebaron

Shaftoe

I hear this conspiracy theory alot about stalling repairs until the warranty expires. Even if a company tried this wouldn't they have to cover it? The problem obviously started while the warrantee is in effect.

I could see a disreputable company trying to weasel out of covering a repair if it was within a few days of the warranty expiring. I can't see them holding on to the item for months and then trying it.

I'm sure lots of irate customers claim to work in IT or control millions of dollars in IT spending and threaten to boycott (insert company name)if they don't get what they want. So I'm not too surprised the customer rep. didn't seem very concerned.

hatrack

Obtain the repair quote in writing, along with HP's comments, (hardware not covered / motherboard not authentic, no serial number).

Then contact Amazon's fraud department. Demand a replacement laptop. When the decline, assuming its too late to do a chargeback, advise them that if not remedied in 48 hours you will contact the police and perhaps Feds / FBI who are very involved in the prevention of sales of counterfit goods.

Either HP or Amazon is lying and it is not up to you to mediate.

Good luck!

SkokieGuy

You want a HP? Buy from HP
You want a Dell? Buy from Dell
ETC.

Buying third-party from Amazon or Best Buy, Wal-Mart, whoever is just asking for trouble. You should save enough money for it to be worth opening yourself to this kind of risk.

This way to ensure the paper-trail always leads back to the manufacturer and not to some third-party.

Josh_G

quail

DolphinT

I have had 2 problems with my laptop in the year since I got it and both were fixes almost immediately.

First I had a issue with the mother board which caused the wifi not to work, had it fixed and back to me within a week. Next my hard drive decided to fail on me and they send me a new one in 2 days.

BobbyMoon

generalhousewifery

Sucks, man! They are all bastards. Next time, I will buy an Apple.

Serpephone

Pro-Pain

For further explanation why Apple people are the worst, see the corresponding Maddox article. Google it.

WingZero987

EricaKane

And it's clear they are just trying to pull one on her:
HP: we don't cover hardware
Customer: I have the warranty in front of me, yes you do.
HP: Um, well your motherboard is missing a serial number, so it doesn't matter.

What? what's creepy is that since she heard the same lines from a number of different agents and departments, this must be some sort of sanctioned company policy...

formergr

BoomerFive

Something's not right here, and I don't think it's all entirely HP's fault - call center people read from scripts - they just aren't this flipping creative.

CaliforniaCajun

I just got off the phone with HP this morning over an issue with my workstation.

Their basic response was "live with it, we're not going to look into it anymore".

unklegwar

7degreesnorth

What gives?

CaliforniaCajun

They probably thought her name was Fiorina instead of Floria. She needs to say her name is Hurd.

Imaginary_Friend

ViperBorg

Sockatume

generalhousewifery

Either she was through to some software support line or something is seriously strange over at HP...

aphexbr

EricaKane

generalhousewifery