HP Warranty Repair HELL (Story + Pics)

voyagerfan99

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
I've never cared for HP. Their machines are just total junk, and so is their warranty service and customer support. I now have a story to prove it.

So as many of you know, I work for a small computer shop in my town. We sell both new and refurbished laptops and desktops. We sold a customer a new HP 630 laptop, but the customer experienced issues within a few days. Bringing it back to us, we determined it was a motherboard problem and contacted HP Support to have it repaired under warranty. Originally HP refused to replace the motherboard and did everything they could not to (BIOS update, hard drive wipe and Windows install, etc.). Finally they agreed to replace the motherboard.

We have been purchasing off-lease Dell laptops from Dell Financial that come packaged in cardboard and stretched plastic to keep them from jostling during shipping. They are very high quality boxes and we use them on a regular basis.

The packaging used:
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Well, we received a call from HP saying the machine had been damaged. They would replace the motherboard but not fix the other physical damage. Upon asking if the packaging was damaged they said no. My boss escalated the problem as high as he could, getting more and more flustered and frustrated each time, mainly because HP Support was accusing him of lying, sending them a destroyed machine to get a free replacement.

The biggest issue my boss had with that was that it did not make any sense. It would be a waste of our time, money, and our customers time to try and make a false repair claim like that. Because HP was no help and our customer was getting aggravated as well, my boss GAVE THEM a replacement computer (brand new Lenovo paid for out of my bosses pocket).

The fact that HP can allow one of their employees to destroy the machine and then blame us is ridiculous. I will never recommend an HP product ever again, and my boss has decided never to sell HP's.

We got the destroyed machine back. Here's the damage: (Sorry for some poor pics)

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Wow, that is some damage. I can't quite tell what the packaging is like. The plastic is stretch so that is stays in place? And they said the packaging wasn't damaged? Then they must've dropped it or something and just said it was damaged.
 
claptonman said:
Wow, that is some damage. I can't quite tell what the packaging is like. The plastic is stretch so that is stays in place? And they said the packaging wasn't damaged? Then they must've dropped it or something and just said it was damaged.
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Correct. It's a piece of cardboard with plastic that opens like a pocket, then is folded and stretched tight. And there is no other way it could have suffered this much damage unless some lazy HP employee who didn't want to get fired dropped it.
 
Dngrsone said:
It definitely was dropped. Did your boss lawyer up with the case manager? That's what I'd try next.
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Might be the next route we go. Currently debating on what we'll do. Thinking of contacting "On Your Side" with PC World; maybe an I-Team investigation with the local news station, and a letter to HP. I'll point my boss to this thread so he can monitor the input from you guys.
 
Wow, that's pretty ridiculous.

I had an HP V6000 that had an LCD that started having lines coming across it. I sent it in as it was under warranty, but they said they wouldn't replace it because there was some cosmetic damage on the frame by the screen. This was just BS of course, the cosmetic damage had happened long after the screen had started to go. They wanted something like $300 to fix it and I told them no way, I would do it myself.

Oddly enough, even though I expected the laptop back as is I got it back with a new screen.
 
HP is seriously ridiculous. They sell so many computers but give their customers total bull when it comes to warranty repairs. Just have a look at all the DV series laptops that had the chipset/display overheat problem.
 
voyagerfan99 said:
HP is seriously ridiculous. They sell so many computers but give their customers total bull when it comes to warranty repairs. Just have a look at all the DV series laptops that had the chipset/display overheat problem.
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I actually got a free machine out of that debacle-- had to return my machine four times for stupid graphics failures, I escalated it twice and they gave me an extended warranty and then they sent me a new custom-built when the turnaround time turned out to be longer than expected.

My repaired original machine showed up three days before the new one did. :rolleyes:
 
I heard bad things about Hewlett Packard laptops, but this seals the deal for me. I will continue to stay away from them until their products and business practices change.

Toshiba is still my number one pick for laptops.
 
why is it such an f'ing hastle for a multi-billion dollar company to spend 20-30 bucks to replace something? i mean really, like when my emachine's psu failed and it was under warranty and all, they said it wasn't and wanted 2-300 for it to be shipped to them repaired and sent back, really? i don't think i'll ever buy anything from a company other asus, toshiba, and maybe dell, can't think of any others worth it.
 
I found the number for the Executive Customer Service and gave it to my boss. Maybe that'll get us somewhere because this seems to be a case of an internal problem slipping through the cracks and getting covered up. I'll keep everyone updated as to what happens.
 
about dropping the laptop... im just wondering watching the 3rd pic (or 2nd from damaged), that how the hell have he dropped the laptop so the speaker grill thingy goes like that? and the screen, well i don't know, but it seems more like something would have smashed at that part.. since it's "splittered" in the corner, but just some long scratches through the whole screen... (starting to think when hitting a windshild of an car with an baseball bat)...
 
Dngrsone said:
It appears to have been dropped on the corner.
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it's the only way... but still the corner hasen't anyhow cracked the plastic or anything... or then it's just slammed with the corner in the table when getting pissed off when it wont work :rolleyes:
 
2048Megabytes said:
I heard bad things about Hewlett Packard laptops, but this seals the deal for me. I will continue to stay away from them until their products and business practices change.

Toshiba is still my number one pick for laptops.
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Agreed, Toshiba will always be my number one pick, 1. I rarely get a toshiba to be fixed that the problem wasnt from the user/owner screwing it up. 2. The times i have used toshiba warranty i have had no issues at all.

I also have had issues with HP warrant/Recalls i had a dv6000 model fell under a recall for battery and motherboard still showed on the site they were honoring this and they absolutely refused to honor it, all they did was try to get me to pay them like 200 bucks for some coverage plan then said it may not cover the damage to machine that would be an extra cost. What a joke
 
Heku said:
it's the only way... but still the corner hasen't anyhow cracked the plastic or anything... or then it's just slammed with the corner in the table when getting pissed off when it wont work :rolleyes:
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actually that seems right, to me it looks like someone tried to close it with something there. if it had been dropped you'd see something at least on the corner, and damage different than that you'd think. then again the exact cause of the damage isn't that important as it doesn't change that they damaged it and sent it back saying they had damaged it voiding the warranty or whatever.
 
From what I understand, at the moment we are filing a thing with UPS (it was insured) so we'll see what happens now.
 
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