Hewlett-Packard Company Pavilion Series Consumer Reviews - Page 4

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA -- I purchased a HP Pavilion DV2000 laptop model DV2221 in mid 2007. Just 2 1/2 years later the wireless failed. Apparently this problem was known to HP and they offered an extended warranty enhancement for 24 months from the date of purchase. However, the enhancement would not be offered unless your computer failed within that period.

Unfortunately, for me I never knew about this motherboard defect until it happened. So even if I sent the computer back before 5/09, that is when the program ended, HP would not fix my computer. Calling warranty service is a joke. You get overseas people probably in India who don't care. I was offered the opportunity to fix my computer for $350 and that was then reduced to $269 (excluding tax, shipping etc...) after I protested. Not satisfied with my first call I called a second time and insisted on speaking with a supervisor. The foreign supervisor was firm and reiterated the same party line.

Still not satisfied I called the California HQ and never could get through after trying for 30 minutes, as the line was busy. Noting HP had a Texas office I called there and was switched to a case manager. I restated my situation and was offered the same solution as the Indian reps. I informed the US case manager that this known defect should be fixed at HP's expense as it was known that the product was defective. I was informed that this was not considered a defect. I am considering suing HP as they knew they sold a defective product and refuse to fix it.

Certainly, a computer should last more than 2 1/2 years. Well HP can count on my not ever buying a product from them again. HP does not stand behind their products, but stands in front with their hand out for money. This is not my first experience with poor warranty service. My desktop keyboard and mouse failed under warranty. I called and was told that my warrant was up as they had put it into warranty at the time the desktop was shipped to Office Max, not when I purchased and registered the computer. Of course this does not make sense. I had to call 3 times to finally get my warranted parts.

Not only did HP misrepresent, when I called in my warranty repair, the foreign representative said he processed my replacement parts. When the replacement parts did not arrive about a week and a half later, I was concerned so I called and was told I had no warranty coverage. 2 calls later I finally got the warranted parts I was entitled to.

I will be looking at other brands and their warranties. It seems ridiculous for me to repair this computer at my expense when the defect was known and any repair would not guaranteed for very long (90 days) when another reviewer on this site noted the same repair failed a short time later.

We have had 3 of 10 hard drives fail in HP Pavilion computers in the last 3 months on new computers. These computers use Seagate ST300620AS drives. After extensive research I found we were not the only ones having this problem and in fact Seagate first admitted a problem with these drives in December of 08 (before we bought these computers).

I found through my research that the problem is caused by a bug in the drive's firmware and that Seagate would fix and recover data at no charge. But after confirming with Seagate that the fix did apply to the drives I have, I was told by Seagate that they could not provide this service since the drive were purchased in HP computers.

After contacting HP and spending over an hour on the phone trying to get someone to understand the problem, I finally reached someone who was very familiar with this issue. However, they would not patch these drives and admitted that I would have been better off buying these drives through another source since HP would make no effort to provide the patch service that Seagate will provide if I had purchased from another source.

It would take very little investment in time or cost for HP to live up to the reputation they spend millions in advertising dollars to try to maintain. They are claiming ignorance, that they did not know about this problem until May, but the rest of the world knew about it in December.

I am done buying products from HP. If you are considering buying a computer from HP you may want to rethink that thought. I understand that backups are my responsibility, and there was nothing on these drives that was critical, so there was no reason to worry about backups, critical data is stored on our server and backed up daily. However, when 3 drives fail in a short period it becomes more than a headache even if the data lost is not critical. It would take little effort and cost for HP to do what Seagate knows is the right thing. Shame on HP for selling computers with known catastrophic failure potential.

I purchased this machine in June '08. In April '09, I found it necessary to restore/recover the machine. Using the recovery discs that *I had to make*, I attempted a recovery. The second recovery disc was bad, so the recovery was unsuccessful.

Upon *buying* a recovery disc online (HP products DO NOT COME WITH ANY HARD COPIES OF SOFTWARE - YOU HAVE TO *BUY* THIS LATER!!), they sent the wrong one. When you purchase an HP product, be aware that you will need serial numbers, model numbers, BIN numbers and several other strings of characters to even purchase the recovery discs. Apparently, *I* must have chosen the wrong recovery disc for my system.

Upon being concerned of this, I opted to use HP.com's 'online chat' to resolve the issue before the wrong discs were shipped. That was even more of a headache. Over the course of 2 HOURS (yes, really!), I was given nothing but bad information. The service tech told me I was in warranty (in fact, I wasn't) and that the correct recovery disc would be sent to me. (Apparently, HP will supply a recovery disc for free if the machine is within warranty, but you have to undergo some pretty serious interrogatories before they will consider doing this.)

I received the wrong disc (as the customer service I'd received to this point had predicted I would) and it, literally, took 45 minutes on the phone (I finally decided that the phone would be better - I was wrong) to get the situation sorted out. Meanwhile, my desktop has been down for 2 weeks, now.

HP has outsourced ALL of it's customer service. I did not speak with a single person that had a reasonable grasp of English; and those that had passable English had accents so thick that I may as well have been trying to speak another language, altogether. To top it all off, today I received an email from a 'case manager'. Apparently, he's tried to contact me several times (I guess I'm just not available at his convenience...) and was polite enough to point this out in his email.

If you buy HP, do so with the implicit understanding that the company will offer extremely sub-par customer service. Contacting the company is akin to a dentist's drill; expecting them to care about any concerns you have is an exercise in futility. After $1,000.00 in HP products, I will never do any business with the company again. Ever.

I just had a really poor experience with HP as well. I had a MB fail on my Pavilion DV2500T laptop and had it sent in. Now this is a laptop that I purchased directly from HP and I purchased the extended/expedited care pack. I did not get expedited service and in fact it took 7 business days to get it back from when FedEx shows they signed for it. On top of that, they restored the OS on the laptop when it was an obvious hardware problem with no issues with the software at all.

In the process of this they did not even restore the software that was originally installed on it. I had Office 2007 professional and they installed the home and student version. Now since this was a hardware issue where I could not get to the data I was unable to perform a current backup before sending the system to them. Therefore I lost a lot of data, especially e-mails (some of which I needed for tax receipts).

I called to complain and was told that restoring the OS was a value add that I received and that basically that I should thank them for doing it. I escalated and received a call back from a case manager on the problem. He told me that HP would not do anything about restoring the software as that was not their responsibility and that my user agreement says that HP can do restores on equipment. I escalated again and this case manager was extremely rude basically saying that if I was actually an IT professional as I claimed to be (been in the industry for over 15 years) that I would know that a MB replacement would require a OS restore at the same time.

I have been a loyal purchaser of HP product for a long time and even worked for HP/Compaq for 8 years. I am not any more. In fact I saw while working for the company that the quality of service, and the lack of customer concerns has dramatically decreased in the time that worked for them.

A large portion of this decrease is 1) the outsourcing of IT support to India and Costa Rica; 2) The push by Carly Fiorina and now Mark Hurd to lay-off or fire all the skilled and to their minds overpriced technical workers for people that are extremely low paid (MCSEs and CCNAs for 35-40k) or have no real experience such as those just out of school. I now rate HP's technical support as very low, and their customer care as non-existent.

SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND -- When in June 98 the left button of my HP Pavilion laptop mouse stopped working, I sent it in for repair. Not only the computer came back with the button still not working, but also I noticed there was a problem with the system right away. I had to send the laptop back in again, had to stick a post-it to the laptop indicating what the problem was, had to talk to several people, several times at HP... This whole story took over a month. After I got the button to work, I noticed it was loose and that there was something wrong with the computer. I called HP and informed them that because I was leaving the country for a couple of months, I could not take care of this at the time, any longer.

While I was away, the DVD player stopped working too!!! I returned to the States and sent in the laptop for repair. After waiting for over 2 weeks for the laptop, which I absolutely need for work, I decided to call HP in order to know what was going on. I was notified that there would be a charge of over US$600.00 as my insurance did not cover the type of problem that had been found. HP has all my contacts on file and no one ever bothered to give me a call. I don't even know if I would ever get the computer back because I never allowed for any extra-charges and they probably would never call me...

I asked this not so friendly case-manager that would not give me her last name (Susan ** - 1 877 917-4380 ext. **) to send the computer back unrepaired. I wonder what did I buy insurance for, if HP Repair services are not responsible themselves for the problem, and folks, this was the LAST time I have purchased anything from HP.

CINCINNATI, OHIO -- My notebook was plagued with problems from the start - mainly the mouse pad and loud speakers. I believe they were defective from the get-go. When I called in with my problem, the technical support agent could not solve it over the phone, so I needed to send in the computer. But, before I would send in the computer, she said I needed to erase the system and reinstall it and maybe that would solve the problem.

I told her that I did NOT have my data backed up yet, so I needed to back it up first and then re-install the system. I asked her how do I go about reinstalling the system, and she said she would guide me through it. I restated that I do not have my data backed up, but she said not to worry because she would only show me where to go. Well, she got me to the point of starting the re-installation and then after I read to her that the screen is asking me if I'm sure I want to do this, she said, "yes, go ahead and click next." I trusted her, and I clicked next, which started the process and I started to freak out because my data has not been saved. She said turn off your computer and you'll be fine.

I was not fine - she erased my data, and when I tried to turn on my computer, it would not start. So, I called HP technical support again and they said they could not help me -- I had to go to a local store to have it recovered, which cost me over $500. I asked HP to reimburse me for this, but they said no. They said that I was responsible for my own data. The fact that my data got erased because of the mistake of their employee did not matter at all. I had to shell out over $500 to recover my data. I will never ever again buy an HP product. Please be aware of relying on HP's technical support. It's bad news.

I purchased a slimline on 8/4/07. I did not receive warning that it does not have speakers installed or that it was not compatible with anything including my camera which is a HP Photosmart camera. Within the first 6 months, the computer crashed. I paid for it to be repaired at a computer shop for $150.

Three months later it crashed again. This time I googled the error message and found out the product is defective. Many customers were having the same problem. I contacted HP and after hours spent talking to your technician in India, they finally agreed to service it. I mailed it. I received it back about a week later. They claimed to have replaced the motherboard, hard drive, and cable assembly. Three days later, it crashed again.
I called back and this time I asked to speak to a supervisor. They transferred my call and put me on hold for over 10 mins. Finally another rep (with a thick accent) answered who claimed to be a supervisor.

First, he told me that my warranty expired. After I argued with him that there is no way it expired, he promised that a technician would call me back the following night. Later I found out he was not a supervisor. The following day, I left work early and went home and waited for the phone call. Nobody called me.

On Thurs 7/31/08, I called back and asked to speak to a supervisor. After 30 minutes and 3 transfer I was told there was not one available. Instead they set up another pickup of the product to be sent to their repair shop. On Friday 8/1/08 I called back and asked to speak to a supervisor. Once again I waited 27 minutes before I was transferred to what I thought was a supervisor, Syed **. He explained he was not a supervisor and that I would have to be put on hold to speak to one.

I asked Syed for the Headquarters so that I can file a complaint against that and he put me on hold for a couple of minutes before he refused to give me an address. I'm tired of the games. I've spent over $1100 on this computer and it has NEVER worked properly. Their customer service is horrible. I can NEVER get an American to speak to, even though I've requested each time I call.

MANHATTAN BEACH, CALIFORNIA -- I bought an HP Pavilion DV6000 laptop almost a year ago. The keys began falling off, the power cord became frayed and the wireless connection was intermittent at best. I contacted HP tech support and was relieved when the person that helped me was located in Canada and spoke perfect English. There was no delay in the conversation as with overseas calls and I never once had to ask her to repeat what she said.

She asked my permission, then took over control of my computer, in order to diagnose the problem. She ascertained the laptop needed to be sent in for repairs. She dispatched a box, which I received in 2 days and a replacement power supply which arrived in 2 days also. After shipping my computer in, it arrived 5 days after it was sent, complete with a new motherboard and keyboard.

Before sending the computer in, HP suggested I back up the hard drive. They advised me on how to do that, then stayed on the line while it got underway. They called me back to make sure it was completed. I have received 3 callbacks from them making sure I was happy and the service was completed.

I have had 3 Dell computers in the past and I doubt I will ever go back. At least not as long as their tech support remains at the bottom of the bottom. Dell started out so great, but they lost me when they outsourced and caused me so much frustration. I would send in the computer and it would be returned unrepaired. Communication problems and utter frustration. As long as HP maintains its outstanding customer service, I'll be loyal to them.

I have to add that I happened to discover a problem with the wireless connection the first time I tried to use it. It so happens the problem was caused by a faulty motherboard. I was 23 days from being out of warranty, so I was lucky and was able to have all the problems resolved without cost. I might not be so happy if I hadn't tried out the wireless until 25 days later.

COLORADO -- We purchased a new HP Pavilion October 30, 2006 and it began freezing up shortly after. After numerous contacts with customer service and trying everything from System Restore (7 points, didn't work) to System Recovery (twice) computer still froze up and very helpful customer service people said our hard drive was dead and needed to be replaced. That's where the 'helpful' ended and the 'extremely troubling' started. We were sent a 'new' hard drive for our almost brand new computer which ended up being a hard drive pulled from someone else's computer that STILL HAD ALL THEIR PERSONAL INFORMATION ON IT!!!

When we contacted the "Hard Drive Help" people, they didn't seem to understand our concern- first we were told- "that's how it is supposed to be, you just need to install the operating system". When we told them how upset we were because 1) we had someone else's personal information and 2) they were obviously sending out old parts and marketing them as new, we were put on hold for 15 minutes and then told to "send back the 'new' hard drive immediately". They had our credit card number and said that if we didn't receive the hard drive back in x number of days, we would be charged for it.

We contacted the people who had owned the hard drive and let them know what was happening and that we had to send it back because we couldn't afford being charged for it. The saga is still continuing weeks later, we still don't have a hard drive, but we were told by a HP Customer Service Rep that they NEVER send out new hard drives, that they are always pulled and wiped!!! This seems illegal, yes? You can not sell parts and represent them as new when they are refurbished!

470 days ago (I know that because I was reminded today that I am 105 days out of warranty) I purchased a new DV1000 at COMPUSA for a little over $1700. I have had nothing but problems with it since. Approx. 2 months into my ownership, the tracking mouse quit working - I was sent through the wringer to try to fix it through "troubleshooting" with the "technical support" department - which was located in India (I asked).

Each time I talked to them they assured me that a "case manager" would call me back within 24 hours - I never received a call. After about 5 runarounds of this kind, I found the number for the "headquarters" in Palo Alto, CA. I was assigned to a "case manager" who was actually very nice and helpful. I had to send it out to get it fixed - after receiving the "fixed" product, the same problem occurred within a week. I sent it back again - after they replaced the entire motherboard, I received the computer once again and surprisingly it worked.

Throughout 2006 I had problem after problem - some programs wouldn't load, the DVD burner never worked, but I decided that due to my previous experience with their customer service and technical support nothing was big enough of a deal to bother contacting them - so I just went along not even bothering to use the things that weren't working.

A week ago my screen went out. After a little over a year, my computer was unusable. I called the Palo Alto customer service - I wasn't about to go through the circus that they call technical support again - and they weren't interested in helping me - even for a fee. I took the computer into COMPUSA who is an authrized repair center to "diagnose" my problem - which cost $200.00. I got a call this morning that my screen would have to be replaced to the tune of $800.

I was disgusted (and still am) so I called Palo Alto again - and got to the "Executive Customer Relations" department. I spoke to "Sarah" who told me that since I am out of warranty, HP does not feel that they are at all responsible for their product. She told me that no one would be able to follow up on my complaint because I do not have a warranty.

She told me that all she could do is say "Sorry" and that's it. I asked "So, HP does not stand behind its products after the warranty period?!" Her response, "No." So basically, if you don't have a warranty, HP does not even acknowledge that you exist - you're stuck with their crappy product and they couldn't care less. Please, do not purchase an HP - it's not worth it by any stretch of the imagination.