Hewlett Packard – HP’s worst service EVER

For more than a year I am struggeling with HP support. This page will describe the current status of my service call about a HP NW9440 notebook with HP Care Pack – Care Pack Serial Number G6GRUS0027EC (valid until 21 Aug 2010).

Service Level according to the carepaq:

No Specified Restoration Time, Next Coverage Day, No Specified Repair Time, No Limitation, No Special Coverage, Standard, Standard Material Handling, Standard Configuration, Country Coverage, Next available tech resource, Next available tech resource, Standard, Std office hrs std office days

Deliverables:

Onsite Support, Material, HW Problem Diagnosis,

Bottom line as of 25. February 2009: The computer is not working and the last 4 on-site repairs were unsuccessful and since I have the notebook it was unusable more than 50% of the time. The problem is not just that the problem hasn’t been fixed, also HP-support does not work efficient, especially for customers with a well paid maintenance contract. Also HP is unable to find their own case numbers in their systems and getting in touch with HP is nearly impossible. Luckily my Macbook pro works perfectly well. For sure I will not buy anything from HP any more (after being a server, notebook and printer customer for nearly 20 years).

According to the SLA HP needs to repair onsite on the next business day.

Below you find the complete history and a picture of the problem:

History:

20090304: today it has been repaired and so far it is working fine.

20090226: Received a call from Mrs. Jordanova / HP Dispatch to let me know that parts are on backorder and that service will take place on 6.3.2009. A technican will call me to confirm the time that day.

20090225: Of course nobody called today to schedule an appointment … Finally I also looked up the terms and conditions, which can be found here.

20090225: received a phone call that service will not be possible today, but the technican will call me later today to schedule an appointment. Also explained that there were numerous attempts before, but unfortunately she could find the other case numbers in her system (20 min wasted)

20090225: somebody from a similar email address has forwarded me HPs email, telling that I should send the pictures. I spend the morning trying to do exactly that, but all emails bounce back with a 500-server error, no DNS MX entries for domain. Tried to upload the images via their web-based tool, but this case number could not be found. Finally called again, explained the problem again, got a different email address and the case was updated. 2 hours wasted.

20090224: received a phone-call that I should email a picture of the problem. She is going to send an email which I should just reply to.

20090224: I have opened the most recent case #1604123681 telling that on screen (even during startup when the Bios-screen is on display) I have random pixels all over the screen.

20090224: Tried to open a case via the web based tools, chatted with an support specialist in India. Answered all questions for the 10000 time. In the end I was asked to call a service center in Zuerich directly. (1 hour wasted).

A quick search through my old emails gives this additional history:

20080529: case 3602119971: HP doesn’t want to do on-site service any more and asked for a mail-in. When the box finally arrived it couldn’t be used, because unfortunatly a notebook does not fit in the box (they insisted on sending me a box with RMA etc). I am moving to Europe and cannot follow up on this any longer. Here’s the description for this case:

Hi, I’ve got a nw9440 notebook which is having problems from the first day. So far I remember 3 on-site repairs and many calls and chats. Please escalate the issue, the notebook has a valid care pack with next business day repair (which so far never happened, it took always severals days until someone got back to me). The issue is, that the notebook keeps crashing, the display always collapses (turns off and on) and in the boot screen you can see that something is not correct. See http://www.flickr.com/photos/markus_linke/2535581716/ for a picture taken from the screen during start-up. To ensure that it is not software related I have reinstalled the system using the HP Recovery DVDs and the problem still exists. About a month ago one of your technicans promised to send a return-box to me so that the unit can be replaced but it never happened.

20080417: CASE:3601637770: HP has changed the systemboard

20061023: Case: 3216585997: HP refused to accept the case because I was running Red Hat Linux on the notebook which was not supported. At the time of the buy, even though it was not certified yet, it had a Linux ready sticker.

20060911: Case: 3216122971: This case about the memory module not working in this unit has been successfully resolved by replacing the memory module. I guess it was just bad QA …

This list is still work in progress and incomplete!

Please note that with every new case number I spent between one and two hours with the indian service experts via the HP online chat (this is how they prefer to have their service requests started) just in order to open the case. With every single call I have explained the history and it was not my wish to open new case numbers all the time. Usually when speaking with technicans they were unable to find any case number in their system, because apparently they all work on different data. Not a single time the SLA of next business day on-site service has been met.

Also: One of my first jobs was with one of the biggest HP/Compaq partners in Germany. With my own IT service company later one we became an authorized Compaq service center. I assume I have a decent understanding of a) how this kind of support should work and b) how a notebook works. All I can say right now is that the basic Compaq service 10 years ago was a million times better than the paid-for premium support HP is offering these days!