Advice for client

HawkinsPC

Active Member
Reaction score
59
Location
Alabama
I received the following e-mail this morning and I wanted to get some input on the best plan of action:

I purchased a HP dv7-4165dx laptop computer close to a year ago from best buy. Within the first three weeks the motherboard fried. It took them over a week of working on it at best buy only to figure out it needed to be sent off. It was sent off through their black tie warranty to their repair center. Two weeks later, I got my laptop back. Two months later the hard drive failed. It was sent off to their repair center again. Two weeks later it was returned to me again working but with a less amount of GB hard drive, nevertheless working. Now it is having problems again, but they keep trying to fix it at best buy and it'll work for awhile but eventually mess up again. I am a student at JSU and really need a dependable laptop, not one that I'm afraid won't even turn on every time I boot it up. Best Buy's return policy on laptops is they have to be sent off three times and then brought back a fourth before they'll exchange one. I have been told by certain geek squad members that an early exchange through the geek squad manager is on a person to person basis. I have pleaded my case several times to several different stores all with the same result. I have tried getting in touch with HP to see if they could do anything with no results. Do you have any advice on what to do? Even having someone else work on it, I'm not sure I would ever be comfortable with this laptop be reliable ever again. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and thank you in advance for your response.
 
Firstly, the HP dv6,dv7,dv9,dv9000, etc are all Awful machines, and doomed from the get go. They all fail within around three years tops.

Secondly - he's already returned it twice. He may as well play the warranty game, return it a third time for some ****, and then bring it up one more time for the replacement machine.

Thirdly - if he really wants a solid machine instead, he should probably look into a Panasonic.
 
Firstly, the HP dv6,dv7,dv9,dv9000, etc are all Awful machines, and doomed from the get go. They all fail within around three years tops.

Secondly - he's already returned it twice. He may as well play the warranty game, return it a third time for some ****, and then bring it up one more time for the replacement machine.

Thirdly - if he really wants a solid machine instead, he should probably look into a Panasonic.

Are you talking about the Panasonic toughbooks? Those are pretty sweet. I also like Lenovo laptops, they seem to be of good quality
 
I received the following e-mail this morning and I wanted to get some input on the best plan of action:

I purchased a HP dv7-4165dx laptop computer close to a year ago from best buy. Within the first three weeks the motherboard fried. It took them over a week of working on it at best buy only to figure out it needed to be sent off. It was sent off through their black tie warranty to their repair center. Two weeks later, I got my laptop back. Two months later the hard drive failed. It was sent off to their repair center again. Two weeks later it was returned to me again working but with a less amount of GB hard drive, nevertheless working. Now it is having problems again, but they keep trying to fix it at best buy and it'll work for awhile but eventually mess up again. I am a student at JSU and really need a dependable laptop, not one that I'm afraid won't even turn on every time I boot it up. Best Buy's return policy on laptops is they have to be sent off three times and then brought back a fourth before they'll exchange one. I have been told by certain geek squad members that an early exchange through the geek squad manager is on a person to person basis. I have pleaded my case several times to several different stores all with the same result. I have tried getting in touch with HP to see if they could do anything with no results. Do you have any advice on what to do? Even having someone else work on it, I'm not sure I would ever be comfortable with this laptop be reliable ever again. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and thank you in advance for your response.

Even the best cars have lemons so without ranting on HP or anything else you have a decision to make.

what is your time worth?

Buy a new laptop and donate this one to charity.

How many times do you need to have your life disrupted before you decide to make a change? Even unemployed college students have some value for their time.

if you are a real glutton for punishment you can try to take BB to small claims court. They would probably swap out the computer not to have to show up in court.
 
Last edited:
If a customer called me with a story like this I would just advise them to sell the machine and replace it.

The thing is, it sounds like its just going to be a hassle - the 'risk factor' of working on this item is huge, given its history - I dont want that risk

Also, the customer is likely to continue to have issues regardless of who does the work. I honestly dont think its in his interests to keep it.

So yeah, I would miss out on the job and just provide some honest friendly advice - get rid of it. Its cursed :)
 
I recently had a customer receive a full refund from BB after three trips to Geek Squad for major problems in less than a year. Walked in with her broken laptop, walked out with $650 she never thought she'd see again. Of course she was out what she'd paid for the warranty, but figured that was a good exchange.

Maybe your guy isn't squawking loud enough or to the right person.

Otherwise, get it in there the 4th time and take the exchange (or refund if he can get it). If nothing else he'll have a brand new in the box computer to sell rather than the broken down one.

Then he can buy something else . . .
 
I received the following e-mail this morning and I wanted to get some input on the best plan of action:

I purchased a HP dv7-4165dx laptop computer close to a year ago from best buy. Within the first three weeks the motherboard fried. It took them over a week of working on it at best buy only to figure out it needed to be sent off. It was sent off through their black tie warranty to their repair center. Two weeks later, I got my laptop back. Two months later the hard drive failed. It was sent off to their repair center again. Two weeks later it was returned to me again working but with a less amount of GB hard drive, nevertheless working. Now it is having problems again, but they keep trying to fix it at best buy and it'll work for awhile but eventually mess up again. I am a student at JSU and really need a dependable laptop, not one that I'm afraid won't even turn on every time I boot it up. Best Buy's return policy on laptops is they have to be sent off three times and then brought back a fourth before they'll exchange one. I have been told by certain geek squad members that an early exchange through the geek squad manager is on a person to person basis. I have pleaded my case several times to several different stores all with the same result. I have tried getting in touch with HP to see if they could do anything with no results. Do you have any advice on what to do? Even having someone else work on it, I'm not sure I would ever be comfortable with this laptop be reliable ever again. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and thank you in advance for your response.

You may be close to having the unit replaced. There is a polizy in the Black Tie protection that governs the number of times a unit can berepaired before it is considered a lemon. I believe that it is on the 4th major repair but must admit that it is a very very gray area.

The first thing you should do it locate all the service records. Then you should also have them print out each of the service records. That way you have all of them. Take the comp in for service as normal but be prepared for them to "send it out" there is nothing you can do about this.. it will have to be done.

Should the unit come back repaired then the couter is reset but one more time and it should be considered a lemon.
 
The first mistake was that he purchased a HP! Secondly that he brought it from BestBuy!

He needs to get his money back and go to Dell or better still get a Toshiba Satellite Pro, from officemax or staples. or better still CompUSA.com.
 
I certainly have no intention of touching this machine! I'd like for the guy to either get a replacement or a refund. I understand what he's saying about not wanting to pawn it off on somebody. I'm going to suggest he finds someone higher-up with BB to complain to.
 
Back
Top