Why I wont buy or Recommend HP laptops...
I just spent a week with 3 brand new laptops. 1 dell, 1 compaq(hp), and 1 HP. The Dell and HP were both i3, although the dell is a 14" and the HP was a 17.8" they had nearly identical specs. The Compaq is a Core Duo, and was a el-cheapo Sub $400.00 laptop. ALL THREE of these laptops were purchased at Staples, and staples staff bent over backwards for me.
Firstly, I have had extensive experience with Dell tech support for friends and work. Both their corporate and consumer tech support is top notch and you can easily by asking get to a USA tech support person if you have problems with the accent of the support person. Generally my tech support call expectations is SET by what I experience with dell.
I bought a Compaq 15" for my wife, Windows 7, but that was going to disappear for Ubuntu. The laptop is fine except for build quality, but I was forgiving because it's a dirt-cheap throwaway. What I find a bad design is the keyboard and the track-point mouse. It's flush with the laptop surface and the same texture. so it is impossible to stay on it unless you look at it. plus the buttons are flush so they are hard to find. Very low usability.. the designer at HP that designed this needs to be fired. Before I wiped the Windows 7 install, I investigated a bit, the laptop came with 5 metric tons of crapware installed. Typical. But the windows experience index ran at a 5.1! Wow! that's pretty high for a throwaway cheapish laptop. Install of ubuntu 10.10 and all went well, my wifes only complaints are the useless trackpad for mousing and only 1 USB port.
Fast foreward to my purchase of a high end HP 17.3" laptop... It has the same garbage trackpad that is flush.... in fact it looks identical to the cheap compaq expect it's larger and a trendy silver color. Keyboard is also a very bad design. First power up and "Hard Drive SMART ERROR your drive is in danger of failure...".... Oh that's nice. so I call HP tech support. I get a runaround for 2 days of I need to restore the software, then let it run for a while to see if it goes away. Hello? Does HP hire idiots for TECH support? SMART errors dont go away. I ask when they will send a guy to replace the hard drive...
Silence....
"You have to ship it to us for that repair sir...."
Um no, this is going back to the store...
"You are not allowed to do that. you have to send it to us."
I hung up. packed up this piece of crap and went back to Staples.. They gladly took the return and even let me select a different laptop as they were out of that model and frankly I did not want anything from HP after how horrible HP tech support is. They gave me a Dell that was the same specs.. This dell worked perfect on first power up. It also did not have very much crapware expect for Norton Antivirus and a couple of dell helperapps. the trackpad is recessed a little to make it east to stay on it, the keyboard feels like a keyboard and has real F keys.
I personally will never ever recommend or buy a HP product to anyone ever again, in fact after my experience with HP support, I will warn people away from buying HP products. Ship it to them, are they on drugs? Defective out of the box and they want me to spend money shipping to a facility across the country insured.
Dell will send a tech to my home and replace or fix the problem within 48 hours. Yes even on their low end consumer products.
Do Not buy HP, badly designed, and questionable quality, coupled with very bad customer service.
Firstly, I have had extensive experience with Dell tech support for friends and work. Both their corporate and consumer tech support is top notch and you can easily by asking get to a USA tech support person if you have problems with the accent of the support person. Generally my tech support call expectations is SET by what I experience with dell.
I bought a Compaq 15" for my wife, Windows 7, but that was going to disappear for Ubuntu. The laptop is fine except for build quality, but I was forgiving because it's a dirt-cheap throwaway. What I find a bad design is the keyboard and the track-point mouse. It's flush with the laptop surface and the same texture. so it is impossible to stay on it unless you look at it. plus the buttons are flush so they are hard to find. Very low usability.. the designer at HP that designed this needs to be fired. Before I wiped the Windows 7 install, I investigated a bit, the laptop came with 5 metric tons of crapware installed. Typical. But the windows experience index ran at a 5.1! Wow! that's pretty high for a throwaway cheapish laptop. Install of ubuntu 10.10 and all went well, my wifes only complaints are the useless trackpad for mousing and only 1 USB port.
Fast foreward to my purchase of a high end HP 17.3" laptop... It has the same garbage trackpad that is flush.... in fact it looks identical to the cheap compaq expect it's larger and a trendy silver color. Keyboard is also a very bad design. First power up and "Hard Drive SMART ERROR your drive is in danger of failure...".... Oh that's nice. so I call HP tech support. I get a runaround for 2 days of I need to restore the software, then let it run for a while to see if it goes away. Hello? Does HP hire idiots for TECH support? SMART errors dont go away. I ask when they will send a guy to replace the hard drive...
Silence....
"You have to ship it to us for that repair sir...."
Um no, this is going back to the store...
"You are not allowed to do that. you have to send it to us."
I hung up. packed up this piece of crap and went back to Staples.. They gladly took the return and even let me select a different laptop as they were out of that model and frankly I did not want anything from HP after how horrible HP tech support is. They gave me a Dell that was the same specs.. This dell worked perfect on first power up. It also did not have very much crapware expect for Norton Antivirus and a couple of dell helperapps. the trackpad is recessed a little to make it east to stay on it, the keyboard feels like a keyboard and has real F keys.
I personally will never ever recommend or buy a HP product to anyone ever again, in fact after my experience with HP support, I will warn people away from buying HP products. Ship it to them, are they on drugs? Defective out of the box and they want me to spend money shipping to a facility across the country insured.
Dell will send a tech to my home and replace or fix the problem within 48 hours. Yes even on their low end consumer products.
Do Not buy HP, badly designed, and questionable quality, coupled with very bad customer service.
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