I, too, bought an HP laptop

Hi,

After reading the readers letter recounting the problems he encountered with a HP laptop, I feel I have a similar tale to tell.

Two years ago I bought a HP Omnibook XE3 sporting a top of the range P3 700 (at the time) processor, DVD driv and 128mb ram. I like the look and feel of the laptop, the screen seemed crystal clear and far superior to other laptops I had seen and the price was a reasonable 5000DM (2,500 euros). Everything was fine for the first few weeks, when the laptops screen developed a strange flickering. The screen would darken suddenly and then would brighten again a few seconds later. I rang the tech support helpline and was told I should turn off powersaving both in windows and in the bios to solve the problem. Apparently it was an issue with the first revision of the laptop and would be fixed in later revisions. Nice to know future customers would have a fixed version while I would be stuck with a dodgy one.

Anyway, I tried the solution and it seems to work. 2 weeks later, the problem returned and no amount of fiddling with powersaving settings solved it. I called tech support again and they said the had never heard of the problem, despite acknowledging that I had called before.

Eventually they said they would repair the laptop. I sent it off, and they admittedly repaired it quickly and effectively. The screen was replaced and I had my laptop back within a week, Everything worked fine for 2 months and then the hard disk died.

Back to HP support, and they took back the laptop for repairs again. 2 weeks and several calls later I got the laptop back, with a new hard disk. It continued to work properly for a while, but 4 months later the screen started acting up again with the same issue that I had first experienced.

I called tech support, and they offered to repair it again. As I was nearing the end of the warrenty period, and since I had been told HP had a policy of three faults = replacement, I asked that the laptop be replaced rather than repaired.

The support technician claimed never to have heard of such a policy and insisted that the laptop could only be repaired. So I hung up and wrote a letter to HP, sending a copy to their headquaters in Palo Alto and informing all concerned that I had done so.

Within a week I received a call from a pleasant lady telling me that a courier would pick up my laptop and that it would be replaced swiftly. She even offered to send me the newer model (800mhz with 256mb) to compensate me for the inconvenience (though I expect they simply didn't have the older model in stock anymore). I agreed, and made a special to ask them to ensure the laptop came with a DVD drive as it was one of the reasons I had bought the laptop in the first place. 'No problem,' they assured me. My laptop was sent off and within a week a new package arrived with the new laptop. Sans DVD drive.

I called again and luckily managed to get hold of the same lady who had arranged the replacement. She assured me that the drive was indeed a DVD drive. I checked again and assured her that it was not. She assured me again that it was because 'our system says it is'. I told her that it definitly wasn't. Not only would it not play DVD movies, it wouldn't read data DVD's. She finally conceded that the model I had been sent could potentially have shipped without a DVD drive. She would have and external USB one sent to me. This seemed a reasonable compromise so I agreed. One week later a internal desktop DVD drive arrived. I rang HP again. They told me that they had no USB DVD dirves in stock, asked me to go buy one in a shop and send them the receipt. They would they refund the expense.

I bought a Freecom drive and they finally refunded me. The laptop has worked perfectly since this saga and despite all the hassle I still believe it's not a bad machine. Just a pity about their support.

Regards,

Aengus