Warranty Woes: HP
- By Candi Jahn
- •
- 09 Aug, 2021
Welcome back to Warranty Woes, this time we are going to cover HP. While they aren’t nearly as difficult to deal with as Core Innovations, they too have a few quirks.
Our Customer brought in her HP Envy x360 with the issue: Her trackpad would not allow her to right click without the curser disappearing, which we thought to be freezing. This computer is also a touch screen, so touch navigation was used when testing the machine and it worked fine. With the track pad being the source of the issue, it was time for some warranty work. When there is a hardware issue present and the computer is still under warranty, Badgerland initiates a case with the manufacturer on behalf of our customers.
Step one: Registering Your Warranty
To register, proof of purchase is required. This proof must have: Date of purchase, name and address of the establishment where the machine was purchased, and complete information about the machine (Name/type, cost, product specs). You will also need to know the serial number and product number. Those will be asked for multiple times during the warranty process. An HP account is required in order to check, initiate, and dispute warranty status if necessary. With this machine, I did need to dispute warranty status to update the warranty on for HP’s records.
Under “Warranty”, all of the information about the services offered for the registered computer can be found. At the time, this computer wasn’t registered, under the service type there is a dispute this hyperlink.
After entering the required information, I waited for about 2 weeks for the machine to be registered.
Step Two: Submit a Case
Once I received confirmation of registration, I submitted a case for repair via the chat with an agent function in the Contact HP link at the top of HP’s dashboard. This is only available if you have an active warranty, without an active warranty, you will not be able to even see this option.
After a bit of conversation, the online tech thought it may be driver issues, remoted into the machine and began updating and resetting the drivers. We had to transition from the online chat to a phone call for this to work. The updates did not change the issue with the trackpad at all. We then began a hardware test, but I was not able to click during the test and so the test failed. The next course of action was to completely reset the computer and reinstall windows 10. This also did not help. After six hours of service, the tech was unable to resolve the issue and we decided it was time to send the machine to HP’s repair facility.
Step Three: Send, Wait, and Receive
Two days later a box arrived from FedEx and the Computer was on its way. Another two days and the computer had arrived and work began. This is where things got a little weird and confusing. Before shipping the Envy out, I had given HP permission to both E-mail and text me with status updates. Night one of repair I received a text message stating “Your service order has been delayed and repair ETA is now 2021/05/28, please check order status…” (this is 2 months after the setup of the repair case). The next morning, I got an E-mail stating my repair had been finished and was in transit. Confused, I went to the website where I got another bit of information that conflicted with both of the previous messages. Here I was told, “Your computer is currently being delayed due to a broken bracket, ETA of Delivery 2021/04/09”. I assumed this bracket repair was needed to fix the trackpad issue and updated the customer with her case status.
That same night, I received another text message telling me the computer was out for delivery. Again, I was confused, but that next morning, FedEx delivered the computer.
When we at Badgerland get back a machine, we like to test do testing to ensure the issue is no longer present and get the computer set back up for the customer. Upon opening the box, I saw the customer receipt stating, “No parts replaced. Reinstalled operating system. Performed extensive testing”. Nowhere on the paperwork did it state that there was a bracket fix, it also had no information about the trackpad issue.
I started reloading the machine and began having those same trackpad issues. At this time, I decided to look up if other Envy users had this issue and I was in luck! This machine has a feature to turn off the trackpad if you double click the top left or right corners. This should have been one of the things we were informed about during testing, but the tech may not have known either. Fortunately, there is a way to shut this function off in the settings. The computer no longer has those trackpad issues and the customer has her laptop back after about 3 weeks. At this point, we still don’t have the computer back from Core Innovations (we are on week eight now…).
HP would get a B- on my grading scale for these reasons:
-Their website is easy to navigate, but you have to register and have an account to find all of the information required to initiate a repair.
-The techs are very helpful and willing to spend as much time as necessary before having you send the computer off. If the tech had known about the trackpad on/off function, it would have prevented us from sending it off.
-Wait time for repair was very quick, but wait time for the warranty registration took too long.
-The machine had no items repaired, but both the website and text message told me the device was delayed due to repair.
-We still had the trackpad issue after the computer was returned.
The process could have been expedited if the warranty registration had been quick and the tech had known about the Envy’s feature, but I don’t expect each tech to know everything about all of the machines they repair. They were super helpful and did as much as they could to fix it. No repairs were done because there was nothing wrong with the machine. It is inconvenient, but HP did exactly what I wanted them to.