laptop rant

[iraqiDave]

I've had lots of computers, first desktops then laptops. Laptops suited my lifestyle better - I could take it too work and didn't have to copy files around anymore, everything I needed was on one small computer. Laptops seemed perfect..

6 months ago I bought a new laptop, a HP thingy. Looks nice and worked well.. Until last month I switched it on, lights flashed but screen stayed black. So I tried the useful things when things don't work, unplugging stuff, and eventually hitting it... Anyway, I was screwed I'd no idea what was wrong with the thing. So, I thought I'll look up the HP website, oh yea I can't because my only computer is knacked...

I managed to find HP's phone number. After 20mins of waiting and pressing buttons, I finally got to speak to someone, who happened to be in India. I'm telling no lie, I couldn't understand a word she was saying!!! She was getting annoyed and I was fuming, so I told her to f-off and hung up... I dug out an old desktop, and got online. Contacted HP through an online support desk, again the support was coming from India. In one email they arranged collection of the laptop...

Laptop was sent to Poland for repair!! I only received one email from the HP support. They are the worst company I've ever dealt with, non existant customer support, they ignored all my emails requesting a progress update, and I was unable to speak to anyone who I could understand...

4 weeks later it arrived back, with only 3GB of RAM instead of 4GB... A checklist inside said the mainboard, cpu, and memory had been replaced.... IT WAS ONLY 6 MONTHS OLD FFS... I also sent the laptop in the original box, which I safely kept in the attic, they returned the laptop to me I what I would call a shoebox... Laptop was also scratched to pieces were I had been disected.. :no::no:

I'm never buying HP again!


I've now decided to sell the laptop, as I fear it will breakdown again, so I'm going to stick it on eBay. Unfortunately some poor sod, will end up buying it. If I could afford it I'd dump it in the trash.... I've also decided to go back to using a desktop. Never thought I would say that!

However using a desktop makes sense now. What I'm proposing is a desktop which will act as a computer and a server for files etc.. It will have a proper screen, 22inch or something, a proper mouse and keyboard, and proper speakers.... I'll be able to keep it on 24/7 unlike a laptop... I will have some sort of backup battery UPS, for power cuts...

Then for my mobile computing, I'm thinking of buying an iphone, or wait for the netbooks to turn into thin clients....

Come to think of it, laptop manufacturers should be worried becuase I reckon this is the beginning of the end for laptops... Who burns dvds away from their house, who uses a laptop on the go, battery only lasts <2hrs. Laptops suck... Glad I'm ditching mine....

I'm off to write a letter to HP... rant over!

[Panther]

My 19 year old son did the same thing, built an awesome desktop thru Newegg.

His HP laptop works fine, but is a couple years old so it is slow by current standards, especially the smokin fast desktops now available.

[reader]

Same kind of story with my HP laptop. I was coming up on the 1yr warranty day, when it just died. Nothing would work. So I contacted HP support, as you stated, it's in India. No one could seem to help me, this went on for a couple days. Then they were sending me some disk to load onto the computer. Once they arrived, loaded and computer still didn't work. I called HP in India again. It was while we were on the phone (for a couple hours) that the clock struck midnight...in India. Then the person trying to "help" me on the phone informed me that my warranty had just run out and he could no longer help me unless I purchased an extented warranty from them. The conversation got pretty ugly from there and ended with me hanging up. I will never buy HP again. Terrible customer service.

[iraqiDave]

The laptops today are cheap chinese stuff, the older stuff was better built... The trouble has always been and still is, if a laptop breaks you cannot fix it yourself.... If a desktop breaks you could fix it in a day...

Any idea of the specs, as its been a longtime since I built a computer.

[iraqiDave]

Same kind of story with my HP laptop. I was coming up on the 1yr warranty day, when it just died. Nothing would work. So I contacted HP support, as you stated, it's in India. No one could seem to help me, this went on for a couple days. Then they were sending me some disk to load onto the computer. Once they arrived, loaded and computer still didn't work. I called HP in India again. It was while we were on the phone (for a couple hours) that the clock struck midnight...in India. Then the person trying to "help" me on the phone informed me that my warranty had just run out and he could no longer help me unless I purchased an extented warranty from them. The conversation got pretty ugly from there and ended with me hanging up. I will never buy HP again. Terrible customer service.

I'm sorry to hear that...

Could you understand what they were saying? I visit a lot of curry houses, so I'm used to the accents, but this ladies accent was so strong I couldn't understand a thing she said...

However I'm lucky that mine was fixed, even though it came back scratched. The repairers should've taken more care or just sent a replacement...

What you using now?

[reader]

IraqiDave.

No I could not understand a word they were saying on the phone. I finally asked, if anyone there that spoke English. I know that sounds terrible, but I really couldn't understand when they would say push button, geh ? are they saying E, G, C, D, B, P, ? What ? Push button geh. E? no geh. It got ridiculous. Anyway after all that mess and drama. I took my computer into Best Buy. Paid $120 and had it back the next day working like new. Still using the same computer, but when it dies, I will not be buying HP again..

[iraqiDave]

IraqiDave.

No I could not understand a word they were saying on the phone. I finally asked, if anyone there that spoke English. I know that sounds terrible, but I really couldn't understand when they would say push button, geh ? are they saying E, G, C, D, B, P, ? What ? Push button geh. E? no geh. It got ridiculous. Anyway after all that mess and drama. I took my computer into Best Buy. Paid $120 and had it back the next day working like new. Still using the same computer, but when it dies, I will not be buying HP again..

You shouldn't have been forced to pay someone else to fix, thats terrible.

BT (British Telecom) have their customer support in India, and they're useless... These companies shouldn't be allowed to get away with it... I've had trouble with other companies aswell.

Bought an LG television once, only had it for 8months and it went wrong. LG said they wouldn't repair it under warrantee, all they kept saying was they don't do repairs... Ended up dumping it...

[Fat Albert]

I'm looking at buying a laptop soon. Rest assured I won’t be buying a HP now. So that’s one for IIF!
Thanks Iraqi dave

[cowpoke]

I feel your pain and frustration. I always said that the Computer market is ripe for a company to promote itself as an "AMERICAN ENGLISH SPEAKING ONLY tech support company"

This alone would add 20% to it's sales volume. Also, I would add that repairing a computer is a waste of time. They can harvest the Memory, the main Processor and the operating system licences.

After that all other parts (except maybe hightech Video card) are cheaper to throw in the garbage that spend time and Dinars on repair labor and shipping cost.

In other words, just ship the guy a new computer.

In the end though I think it's a flip of the coin with Laptops.. I had/have a Dell 15.4 Screen that is over six years going strong screen is a bit darker but it works.
HIGH Def super duper uber expesive 17" Dell bought 2 1/2 years ago has a dead Video card and is $300.00 for the part.

Needless to say it is still sitting idle. Bought a $750.00 Toshiba 17" over 2 years ago and it is still running great.

I guess the moral is Buy a Cheap laptop for the basics and spend more on the Desktop.

Thanks for the puter vent thread..


I'm looking at buying a laptop soon. Rest assured I won’t be buying a HP now. So that’s one for IIF!
Thanks Iraqi dave

Albert, I would suggest you look at the Toshiba line and just keep it simple.

[redvette]

Men sorry to hear you have had so many problems. I myself and my son have sold more then 1000 laptops all Dells. They are very easy to fix if broken. Laptops are great if you need to move around the house or take to work. If you need one I still say for about 400 to 500 bucks you can buy a brand new one from dell. Really they are as easy to fix as a desk top. NO HP's

[SC Dinar]

I feel your pain and frustration. I always said that the Computer market is ripe for a company to promote itself as an "AMERICAN ENGLISH SPEAKING ONLY tech support company"

This alone would add 20% to it's sales volume. Also, I would add that repairing a computer is a waste of time. They can harvest the Memory, the main Processor and the operating system licences.

After that all other parts (except maybe hightech Video card) are cheaper to throw in the garbage that spend time and Dinars on repair labor and shipping cost.

In other words, just ship the guy a new computer.

In the end though I think it's a flip of the coin with Laptops.. I had/have a Dell 15.4 Screen that is over six years going strong screen is a bit darker but it works.
HIGH Def super duper uber expesive 17" Dell bought 2 1/2 years ago has a dead Video card and is $300.00 for the part.

Needless to say it is still sitting idle. Bought a $750.00 Toshiba 17" over 2 years ago and it is still running great.

I guess the moral is Buy a Cheap laptop for the basics and spend more on the Desktop.

Thanks for the puter vent thread..




Albert, I would suggest you look at the Toshiba line and just keep it simple.

a dell 2500 inspirion laptop although it be a little slow for a 7 year old computer and it works fine. It shows after defrag and cleaning up cookies once a month that I still have over 51% of free space still left. Thinking it would be a little faster, but it wasn't. Paid over $1200.00 fo it.

Buy you a dell, there cheaper now and you can customized it for your needs. :cool:

[iraqiDave]

I'm looking at buying a laptop soon. Rest assured I won’t be buying a HP now. So that’s one for IIF!
Thanks Iraqi dave

Buy a Dell, as recommended by Redvette.

Good points cowpoke.
To be honest if anyone uses a laptop at home for 95% of the time, then just buy a desktop. Build the pc to your requirements, and install Linux and use it as a desktop/ home server. Also buy a decent sized monitor, mouse and keyboard.... As for the other 5%, make do with an iphone, or a small netbook.

Google Chrome OS is going to really change computing as we know... Therefore the need for having a powerful laptop will be coming to end. Cloud computing is definitely the future....

[iraqiDave]

Men sorry to hear you have had so many problems. I myself and my son have sold more then 1000 laptops all Dells. They are very easy to fix if broken. Laptops are great if you need to move around the house or take to work. If you need one I still say for about 400 to 500 bucks you can buy a brand new one from dell. Really they are as easy to fix as a desk top. NO HP's

You cannot fix laptops in the UK, everything has to be sent off for repair. Even the manufacturers cannot repair in the UK, they have to be shipped abroad to be fixed. The parts aren't always available and if you mess about with them, you could end up voiding the warranty. 4 weeks downtime for a laptop to be repaired is a joke especially when your running a business.

[Money4Nothin']

Remember when there was no such thing as a computer and the world was a simpler place to live?

[sunsetjet]

Maybe you should spend $100. and buy an external hard-drive.

problem solved, lol and I told you that in perfect english.

[Mr.Dinar$]

Asus puts out a great laptop. They are expensive but they have the best warranty around. Desktops with an external hard drive is the best way to go if you can live with a desktop. Custom building is the best bet. Buying a dell sometime you will get a BTX Motherboard and when they fail you are stuck and have to go thru Dell and they can charge you some crazy price. I been custom building my PCS for 10 plus years and glad I have the knowledge of doing it.

[Ringworm]

I own 2 compaqs. They are made by HP and I have not had problems. I had an all in one printer that got a lightning shock and went through the same thing with them from wherever they are from. You will waste your time calling support. But the desktops and lcd monitors havent given me any problems , whatsoever.

[iraqiDave]

I own 2 compaqs. They are made by HP and I have not had problems. I had an all in one printer that got a lightning shock and went through the same thing with them from wherever they are from. You will waste your time calling support. But the desktops and lcd monitors havent given me any problems , whatsoever.

Don't get me started on printers... :headbang: