HP USA Customer Service at it's best!

My HP Laptop adapter wire started to fray and then the adapter went bust in less than 10 months of ownership. And then the laptop just shutdown and would not boot up at all. Here is my (scary) experience getting it fixed.

I had a very harrowing experience with HP Support/Customer Service here in the US. Due to the adapter going bust, I suspect that the MoBo & RAM was fried on my laptop which was still under warranty. I called the Customer Support who sent me a pre-paid box to mail in the laptop. I mailed in my laptop & adapter and when called in to check the status, I was told that the adapter was bust due to my mishandling and so I would need to buy a new adapter myself. Also, since the laptop did not boot up with the adapter that I had sent in, it was being sent back to me as nothing could be done! And while we are discussing this, would you like to buy an original HP Adapter?

I just could not believe my ears and was really angry at them for this action. Couldn't they just use one of their adapters and confirm whether that was the only problem? They said that they would use only the items supplied and did not have any other "good" adapters with them. I talked to a few other guys and most of them told the same thing - but a few others did not have any idea at all and just read out the problem statement that I had mentioned in my initial call!

To top it all, all this was happening just a week before I was scheduled to take a 3 week vacation to India and 2 weeks before the warranty was going to expire - arrrggghhh!!!

At this point, I just lost all hope and left it to HIM to perform a miracle. And I was in for a pleasant surprise on Christmas eve - I received the repaired laptop with a brand new adapter in mail! The sheet accompanying laptop mentioned that the MoBo & RAM had indeed been replaced, HDD formatted & re-imaged and a new power adapter had been supplied :D

So, even though the Support/Customer Service did not have much clue, the Tech Service guys did a really good job. They did exactly what they should have done - replaced the busted parts as the laptop was still under warranty!

This is in sharp contrast to my experience with Dell Customer Service where-in everyone consistently told the same (correct) thing and the resolution was spot-on. I had a problem with the keyboard once and the adapter once and both times I was mailed in the replacement parts with clear details on what to do next.

Thankfully all's well - that end's well (atleast for now)!