My HP story

xerces

Hello everyone, I thought I'd post this in the hope of getting some opinions, I will try to keep it as brief as possible.

I bought a HP Envy 17 over two months ago, April 25th, and there was a fault with the audio when it arrived. It was a very unusual audio issue, like a shifting sound quality that occurred constantly. I rang technical support the same week and we went through the usual bunch of troubleshooting procedures, but to no avail. They advised that I have it booked in for repair, arranged by them with no charge (it has good long warranty), so I agreed and sent it away on May 9th, while being assured the typical repair time was two or three days, most being ten days.

I got a call back on May 23rd, 14 days later, stating that the reason it's been gone so long is that they have never come across an issue like this before. They then provided me with two options:

1. Have the laptop repaired and sent back to me as soon as possible (this was the 'straightforward' option apparently).
2. Refund my money so that they could keep the laptop and try to discover the root of this unique occurrence.

So, I went with the first option because it did have the specs I'm after and other than the audio issue I did like it. I thought that, after the call, it would take the before mentioned typical few days to have it fixed, but I was wrong. I emailed them on June 19th, four weeks after our last contact, to see what the story is. As of June 21st, an engineer is still looking at it and I will be "kept up to date". That's the last I heard.

I'm using a Toshiba I bought in 2004 to write this, not a single fault with it (that wasn't my own) to this day.

Any thoughts?

Dannysaurus

Get a refund, blow cash on the new XPS 15 instead

xerces

Yeah I think you're right about the refund, I was leaning towards a push for one this week.

What's appealing about the new XPS 15?

Overheal

Im still really a big fan of HP and especially their Audio, which you wont find in a dell. Some Toshiba's use Harmon Kardon, some ASUS uses Bang & Olufsen. The Beats Audio on HP is good. Especially if you get a model that has a sub in it.

When you say it was in and out if you mean the quieting your music sometimes does where theres supposed to be deep bass is probably the lack of a sub which is going to be a fairly common issue.

Either way I'd personally let them buy the laptop back off you and pick a different model in the Envy line. I have the Envy 14 Spectre and I'm fairly happy with it, even without the sub.

Outkast_IRE

When i went to buy 2 laptops last year i was friendly with the saleman from buying other bits and pieces , out of the entire range of brands he said he gets the HPs back more often than the others for repairs , he thought he got the toshibas back least often. I believe i made a good call as anyone i know with HPs have had issues.

xerces

xerces wrote: »

What's appealing about the new XPS 15?

I've read this thread, which has good info on the XPS 15.

xerces

Overheal wrote: »

Im still really a big fan of HP and especially their Audio, which you wont find in a dell. Some Toshiba's use Harmon Kardon, some ASUS uses Bang & Olufsen. The Beats Audio on HP is good. Especially if you get a model that has a sub in it.

Yes, I have to mention that audio is of paramount importance, and it was HP's Beats Audio that drew me to them. It was good, I was happy enough with it (apart from the issue mentioned), but I did prefer the audio of my old Toshiba.

When you say it was in and out if you mean the quieting your music sometimes does where theres supposed to be deep bass is probably the lack of a sub which is going to be a fairly common issue.

Yeah, there was a quieting occurring at particular points in the music. At times I thought I could be imagining it, but then a song I knew inside out would be unmistakably skewed. I couldn't get past it, I was too conscious of it happening so often. I had no qualms about hooking up a set of external speakers, but the issue persisted with them.

Either way I'd personally let them buy the laptop back off you and pick a different model in the Envy line. I have the Envy 14 Spectre and I'm fairly happy with it, even without the sub.

I'll keep that in mind, thanks.

Dannysaurus

xerces wrote: »

I've read this thread, which has good info on the XPS 15.

Yay The XPS 15 is really as close as it gets to my idea of a perfect machine xD Only thing missing is the matte screen and other tiny bits and bobs.
Side note; with relation to Outkast's post, he's right. HP has a rather high record of laptops that are sent back. The most prominent one I can think of is because of heat, then followed by motherboard issues and etc. And with Asus, through gauging of a general consensus, they seem to be the ones with the least amount of problems.

Oh, and if it's good sound you're after too, here's a snippet from a review of the previous gen XPS 15, which I've personally verified myself in comparison to a fair few laptops like the Asus N55 and the Toshiba A660 for example, which uses the Bang & Olufsen and Harmon Kardon speakers respectively,. It comes out top.

Although the manufacturers like to promise the opposite, there's hardly a notebook that can serve with convincing sound at the moment. The Dell XPS 15 vehemently challenges this statement. The installed 2.1 system's sound quality is currently looking for its equal. Dell relies on the sound experts from JBL who supply both 4 watt speakers (above the keyboard) and one 12 watt subwoofer (on the case bottom).
No matter if music, movies or games – the sound is astonishingly clear, full and dynamic, the bass is unmistakably present. Every pitch range sounds natural and balanced. The sound can be modified in detail to suit personal preferences with the comfortable and intuitive to use software. The single options in the MaxxAudio menu partly have a tremendous effect. In short: You can confidently forget about external speakers in the case of the XPS 15.

Source: Notebookcheck

Now this, accompanied with the benefit of someone coming to your door the next day if anything goes wrong makes it a rather ideal choice.

xerces

I emailed them on the 2nd and 4th of July asking for a refund, with no reply until the 9th. His email ignored the fact that I clearly asked for a refund twice and said that I would be let known when there is news on the repair :[

I emailed back straight away with no reply yet. If I could get this sorted out I would probably go with the new XPS 15 instead. The specs are appealing and I like its design, where there's plenty of design flaws with the Envy 17. If that review of the audio posted by Dannysaurus is anything to go by, then I'd be delighted.

xerces

I got the OK for a buy back this afternoon, they agreed that it was taking too long to repair .

Thanks to all who replied. At the moment I think I'm gonna go with the new XPS 15.