HP Envy Touchsmart 15 Broken Hinge

[Olic]

I am buying MacBook Pro

[MWLNY]

I have been through this at least 3 times, they will tell you exactly what i said in a previous comment.

[MWLNY]

If you spend a couple thousand on a computer you should not have to spend money to repair it within 2 years when it is a known defect.

[NHDADON]

I'm also having the problem on my HP Envy Touchsmart 17 along with the several listed in this post:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware/HP-Envy-17-Touchsmart-left-hinge-broken/td-p/4766561

In my case, my laptop is only 2 years old and this is the 2nd time it has occurred.

The 1st time it was covered under warranty but now that the laptop is out of warranty HP Support wants me to pay for a know hardware/mechanical design flaw. TOTALLY DISGUSTED that HP is not willing to step up and handle this the right way. For one of their high end computers to have a design flaw like this and do nothing but want to charge money for a fix is such a SLAP IN THE FACE. I'm pretty sure if I was willing to fork up the $200+ they want to fix the laptop,  that the same thing will SURELY happen again.

I've lost my faith with HP and their Support for not taking these issues seriously enough to offer a permanent fix.

Guess I'll have to find a way to fix it myself. Maybe HP can send its HP Envy Touchsmart customers a rebate for a free roll of duct tape.

[danny-r]

@NHDADON

I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP. They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (serial numbers and case details).

If you are unfamiliar with how the Forum's private message capability works, you can learn about that here.

Thank you for visiting the HP Support Forum.

[Mikeamondo]

@NHDADON

My situation was IDENTICAL to yours.  I had the hinge failure in warranty, and it was fixed.  Then it reoccured 8 months later and they initially charged me for the repair.  After making continuous, nearly daily, posts on here, directing people to my story at the link below, I was given (without even asking) a refund on the repair.

Here's a link to my thread.... 

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware/Defective-Hinges-on-HP-Laptops-Envy/m-p/5337134/highl...

It's important to read my thread... the first tech could not do this for me, and said she was the end of the line...  a lie.  Only after posting for 2 weeks straight about the issue and making noise, did I get a call from the higher level tech, who even said that my first tech would not have been able to refund the charge. 

If they did it for me, they should do it for you.  Hope the info helps...  good luck!

[NHDADON]

@Mikeamondo

Very informative post and very well put. I will surely follow your lead.

I actually emailed HP's Product Experience in the "Contact Link" after posting on this forum and received a generic response from HP "external.ceo-communication@hp.com" with a phone number to reach their HP Inc Executive Customer Relations office in California.

I've yet to receive any further private messages from HP so I'm not to confident that this will get resolved any time soon to my satisfaction. However, I do intend to take up your suggestion as you so eloquently stated.

[FasterEddie]

---

@Mikeamondo wrote:

@NHDADON

My situation was IDENTICAL to yours.  I had the hinge failure in warranty, and it was fixed.  Then it reoccured 8 months later and they initially charged me for the repair.  After making continuous, nearly daily, posts on here, directing people to my story at the link below, I was given (without even asking) a refund on the repair.

Here's a link to my thread.... 

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware/Defective-Hinges-on-HP-Laptops-Envy/m-p/5337134/highl...

It's important to read my thread... the first tech could not do this for me, and said she was the end of the line...  a lie.  Only after posting for 2 weeks straight about the issue and making noise, did I get a call from the higher level tech, who even said that my first tech would not have been able to refund the charge. 

If they did it for me, they should do it for you.  Hope the info helps...  good luck!

---

Thank you, Mikeamondo, for giving me good infomation that helped speed the plow for me on this issue. Here is my experience.

After posting to the Forum in this thread on 11/14, I received a quick reply from the moderator, danny-r, telling me he had contacted the HP support team and to look for a private message asking for details about my laptop.

I received and replied to a private message on Monday, 11/16, responding to questions about my laptop and restating my problem.  I was informed that someone would follow up with me soon.

A short time later the same day, Monday, 11/16, I received a phone call from Richard at HP Case Support, who was really personable and offered to do what he could to help me. He took notes as I explained my broken hinge and damaged case problem, and I told him that from my research online and in the HP Forum, I was aware that the broken hing/separated case issue is a fairly common problem for HP ENVY Laptop owners. I told him about this and other threads in the HP Forum, and was aware that HP had discounted the repair cost to $140 or less. I politely suggested that he may want to ask a Level 2 supervisor about facilitating a repair and a discount price. Richard was extremely polite and helpful, and told me he would look into my case and call me back as soon as he had more information. Richard also sent me an email with his contact information and a case number so I could reach him directly in the meantime.

I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

Richard called me back on Wednesday, 11/18, but I was unable to answer the phone, so he left a message and his call-back number. I didn't have time to call him back that day.

Richard called me back the morning of Thursday, 11/19 at 10:09 a.m. PST. We had another nice conversation. Richard explained that the normal price for fixing the broken hinge/separated case is $229.99, but that he was authorized to offer me a 25 percent discount, bringing the cost to $172.49. I very politely told him about reading Mikeamando's post, above, showing that HP's Level 2 support could discount the price even further, to $140, and guided Richard to the thread. I said I knew that as a Level 1 tech, Richard did not have the authority to offer a $140 price to me, but I asked him if he would please check with a supervisor to approve making me the same $140 offer that Mikeamondo got. He read the post and then said, "I think I have found the supervisor (Tammy) mentioned here. Can I put you on hold while I check and see what we can do?" What a helpful man! After being on hold for few minutes, Richard told me he got approval from Tammy to offer me the repair at $140. For my trouble, he said he was also expediting the repair work and sending a repair return box to me overnight for free shipping. He said the repair would take about 2-3 business days max to complete. He told me the hinge/case repair work is guaranteed for 90 days.

I thanked Richard several times for his help and told him that I would write a nice post on the Forum about how helpful, personable and gracious he was in addressing my problem. I also asked him to send me information about purchasing an extended warranty for my laptop so I could decide if it was worth the money, which he did right away by email.

We ended our conversation after being on the phone for 29 minutes.

Tips:

1) Read Mikeamondo's posts and take his advice.

2) Write a polite request for help on the forum, asking the moderator to help you solve your problem (see my original post on 11/14/15).

3) Reply to any requests from HP promptly and politely. Even if you are upset, be polite and HP staff will normally go the extra mile to find a way to help you. If you come across as a cranky adversary, you are not doing yourself a favor.

4) If you can't get help from the first tech who is assigned to your case, politely say that you are a loyal, experienced and informed HP customer, and ask them to please transfer you to a Level 2 support supervisor for help. In this case, Richard was super-helpful: we communicated great and got along well, too. I have, however, had other cases with HP support where I have had to ask nicely for a referral to a higher level.

5) When you get to a resolution you are happy with--or that you can at least accept--take the high road and thank your HP tech sincerely for solving your problem, and offer to send a return email with your thanks that they can send to their supervisor. This is when the tech is likely to help you further, by offering expidited shipping and repairs, for example.

OK, long post here, but if you follow this, your chances of being successful are higher. I will update this thread with my repair experience later.

Regards,

[FasterEddie]

FasterEddie wrote:

---

 After posting to the Forum in this thread on 11/14, I received a quick reply from the moderator, danny-r, telling me he had contacted the HP support team and to look for a private message asking for details about my laptop.

I received and replied to a private message on Monday, 11/16, responding to questions about my laptop and restating my problem.  I was informed that someone would follow up with me soon.

A short time later the same day, Monday, 11/16, I received a phone call from Richard at HP Case Support, who was really personable and offered to do what he could to help me. He took notes as I explained my broken hinge and damaged case problem, and I told him that from my research online and in the HP Forum, I was aware that the broken hing/separated case issue is a fairly common problem for HP ENVY Laptop owners. I told him about this and other threads in the HP Forum, and was aware that HP had discounted the repair cost to $140 or less. I politely suggested that he may want to ask a Level 2 supervisor about facilitating a repair and a discount price. Richard was extremely polite and helpful, and told me he would look into my case and call me back as soon as he had more information. Richard also sent me an email with his contact information and a case number so I could reach him directly in the meantime.

I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

Richard called me back on Wednesday, 11/18, but I was unable to answer the phone, so he left a message and his call-back number. I didn't have time to call him back that day.

Richard called me back the morning of Thursday, 11/19 at 10:09 a.m. PST. We had another nice conversation. Richard explained that the normal price for fixing the broken hinge/separated case is $229.99, but that he was authorized to offer me a 25 percent discount, bringing the cost to $172.49. I very politely told him about reading Mikeamando's post, above, showing that HP's Level 2 support could discount the price even further, to $140, and guided Richard to the thread. I said I knew that as a Level 1 tech, Richard did not have the authority to offer a $140 price to me, but I asked him if he would please check with a supervisor to approve making me the same $140 offer that Mikeamondo got. He read the post and then said, "I think I have found the supervisor (Tammy) mentioned here. Can I put you on hold while I check and see what we can do?" What a helpful man! After being on hold for few minutes, Richard told me he got approval from Tammy to offer me the repair at $140. For my trouble, he said he was also expediting the repair work and sending a repair return box to me overnight for free shipping. He said the repair would take about 2-3 business days max to complete. He told me the hinge/case repair work is guaranteed for 90 days.

I thanked Richard several times for his help and told him that I would write a nice post on the Forum about how helpful, personable and gracious he was in addressing my problem. I also asked him to send me information about purchasing an extended warranty for my laptop so I could decide if it was worth the money, which he did right away by email.

We ended our conversation after being on the phone for 29 minutes.

Tips:

1) Read Mikeamondo's posts and take his advice.

2) Write a polite request for help on the forum, asking the moderator to help you solve your problem (see my original post on 11/14/15).

3) Reply to any requests from HP promptly and politely. Even if you are upset, be polite and HP staff will normally go the extra mile to find a way to help you. If you come across as a cranky adversary, you are not doing yourself a favor.

4) If you can't get help from the first tech who is assigned to your case, politely say that you are a loyal, experienced and informed HP customer, and ask them to please transfer you to a Level 2 support supervisor for help. In this case, Richard was super-helpful: we communicated great and got along well, too. I have, however, had other cases with HP support where I have had to ask nicely for a referral to a higher level.

5) When you get to a resolution you are happy with--or that you can at least accept--take the high road and thank your HP tech sincerely for solving your problem, and offer to send a return email with your thanks that they can send to their supervisor. This is when the tech is likely to help you further, by offering expidited shipping and repairs, for example.

OK, long post here, but if you follow this, your chances of being successful are higher. I will update this thread with my repair experience later.

Regards,

---

Forum members --

Here's an update on my experience noted above. It's another long post, but worth a read.

After sending my laptop to the official HP repair cener in Indiana, I eventually got it repaired, despite the repair center customer service reps lack of knowledge about the status of my repair order -- and worse. Read on.

Upon receipt of my broken laptop, the repair center sent me an email telling me the repair would be completed and my laptop returned within a week. I was a happy camper at that point. But after a week had come and gone and my repaired laptop was not delivered, I called the repair customer service number.

CS Rep 1 checked my repair order number and verified that my laptop was in final testing and that it would be returned to me the next day or the day after, depending on when the testing was completed. I thanked CS1 and waited for the laptop to appear on my doorstep. However, it did not come as promised. So I called the repair center again.

CS Rep 2 checked my repair order number and verified that my laptop was still being repaired (???) and then would be going to final testing. The delivery date for the repaird laptop had also been extended by an additional 7-10 days. I told him that was not what CS1 had told me, but he double checked and confirmed the schedule. Pretty frustrating, but when he informed me that in addition to repairing both hinges, the fan was being replaced as was the bottom case. He was unable to tell me why the additional repairs were necessary, but I figured since I was getting a bigger repair at no additional cost, I was OK with the delayed delivery date.

I called the center again on the day CS2 said the computer was to be shipped. He confirmed that the computer had been shipped and gave me a tracking number. This was on a Friday, shortly before 5 p.m. Central time, where the repair center was located. So I was a happy guy at that point, knowing that I would get my computer the next day. However, when I checked the tracking number, no joy: it was obviously for a different order because the delivery address was in Ohio and I live in Oregon. While both states start with an O, the are far apart, and so were my laptop and I. But now it was the weekend, and knowing that the repair center does not ship on weekends, I waited until Monday to call them back.

On Monday, I called again and spoke to CS2. I was still being super-polite, despite my rising frustration with the obvious lack of communication between the CS staff and the repair, testing and shipping departments. From the questions I asked, it was pretty obvious that the CS staff had no way to get timely, accurate information from their colleagues in other departments. I told CS2 that he had given me a wrong tracking number a few days before. He apologized and gave me the correct number and said the laptop still had not been shipped from their facility, but would be sent before the end of the day. So I thanked him for that, then I very politely explained that I would like to discuss my repair experience with someone higher up in his department, because I had some suggestions I wanted to pass on as a customer that might help the repair center provide better customer service in the future. I explained that my suggestions were not about CS2 personally, but that because I am a public relations professional, I know how important great customer service is to a company, and as a loyal HP customer of more than 30 years, we all have a stake in seeing HP succeed at ever step along the way.

At this point, everything went sideways. CS2 said he was "the end of the line" and there was no one above him that I could talk to. Now, in the years of dealing with HP support staff, this was the first time I'd been refused the opportunity to talk to a supervisor, Level 2 expert or department manager. (Heck, I've even had a great conversation with a VP of customer service at HP!) Surprised by CS2's stonewalling, I decided to politely push the issue, despite my rising ire. I asked if he had a supervisor that I could please talk to and he said No. I asked him if he could please transfer me to whomever signs his paycheck and his annual performance evaluation. He again said that he was the end of the line for customer service and that there was no one else he could or would transfer me to. I pressed on a bit, incredulous, and that's when CS2 said if I was going to continue to press the point, he would have to end the call. This was the first time in my life that a customer service rep of any company I talked with threatened to hang up on me. So I backed off and politely told him I would pursue my issue with Richard, my fantasticly helpful Case Manager on the HP AMS TCO Escalations team who authorized the repair several weeks earlier. The laptop shipped a day later (the shipping department delayed again) and I received it overnight, more than 10 days after it had arrived at the repair center.

I opened the box, saw that the entire bottom case (both halves) and both hinges were new, and a new fan was installed. It tested out fine. I then called Richard, my Case Manager on the HP AMS TCO Escalations team, and told him about all the delays and miscommunication I experienced with the HP repair center in Indiana. And that CS2 had threatened to hang up on me because I wanted to talk to a superior at the repair facility.

Richard sympathized with me and asked me to hang on for a moment so he could check something. When he returned, he apologized on behalf of HP for "all the trouble" I had experienced and said he would like to refund my repair cost if that was all right with me. After what I had just been through with the repair center in Indiana, I was shocked. I thought I had misheard him for a moment, but he assured me that he had approval to refund the cost of my repair to compensate me for my trouble. I thanked Richard and told him I would write a nice note on the HP Forum about how helpful he is and that he certainly knows what good customer service means. When we ended our call, I was obviously far happier with the outcome and delighted with Richard, despite the poor customer service and threats I got from the repair center in Indiana.

So if you ever need to talk to the HP Escalation team, ask for Richard. I know he will go out of his way to make your experience as pleasant as possible. And if you ever have to send your computer or peripheral to the HP repair center in Indiana, keep notes and good records of every conversation you have with thier customer service reps; you may need the info later for discussion with the HP Escalation team.

[gandc40]

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