Appalled by probook advertised with a USB C Display Port is unusable due to USB-C PSU blocking port!

[cyberkev]

Appalled by a probook advertised with a USB C Display Port is unusable due to USB-C PSU blocking port !

The Probook 450 G9 retails at almost £1000. Purchased from HP store in the hope of simpler support.

If the spec says it has a  USB-C display port for a dock you should be able to use it ! However only a USB-C Power supply was provided effectively making the laptop not as advertised as this blocks the port from being used while being charged.

Reached out to post sales support with no luck other than being quoted the spec (which we consider wrong as the port is unusable in the supplied configuration) and supplied a list of USB docks for purchase (We already have docks but can't use them due to no standard barrel PSU supplied and the USB-C one supplied being underrated wattage wise). They completely failed to understand the problem.

We have several HP DL360/DL380 servers in our data centre that need a desision this month on extending support for or replacing. The lack of any useful help in this case on a brand new product other than wanting more money to make it usable as per the advertised spec will heavily influence our descision.

I have had to waste half a day travelling to our data centre to steal a standard power supply from another device making the device there useless for onsite support. 

The descision to save money on such an expensive product and complete lack of understanding or timely response by post sales support makes us think this attidude, cost cutting and demanding more money after purchase to make something usable will transfer to the enterprise areas of the company.

When firmware updates were placed behind a paywall without a support contract this turned us away from HP for a £380,000 data centre infrastructure refresh and went for Dell at the time. It appears reversing that descision for HP is some areas was wrong.

[banhien]

@cyberkev 

Physically it only has ONE USB-C port therefore you need a docking station to be able to share use more connections OR you can use standard barrel PSU and use USB-C port for a monitor/display.

Hope that makes sense.

Regards.

[cyberkev]

That was exactly the response I got from HP support (someone only known as Jim with no support reference or unique return email) repeating what I already said without understanding the point or the problem. I already have a docking station, I've been using for 4 years. I just can't use it in the configuration supplied without additional expense on another Power Supply. This is akin to buyng a car with someone already in one of the seats you cant remove. It has already cost us half a day in time and led to another device becoming unusable.

We are currently embarking on another infrastructure upgrade and this will heavily influence our purchase descision. We have already decided not to renew support contracts on several HP servers.

It seems HP have gone back to the old mindset of demanding money after purchase to meet the advertised spec. I expect this is why their market share is decreasing by 6.5% over the last year.

Firmware upgrade paywalls on end of life kit not worth a support contract were why my old company abandoned HP for Dell and the lack of understanding this time on a new purchase that they sold something that is not fit for purpose as it doesn't meet the adversised spec without another purchase and a useless support response is unacceptable.