Laptop w/ Slow Hard Drive sent to Service Center for Repair. They Falsely Claimed Water Damage.

[AwfulExperience]

Hello,

RE: HP Laptop PC 15-dw3000 (1A3YOAV). Purchased April 2021 for approx. $599.

I am reaching out to the community for advice on how to deal with my very frustrating situation.

I will provide details below, but the main issue is that my laptop slowed down considerably after less than a year of use. I contacted HP support and they walked me through factory reset, first from settings then from a usb drive that was mailed to me. Issue not resolve - discovered that slowness may be a result of Disk 0 @ 100% with few programs running. I was advised that next solution was to mail it into the repair center & once the hard drive was diagnosed, they would replace it under my limited warranty.

After I sent it in, I received calls and e-mail from a HP Case Manager (tele: [content removed] , email: [content removed]) advising that the service center battery is no good because of water damage. I explained that there was no issue with the battery, just the hard drive was slow & there was no water damage as far as I am aware (I'm the only one who used the unit). She then said the hard drive is no good because of water damage, cannot repair it because they have no hard drives in stock, the serial number not legible because of water damage (paraphrasing this part) & physical damage not covered under limited warranty. Offered me a $150 coupon.

Skip ahead to the service center mailing back the unit. I decided to take it to a HP authorized service center (listed on the website) to confirm the water damage. They confirmed that there was NO water damage, advised that the hard drive just isn’t up to scratch, and allowed me to take a picture of the open unit to send to the case manager.

At this point I was just livid. I am enrolled in a graduate program, and all the time spent dealing with this issue has affected my coursework.

The case manager then said that HP could cover the repair or replacement of the hard drive at a local HP authorized service center or offer $250 to a laptop from their website. I asked to speak to a supervisor to see what other options are available as I really cannot shell out an additional $250 + on a laptop after less than a year. I also didn’t want it to get repaired at this point (after weeks of dealing with HP) since the unit may just be defective. I just want it to be replaced or get a refund (based on what is noted under the limited warranty).

The supervisor is going to contact me tomorrow with a resolution, but just in case I get further stonewalled until my Warranty expires on the 19th (5 days left), anything I can do to have them honor the limited warranty?

I am working on submitting a complaint to the Better Business Bureau and possibly the FTC, but this is time-consuming and draining.

Thanks

[A1ex_H]

Hello,

I am extremely sorry that you had to deal with that. I don't work for HP or anything, but I can give some advice about the hdd , it is likely worth getting it replaced. Your actual laptop is very likely not defective, but only the hard drive. What Ultimately would very fix it is asking them if they can install an SSD (Solid State Drive). They are WAY MORE reliable and much faster than what you currently have. I have had the same issue with my laptop and my moms. I put an SSDs in them both and they were like new. If you do get a new laptop, than definitely get one with SSD storage. 

I hope this helps, Alex