Complaint Department? Predatory Upcharge

[slynn90]

Last week, my HP laptop started having a BSOD error “Verification Driver DMA Violation”. After 6 hours troubleshooting with Microsoft including clean reinstall of HP device specific drivers, they said it was a hardware issue and to contact HP. My device is less than a year old with 3+ months left on the warranty. 

Spent two days dealing with HP Support via chat. The first agent referred me to a second agent, who first replied 6+ hours later. I was offline by then and when I tried to reply after wards, I was indefinitely ignored. No email follow up either as promised. 

Called on day 3. Went through the repeat process of downloading reinstall to a USB.  Agent told me to call back upon completion of install for next steps.  When I did, the next agent tried to assist for 90 minutes with no progress. I was told by both agents and a later manager that the issue was caused by an update and was a global issue impacting many customers. This issue was not at all specific to me nor my device or my usage/treatment of it. 

Then told me my USB was insufficient. He said my only option was to pay $30-$40 for HP to send me a USB preloaded with the reinstall but that they’d cover the shipping cost for my trouble. I refused to pay any amount of money to fix an issue they caused on a device still under warranty. I demanded to speak to a manager and eventually was allowed to. Manager immediately tried to cut me off without listening. He eventually said to me, verbatim, “if you want your computer fixed you need to pay $40 for this USB, or your computer will not be fixed”. I lost it and again insisted they cover the cost and I’d be happy to send their cheap piece of plastic right back to them. I have no need for a $40 USB. Eventually, he relented and said they would send it for free. Especially when I said how upset I would be if I wasted additional time waiting upon a USB that may or may not work. 

I’m glad I got the cost waived. But this seems highly predatory. Why should a consumer have to pay to fix an issue admittedly caused by the company? Especially a device still under warranty? I hope other customers aren’t being tricked.

Not to mention you can buy a 128GB from Amazon Basics for $9.99. So again - $40 for a USB preloaded with free reinstall is predatory at best. I’d like to lodge a formal complaint. 

[Max3Aj]

@slynn90, Welcome to the HP Support Community! 

Thanks for posting your query! We're here to help you get back up and running. 

Our apologies for the discomfort you've experienced. 

To better assist you, could you please share your unit's serial number and active case ID with us via private message? 

Need help finding your serial number? No worries! Check out this handy guide: 

https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/ish_2039298-1862169-16 

To access your private messages, simply click the private message icon on the upper right corner of your HP Support Community profile, next to your profile name. 

Now, let's dive into the issue! Could you please elaborate on what's happening with your printer? The more details you provide, the better we'll understand the problem and the faster we can resolve it! 

We're all ears! 

Regards, 

Max3Aj

[slynn90]

Hi,

It's a laptop, not a printer. If you read the original post that would be clear.

[Max3Aj]

@slynn90, Thank you for your response. 

Could you please help us with the requested details over the private message. 

Regards, 

Max3Aj