Rant Teach me for buying from PC World...

[Starman]

So in December '08 I purchase a HP DV7-1020EA laptop from my local PC World for around £750.

So few months happy usage up to early April when early one evening I turn the laptop on to find the cooling fan running full speed (Which is unusual as it rarely runs even when being used on the bed) and I also notice that the charging LED on the front is blinking and that was unusual as it never blinked before even when on charge etc.

So I boot into Vista only to be reported via the HP Battery Check tool that my battery required replacement. So I followed the advice on the HP website and used their Live Chat Tech Support tool and followed the steps they gave to no avail. Next day I call the UK support number to arrange repair only to spend around an hour awaiting on hold etc to be told that they don't deal with warranty repairs for laptop purchased from PCW and tell me to call PCW to sort it to which I ask for the number and am don't they do not know.

So in the end after talking to my local store I am directed to their repair company - TheTechGuys. So the laptop it taken back to the store to be collected and go away for repair. Had a text message from the courier company on Friday to inform me that my laptop was being delivered to the store and would be ready for collection in the evening. So I go down this morning having collected it from the store where the "TechGUY" behind the counter almost wouldn't let me take it get it home and what do i find once I arrive home?

The battery still doesn't charge and the "service report" states they replaced the motherboard (£338), and AC adapter (£25), and also had a little statement at the bottom saying "I confirm that I have completed repairs to this product and carried out the Quality Assurance checks detailed on the rear..." on the back it has ticks for each of the following: "Runs from Mains, Runs from Battery, Charging Circuits ok"

So now i got to do the same thing all over again and wait another couple of weeks again to see if they mange to fix it this time and all they offered me was simply that if the repair took longer than 28 days they would offer me some form of replacement.

 

[nath]

Christ, that's absurd. Also, £750 for a laptop? What on earth did you need something so expensive for? :\

 

[Kryten]

lol, I'm not particularly familiar with that particular model but HP always used a separate board handling the charging circuits. Makes me wonder that, if they have actually changed the motherboard at all, if they didn't do that.

Also it makes me laugh a bit. The motherboard cost £340 to replace. They pay just about exactly that same amount (320-360) for the unit as a whole. In insurance/warranty terms from experience, that unit would have been written off and replaced with a like-for-like. Sounds like time's are biting DSG a bit too hard there.

 

[Starman]

Well I've now got to wait till Monday to find out if they will send me a replacement battery before sending the whole unit away again first. We shall see!

 

[Yaka]

lappy from pcw, same thing with my bro he was hell bent on buying a hp lappy they were heavily pimping during xmas time despite there being better specced desktops for that price and lapps from other places. he wanted one purely for gaming and specifically for gta4. in the end he got it installed gta4 on it and it ran shitter than i thought it would have.

PCW knows the worlds full of peeps who buy blind when peeps are spammed with tecno pr0n with a logo saying its only £XXX.XX

 

[Fuggz]

Well I've now got to wait till Monday to find out if they will send me a replacement battery before sending the whole unit away again first. We shall see!

This might sound bonkers but have you tried to run it without the battery installed - just to tide you over? Laptops can go bonkers when the battery goes faulty but if you take it out it can stabilize and run on the charger.

Than again it might blow up! Nah - doubtful. My neice had a faulty laptop - Acer. No one could say it was the battery or not cos the damn thing would charge sometimes. Trouble was the charger light would come on and all sorts of odd things were occuring. When I took the battery out the system ran perfectly thereby isolating the problem - faulty battery. New battery and the laptop was spot on again.

 

[Yaka]

tbh if you are running a lappy with the power cord plugged in after the battery is charged yank it out. its supposed to help prolong batterys life.

 

[Starman]

Yes the laptop is fine stable without the battery. It works with it in too simply does not charge.

Yaka the spec I got at the time for the money was IMO good vaule for something that wasn't a crappy Acer etc...

As Yaka says running the laptop all the time fully charged while on mains is not a good idea!

 

[SheepCow]

As Yaka says running the laptop all the time fully charged while on mains is not a good idea!

Only true if your laptop is about 5 years old or it's from a very shit and cheap manufacturer!

 

[Gwadien]

Woo, PC world failed, some guy there tried to convince me something called a "Soundblaster 3000" or something like that a Graphics Card and they're a rip off too

 

[Yaka]

Only true if your laptop is about 5 years old or it's from a very shit and cheap manufacturer!

not true it still happens

 

[caLLous]

It happened to my VAIO, the battery is now completely non functioning.. I put it down to leaving it plugged into the mains 24/7 for a few months.. It was occasionally turned off and rebooted during that time but it was plugged in all the time. It's 3 years old and tbh I don't move around with it much so I'm not that fussed about running it off the mains when I use it.. and I think a replacement battery is somewhere in the region of £150.. so I'm currently living with the problem

 

[MYstIC G]

Only true if your laptop is about 5 years old or it's from a very shit and cheap manufacturer!

I've seen this on various models of manufacturers laptops that we've had in the office within the past 5 years mate.

 

[Lazarus]

same problem with the wifes lappy - battery died and wouldnt charge.

HP provided a fix.

"something" like pressing the power button whilst machine is on ( and keeping it pressed) until you hear a click then remove the power cord.

Ill try and dig out the mail I go from them with the instructions.

 

[Starman]

Lazarus, ok matey.

They suggested to me to remove the AC adapter, Battery and then hold down the power button for 60 seconds. Made no difference for myself.

 

[Yaka]

i fail to see how with out any power from either ac or batery. that will do anything.

 

[inactionman]

May discharge some capacitor, but I doubt it.

 

[BloodOmen]

Tis why I avoid pissy world, I usually find somewhere reliable on the web like Scan/ebuyer or overclockers, i'd trust them 10000000x more than pissy world

 

[Lazarus]

Not sure if this will help.

The HP link for troubleshooting : BatteriesHP Pavilion dv7-1020ea Entertainment Notebook PC

I cant locate the mail I received from HP with the instructions but did find this:

Battery Does not Power Notebook or Charge in Windows XP

 

[Bahumat]

Starman if it's the Southend PC World you'll have no chance. I know someone who worked there and he told me their Tech Support was really really bad. They would give machines back after a week saying they fixed/replaced parts and they never even did that!

 

[Starman]

Laz, yeah I tried all that a number of times before sending it away.

Bah, it's the West Thurrock Lakeside one infact but I know it went away for repairs as the fools instore do little more than virus scan and slot in RAM.

 

[Starman]

Well my replacement battery arrived today. But guess what?

They sent me the wrong one for my model.

So I called them and they said they would send me another one and I could keep the one they sent in error due to and I quote them having no means to return replacement parts...

So we shall try again...

Now I wonder how much I will get for a brand new HP HSTNN-IB34 / 416996-165 14.4V 63Wh 8 Cell Battery on eBay

 

[MYstIC G]

About $1

 

[Starman]

Cheers Meg

 

[Yaka]

£40 ish prolly

 

[Fuggz]

Dreadful that you can still get such dire service from certain companies. You would have thought that market forces and competition would keep them on their toes so that they would avoid bad publicity but no. Oh well I can't see a number of Freddys members buying from PC World now; not that PC World would give a shit anyways. Maybe better posting on some big review site or maybe in Which's website. Kick em on the ghoolies that way.

 

[Yaka]

long as they got peeps buying shit blind off em i.e walking and getting talked into buying stuff they dont want or need.

 

[Kryten]

Did the same, bought a laptop on the never never god knows how long ago. Had 1 payment to make before getting in the shit financially. They (their finance company) spent in the region of £300 to try and fruitlessly claim £30 from me. Makes me laugh, if they want to cut spending in some areas they should try and look at those.

Hardly a surprise that DSG have been floating around the tank full of hungry sharks for some years :|

 

[Starman]

Well the 2nd replacement battery has FINALLY arrived today just a few days short of the 28 day repair time guarantee which otherwise would of entitled me to a brand new laptop (Unfortunately). This was after 3 calls chasing this up and having to confirm my serial number on the last call as they never bothered to contact me after HP rejected the order because the call centre entered the wrong SN.

So thus far the battery is the correct one and is now charging. So hopefully its all at an end.

 

[Ctuchik]

it being a HP i wouldn't count on it

if not the battery its gonna be something else in a not to distant future