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-   -   Laptops' international warranty - a joke? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadgets-computers-software/33930-laptops-international-warranty-joke.html)

The International warranties on Laptops are a joke. My daughter has a Presario bought last year (In India), with a 3-year International Warranty. She is currently studying in the UK, The system stopped booting. What HP tells her is that any hardware fault requiring replacements will only be honoured in the country of purchase.:Shockked:


I heard from a friend whose wife bought a laptop in the US and paid about $600 extra for an extended coverage. On returning to India he luckily read the fine print, and there was an option of cancelling and claiming the refund. which he promptly did.

What is the warranty for, since most of us can reload the OS without outside help.

I bought a Dell laptop in the United States August, 2005 and with it the best maintenance package they offered. In May 2007 the cooling fan for the video card stopped working. I figured this out from running a pre-boot hardware diagnostic and test program Dell included. I emailed Dell and told them about the problem. In one week they sent a technician with the new fan to my home in Dharamsala and he had it fixed in one hour. Dell sent the technician from Chandigarh to Dharamsala, 250K one way, by bus to do the work. No, I am not kidding you, they really did it. This is service of a different order. Good things like this can actually happen in India. You might be surprised.

Take a Toshiba no issues whatsoever with the machine or warranty if need be, My charger conked off in London a few years ago when my satellite was in warranty, I prompltly was given a new charger by Toshiba service station.

In India Toshiba's are sold and serviced by HCL Infosystems which also incidentally handle Apple, Nokia Service & Repair.

Warranty is very useful and works pretty well with Lenovo,Dell,Toshiba- But some of the worst warranty issues arise with Sony, HP..etc.

HP by far volume has done a good job of capturin the entry level market, but in the process have lowered quality so much that it shows on the number of replacements they have.

In my college 15 students bought an HP Laptops, and till then 2 have got a new replacement, 6 have got new chargers, 4 have had a new Screen and Most of them have had at least One HDD replacement.

Dell is great but the service support is best in Bangalore, pretty average across India.

To continue the story. When my daughter disclosed that she is a lawyer then all of a sudden she was advised to contact a servce centre (on campus) and they replaced the power card within a week.

I agree that HP Laptops are s$#t. just to list our experience with HP/Compaq. All these are laptops bought between January and April 2007 with (fortunately) 3 year warranties):

1. Compaq 3149 (daughter): new DVD writer within six months, power card inside unit replaced (as above), and now again down. She is taking it to the HP Centre in NOIDA. Let is wait and see....

2. Pavillion 6226 (mine): New HDD and Motherboard (about 1 year), New DVD writer (2 years), second replacement of HDD (2-1/4 years).

3. Pavilion 6226 (son): New DVD writer - 2 years.

Also, the Pavillions take ages to come on if they are plugged in.

I had picked up an IBM Thinkpad from US. On my return to India, the hard disk failed, while it was still under warranty. The local IBM support folks honored the warranty and replaced it promptly, no questions asked.

Regards
Rex

Didn't i tell you to stay away from HP and compaq in some other thread. They don't honor their warranty here in india, forget abroad.

Well so far at least they have honoured the warranty in India without too much fuss. Abroad it took a lawyer to make them do so.

We bought all our units during January - June 2007! I am looking for a netbook/laptop and have ruled them out due to poor reliability. Otherwise DV2 would have been high on my list. Will probably go to Acer/Dell/Lenovo instead.

Well, I have got something to add HP consumer turmoils.
In 2006, I bought a Presario and after a few months my cousin too bought the same model ( on my advice ). Since then I had 6 mother board replacements and he had 4 mother board and 1 battery replacement :Frustrati.
Now , two years after purchase, both the batteries are on the verge of breaking down.
Personally , I would suggest anyone buying Hp to think twice. The service is ok, but one doesn't love the laptop to be resting for a week in service center every 2-3 months.

@deetee: Exactly my point. With repeated breakdowns you lose faith. If you have to deliver a talk, you are not sure whether it will boot up!

In my case we bought the 3149 for my daughter (it was with my son till I got him his 6226). Then I bought the 6226 Official). We were very happy, and I bought another 6226 for my son. Now we regret having gone to HP/Compaq. Thank God we bought a three year warranty in each case.

I bought a Dell Studio 15 series in the US with standard warranty that it comes with. After about 6 months, I had a problem with the DVD RW. I raised a ticket with Dell and in couple of days they came and replaced it. No questions asked.

Sorry for a long review, its all the fustration coming out... :(


I had given my HP laptop DV5-1002AU to Chennai service center as it was having lines on its Screen and its getting heated and it’s shutting down.

I had given the Laptop to the service center on 18th April 2009 and i was call after a week saying that the Laptop is ready and come and collect it, when i reached there i could find the lines on the screen and when i asked why it’s still there i was informed there is no problem with the laptop, i told them i will not accept that there is no problem with the screen as i can still see the lines, then they said they will repair it and call me again, I had told then that I have to travel 23Km one way to come to service center to pick the laptop so please don’t call me if the laptop is not repaired.

Then i received an SMS on 28th April saying that the laptop is repaired and i can come and collect the laptop, but again when i went to the Service center i could still find the lines on the screen, when i asked what happened, he again said that there is no problem with the screen, then i asked him to show me 10 laptop and if all of them has this issue i will accept that there is no problem with it, he could not say anything to me now. He said that HP technician had check it and informed that there is no problem with the screen. I asked him to call the HP technician and I will talk to him. Then Mr. Senthil came and I showed the screen to him and he agreed that there is a problem with the laptop and he will have the screen replaced and also informed that he will have the laptop delivered as I was saying that I am not happy because I had to come 23KM again to find out that the laptop is not repaired at all. So he told he will have it delivered to my house in 2 days, this was on 30th April.

I called back on 2nd May to the Service Center on 044-42612393 they informed that the Laptop is ready and I can come and collect the Laptop today so I informed that it was going to be delivered to my house, so she said will call in 10 min and disconnected the call, after 2 hours I called back and asked what happed you said you will call back in 10 min, she again said she will check and callback in 10Min and disconnected the call. I waited for another 1 hour and called Mr. Senthil and told him what was happening, he informed he will check with service center and let me know.

Then I got a call saying I will get the laptop by 6:30PM (4th May). And lil later I again got a call saying that the delivery person is not available so it will be delivered tomorrow for which I was not happy and told I am not happy with the customer service, and she again said she will call back after 10 min and disconnected. Then after 20Min I got a call from some Person saying that the Display Screen is ordered and they are expecting the part by tomorrow 2:30PM so IF it comes by 2:30 they will deliver the laptop by end of day.
I informed the person who called my If I am not getting my laptop by tomorrow end of day I want my money back.

I had purchased this laptop on 26th Jan 2009 and I was promised that it would be delivered in 2 days but it was delivered to me 2 weeks later. PLEASE GIVE MY LAPTOP BY 5-5-2009 or give me the money BACK I will go and buy DELL or Lenovo.
Well I got the Laptop delivered on 6th May Morning. But again it was having heating issue. I called them back and informed them my laptop is still getting shutdown after getting heated.
I installed Software for monitoring CPU Temperature and I was surprised to find out that my CPU temperature goes to 99 C and then shuts down.
They had the laptop picked, replaced heat sink and returned the laptop, issue still persist, took back the laptop and replaced heat sink paste and then again delivered the laptop and now it’s not shutting down but temperature is now between 85 – 95 C, which I know is not normal at all.
Seriously LOST HOPE… NEVER NEVER NEVER buy a HP Laptop.

I even told them if it’s a Defect in this model I ready to pay the difference amount and get a laptop with Intel Processer. The only reason I bought this laptop is because it had a 256MB video card.

Sorry I disagree. I have experienced Dell service in Mumbai, New Delhi and the US. All times it has been excellent with great response times and no questions asked policy. It's another story that the following parts have been replaced in the last 3 years

1. Motherboard
2. Wlan card
3. Battery - Twice
4. LCD
5. DVD Writer - Thrice
6. HDD


The quality of Dell systems is not that good compared to Sony/Toshiba but their service is excellent.

IBM used to have great service (dont know about Lenovo as I have not expereinced them). One tme I was on the way to the airport. As is usual I left home quite early so that my chauffer could drop me and still get home at some reasonable hour.

One the way to airport my T41p laptop fell from my lap and died. it would come on and then shutdown in a few seconds. I called my supplier and he gave me the number of the IBM service center in Bandra (which for me was on the way tot he airport in any case). I took the laptop to this service center and they diagnosed that the latop MB had a crack. So I asked them if they could fix it as I was on the way to a flight (I had my flight ticket & passport with me). They said and to come back in one hour. So I chilled at a local coffee shop for an hour and went back and sure enough they had my laptop all fixed and ready. No bill. I just had to sign some papers.

I wont buy another Wintel laptop brand again.

HP is pathetic... my office laptop has had all this replaced in the past 2 years... 2 HDD, Speakers twice (the latest set has also given in as I type), Battery.

IMHO, service consciousness is not really a company issue - it is the issue with the individuals one encounters when we are in trouble. All companies have decent service management and technician training programs, and pretty good ones too. What that program cannot reckon with is how the individuals respond to service requests.

A person with service and quality consciousness will never express inability as long as warranty is in place - since all the fine print is not at the top of their minds. Those who quote fine print will be bad workers no matter which company they work for. Even Warranty scope (India or International) is not a big issue for good service people as long as the replacement part is not high cost - at most they would ask you to pay. Those that refuse to take up a case shouldn't be in a service job in the first place - and it should be the company's responsibility to remove them.

Product quality, on the other hand, is completely a company issue in this age of standardized mass manufacture. I have a Toshiba which has never failed in the last 9 years - even the original battery lasted 5. Ditto for an IBM R32 which I have been using for the last 5 years. Compaq and HP I could never get myself to trust, neither desktops nor laptops. I'd rather trust a unbranded one, since statistically both have an equal chance of failure - and, as traditional Indian irrationality would treat the issue, actual failure is 'my fate'!!!