Sent in HP laptop for LCD repair, and tech swapped out drive...

[Bacstar]

I just got back my laptop after sending it to HP for a screen replacement. The tech swapped out the drive in order to do repair testing. However, he swapped it out with a different drive. I had installed my own WD Scorpio Black 500gb 7600 rpm drive, and HP ended up putting in a Toshiba 500gb 7600rpm drive.

Is it worth making a stink over? The laptop and drive is probably almost a year old, and I haven't bothered popping open the drive bay to see if I can see the manufacture date or tell if it's a refurb.

 

[razel]

Sounds like they made a mistake. The WD Scorpio Black is one of the better 7200 RPMs drives, I don't know if the Toshiba is better/worse performance and warranty wise. I would make a stink if it's much more worse than what I put in.

 

[tweakboy]

Firstly there is no such thing as 7600rpm drive LOL. jk jk givin you hard time.

That is against company rules you cant steal someones hard drive and put in another one.

Soo all your data is gone uh ? You need to call and speak with supervisor and tell him what happened. gl

 

[wpcoe]

Firstly there is no such thing as 7600rpm drive LOL. jk jk givin you hard time.

Whew! I was quietly wondering: "How the heck did he overclock his HDD rotation speeds."

 

[corkyg]

Lesson learned here . . . never send in your "A" squad drive when it goes for repair. Preferably no drive at all - let them use theirs. I did this with HP 4 years ago.

 

[Bacstar]

My bad, 7200 rpm

Lesson learned I guess. The package instructions they sent didn't mention that they would swap the harddrive. Only that they would need the password or just password removed which I did.

I did HP Chat, and they couldn't offer me much in help other than calling their number. I'll be doing that in a few minutes, but I'm not expecting much to be done now. We'll see.

It's the toshiba mk5056gsy. At least, they did give me the same size and speed drive, and I did pull off any sensitive information and do have a current backup. Performance-wise, I think the WD is a little bit better. I don't use the laptop much anyways, but now that I think about it, it bothers me just a little bit.

 

[Blain]

The laptop wasn't sent in for any drive repair...
They should be held accountable for replacing your HD with a different one.
The have an obligation to rectify the situation with you.
Have you read the fine print on their repair services?
Are there some terms that might read that they are able to do something like this?

At the very least I would compose a email (not a rant), in a professional manner.
* Disclose the type of repair that was initially required.
* Disclose any specific contacts made alone with dates.
* Explain in detail the reason you are complaining.
* Outline two or three reasonable solutions that would be acceptable to you.
Send that email to anyone at HP that might be able to help you.
Use your brain in the frequency of these contacts, the CEO doesn't need to get the letter email'd once an hour.

The emails may get you some type of satisfaction or they might not.
But they are a way you can vent a little and they will bring your issue to the attention of multiple people at HP.

 

[pcgeek11]

Standard procedure for all major companies on laptop/notebook repairs is to send in with the Hard Drive Removed, unless the repair is the drive itself.

They should have informed you of this.

 

[Bacstar]

Standard procedure for all major companies on laptop/notebook repairs is to send in with the Hard Drive Removed, unless the repair is the drive itself.

They should have informed you of this.

Nope...the supervisor I spoke to when I initially opened the repair ticket specifically said to just remove the battery. Also the documentation that came in the RMA box has nothing about removing the harddrive:

"1. Back up your data. Notebooks returned to HP repair are subject to a system restore which will re-install the original operating system, software and drivers to the hard drive, erasing the files and content currently on your drive. ...

2. Remove or provide your Operating System login password....

4. Place the notebook...Do not remove any components fron within the notebook before shipping (hard drive, memory, etc) External parts and accessories should not be sent."

Just edited for brevitys sake. I spoke to Customer Service, and they escalated the "incident". I should be getting a call within 48 hours. He did say that the initial supervisor should have told me to remove the hard drive, but I did mention the insert that i just quoted from. Just after thinking some more on what the CS said last night, he did mention that the 1st tech I spoke to should have told me that I should have sent in the laptop in its original configuration...so...I'll give him that much.

So, I'm not sure how they will resolve this issue, and personally, I think, it's not that big a deal. Like I said, I don't really use the laptop all that much. I'll be interested to see what they will suggest.

 

[Bacstar]

This could be just a case of the tech who initially repaired my LCD of being lazy and figuring swapping the harddrive would save him some time. They did ship the laptop to California for repair...

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Standard procedure for all major companies on laptop/notebook repairs is to send in with the Hard Drive Removed, unless the repair is the drive itself.

They should have informed you of this.

This is not true. How would an HDD issue get resolved?

Back when I was a PC tech, I worked for 2 companies that did laptop warranty work - we had contracts with IBM, Dell, HP, etc... we never specified that HDD's be removed.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

This could be just a case of the tech who initially repaired my LCD of being lazy and figuring swapping the harddrive would save him some time. They did ship the laptop to California for repair...

I'm guessing the tech just forgot.

This is poor procedure, and probably in violation of their ISO qualification. These types of things are supposed to be logged and double-checked.

 

[Bacstar]

I'm guessing the tech just forgot.

This is poor procedure, and probably in violation of their ISO qualification. These types of things are supposed to be logged and double-checked.

The laptop did come back with a repair log of what the tech did. The checkbox for Swapped Harddrive was checked with a note for testing purposes. Sadly, I moved a couple weekends ago, so I'm not sure what i did with the form. Also, I threw away the box for the harddrive which may have had the receipt in it, so not sure what I'm going to do if they want me to provide a receipt.

 

[pcgeek11]

This is not true. How would an HDD issue get resolved?

Back when I was a PC tech, I worked for 2 companies that did laptop warranty work - we had contracts with IBM, Dell, HP, etc... we never specified that HDD's be removed.

Note: I stated " unless the repair is the drive itself.".

I know for a fact that Dell and Lenovo recommends that you send it Without the drive.

I know for a fact that I would NOT send in my drive with personal information on it to some random tech support dude to browse. If you do and end up with your personal info pics all over the web then ... oh Well, you asked for it.

 

[Russwinters]

That has been standard practice for a long time.

When I was a firedog (LOL). Whenever we sent a notebook in for replacement we always pulled the HDD, or backed up the system using acronis before shipping it out so we could either just throw the drive back in, or just flash the image to the new drive and call it a day.

 

[RebateMonger]

The laptop did come back with a repair log of what the tech did. The checkbox for Swapped Harddrive was checked with a note for testing purposes.

So somebody made a mistake and forgot to swap back the hard drive. As suggested, write a polite letter informing them of their mistake and asking for your hard drive back (or whatever else would make you happy).

This is a pretty embarrassing mistake on their part and I imagine they'll bend over backwards to correct the error and make you happy.

 

[Bacstar]

I'm supposed to be getting phone call, so I'll wait to hear from them before doing anything further.

 

[Zap]

Since the drives are roughly equivalent, I personally would not bother.

 

[Aknosis]

I had the backlight go crazy on my work laptop in May.

This issue clearly had nothing to do with the hard drive (I could see backlight issues when booted into BIOS) but the only thing they said I shouldn't include is the battery & power supply...

HP Chat Quote:

Me: Am I supposed to ship the laptop with the harddrive in it or can I take it out?
Them: Please do not remove the hard drive, kindly send in the Notebook without battery and the AC adapter.

Me: Will my data be intact when I receive the laptop back after repair?
Them: Yes, the service center may perform recovery if required, so do take back up before sending in the Notebook.

The broken English doesn't help clear the muddy water at all but it basically sounded like they flashed the drive regardless (or they were giving me a generic answer).

The laptop ended up magically fixing it self so it never got sent in but figured I'd share my experience with the 1st half of the process.

 

[Bacstar]

Well, got the call. First question pretty much was do you have a receipt...and sadly since I couldn't find it, the "case manager" pretty much said to go "pound sand" in as nice a way as he can say it. At least, I was dealing with someone in the states.

I was prepared to accept this outcome, but for some reason, the longer I spoke to him the more irritated I got. He kept mentioning the warranty clearly specifies that they can swap out parts, but I kept reminding him that the repair to the monitor was not warranty work. I paid $380 for the replacement. I quoted the document as well as advised him that the tech I spoke with did not mention anything about the harddrive.

Oh well... I'm not going to lose sleep over this, however, I'll be thinking twice before recommending or purchasing any more HP products. To bad too, company I work for will be replacing 30-40 computers and a server at the end ofthis year...and guess who makes the buying recommendations

 

[Spikesoldier]

if its the same cache size on the hdd's then i wouldnt bother; its a comparable replacement.

your hard drive was likely replaced because it failed testing.

 

[adamantinepiggy]

Well if you paid by CC, just call your CC company and have them reverse the charge if HP is going to be dicks about it..

 

[Bacstar]

Seems like things are just getting better...went to turn on my home computer and a fan on one of my XFX 4890's is starting to make a lot of noise