HP Omen – A Service Saga

I brought a HP Omen laptop on 14th August.  It was delivered on 16th Aug. The primary use was for kid’s online schooling which lasted an hour and normal browsing for about 2 hours a day. During the kid’s online school, at times, the speaker is put to 100% volume. On 10th Sep, the famed Bang & Olufsen certified speakers suddenly die during a video call 24 days into using the product. This is the saga of the service provided henceforth.

• 10th September:
  • Spend 30 minutes troubleshooting with Windows troubleshooter, HP software and finally disabling, enabling and reinstalling speaker drivers. Realise it is a serious issue.
  • Call up Flipkart, hit a useless chatbot before getting through to a toll free number. 27 min 23 seconds of chat later, they tell me that they cannot help as the return period was over on August 23rd. The best they can do is give the number of HP service center to contact.  I decline.
  • Go hunting on the HP website. Again, hit a chat bot which is absolutely useless.Can’t find the service center number. Get their sales toll free number who take unnecessary details for 5 min 25 sec before giving the service center.
    • Try finding 1800 258 7170 on https://store.hp.com/in-en/default without a search engine vs 1800 180 1810
  • Connect with the relevant customer service number. 35 min 24 sec of call trouble shooting and chatting. They tell me it is a speaker problem. I request for a replacement as it is a serious issue in a new laptop. The person on the other end declines but states she’ll check.
  • I wanted the laptop repaired fast. So I have an option to go to a service center in which case, I’ll need to get another Case ID. I decline and ask them to send an technician onsite.
  • I sign off stating every day and touch point hence forth is them putting their service level up for assessment.
  • I leave a 1 star review on Flipkart about the service levels of both Flipkart and the fact that a brand new laptop can just go kaput like that. It is promptly rejected stating, “it does not fully conform to our internal (review) guidelines. as it contains feedback on post order flows”!
    • If this is true, I wonder why do they have so many comments just stating, “great service flipkart!”
• 11th September:
  • Get a callback stating the replacement request has been declined by HP and they’ll repair it.
  • Since the part is not readily available, they’ll take 5 days for the same to be sent across and for the laptop repaired.
  • Do I have a choice? I say ok. But tell them, in case it is not repaired as promised, I’ll need the replacement. They tell me, it will be repaired.
• 12th September:
  • Looks like the service was palmed off to a 3rd party called Sysnetglobal.
  • The 3rd party sends an email now stating that the spare is expected to be delivered on 18th Sept and only when it is received will they align the engineer.
  • They mention, they are “committed to provide you the best in class support experience”.
  • Whatever happened to the 5 day promise and notice they don’t commit a resolution day.
• 14th September:
  • Leave another simpler comment with a 1 star rating on Flipkart which is accepted.
• 15th September:
  • Get an SMS from the 3rd party, they state that there is a delay due to the pandemic.
  • Notice they don’t commit a resolution day. According to HP, it was supposed to be by 15th/16th depending on when the actual call was logged.
• 18th September:
  • At 4PM I call the HP toll free to check on the status as that was the date promised in the email.
  • They now want me to check with the service center whose number I should have received!
  • WTF!! I ask them to escalate the issue as I was promised a 5 day resolution. I am told…
    • for the “first time” that the 5 days is not including weekends.
    • that the delay is in “receiving” the part due to COVID.
  • I hit the roof. I tell them I don’t care. I want the problem solved as promised on the first day!
  • Get the standard SMS again immediately.
  • An hour and a half later I get a call stating the part has been dispatched and received and if I am “getting good service” and if I, “got a call from the service center”.
• 20th September:
  • 10 days after I login the complaint, a service technician finally visits at 1:25 PM. He fiddles with the laptop till 3:14 PM to finally say, the speaker sent is a wrong one and doesn’t fit into the laptop.
  • So, he’ll raise another request, this time it will only take 2 days for the replacement part to arrive. Good!

The HP Omen Rayzen 5, wasn’t my first choice though. The first choice was an Asus Zephyrus G14. I was settled on an AMD Rayzen powered laptop and was in fact looking for one with a Rayzen 7 processor (unfortunately not available in India yet) and the only ones which seem to have them are gaming laptops! What went in favor of the HP omen was that it had an inbuilt webcam and the Zephyrus didn’t. And by the way, in this COVID-19/WFH times, who launches a laptop without one. Even Mi which launched the Horizon laptop without one, chose to give an extra webcam for free! This of course is another story.