Recommendations for a Laptop?

[Adelphos]

Hey Lee,

I can absolutely confirm for you that HP does NOT have US based support. It is outsourced to the Asia and the Philippines, etc. No aspersions on those countries, but it is very hard to understand and communicate with the support reps and/with their HEAVY accents. Call quality is not good either. The other thing I've found is that it takes them forever to determine that you have a warranty and support plan. I've been on the phone sometimes for a good half an hour before they were able to locate me in their system. And Scott, yes, every HP laptop I've ever had - and HP desktop too! - has had an Intel chip. For reasons beyond my comprehension, I have just not had good experiences with HP, neither with the hardware, nor with the support. And their printers, supposedly the core engine of their business, forget about it! They have been just dreadful for me. Three different HP All-in-one printers over the last ten years and all of them have been problematic in one way or another. In fact, not long ago, HP lost a class action suit that several plaintiffs launched against their printers. The lawsuit alleged that HP printers would alert their users that they were low on ink prematurely and would stop working. The lawsuit charges were upheld in court and HP was ordered to make restitution to those customers that were part of the class action suit. I didn't join in - I'm not the "class action-type" - but I can vouch from my own personal experience, as to the veracity of the charges. To sum up, I am not really the complaining type - I'm generally pretty easy to please. But my experience with HP has not been very good. And I have bought 1 desktop, three laptops, and 5 printers from them over the years. No more. My next purchase will be from a competitor. No axe to grind; I'm just tired of all the headaches and problems.

I agree with you about the printers to a degree. I have been buying HP printers for ever, but this last time I bought the Samsung Color laser printer, which was cheaper and has more capabilities than the HP in the same class. I don't know if HP has an advantage in their top-end printers, but they certainly don't in my class.

With regard to HP support, while I've never called them on the phone, I have used Live Chat a few times with them, and I've always been able to get the issue resolved or the question answered. But other than the desktop without a Intel chip, I have never had any major issues.

All I can figure is, you must have cursed HP sometimes in the past without knowing it!

[ISalzman]

Michael,

Understood. Variety is the spice of life.

Irving

[ISalzman]

All I can figure is, you must have cursed HP sometimes in the past without knowing it!

Well, if I cursed them, I certainly am ignorant of it.

By the way, you know what's interesting? Modern Hebrew, although it has evolved and expanded from the days of its roots in Biblical Hebrew, it is nonetheless based off the latter. Biblical Hebrew has no curse words. Hence Modern Hebrew has no native curse words. Thus modern Hebrew has had to import its curse words. Almost every single modern Israeli curse word comes from Arabic. I kid you not.

[Adelphos]

I wouldn't get a 17inch because it's just too big and unwieldy and I don't want it to replace a desktop.

I was at first a little taken aback by the 17" display, but my wife, who is a flight attendant, was with me in the store and I asked her if other people carried laptops this big and she said, "All the time."

So I bought it, and to tell you the truth, a 15" doesn't really make any difference relative to portability, at least not to me. In fact, now that I've got the 17" I don't think I'd ever go lower.

Actually, I'm not even sure I'm going to use a netbook anymore, but you never know. But the 17" is a whole lot better on the eyes than the 15", and to me that makes a big difference.

[Adelphos]

Well, if I cursed them, I certainly am ignorant of it.

Well if you are really dead set against another HP, I will only tell you this...

I have an Acer netbook and a Asus netbook. Both HD's completely crashed and I had to send them off to have them replaced. They were still under warranty, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered.

So I would do what Lee is doing if you're going to buy another one, i.e., read the reviews on the internet and see what's what. At least that way you're going in somewhat informed.

[Lee]

Yeah I realize it's all about personal preference. I don't think I could ever give up a desktop. It's so much cheaper and you can build your own with the exact configuration that you want. I don't like putting a lot of money into a laptop because you just don't get the same return for the dollar. I have a 15 inch laptop that I use to bring back and forth to school and such, but if I want to do serious work, I use my desktop. I wouldn't get a 17inch because it's just too big and unwieldy and I don't want it to replace a desktop.

So individual mileage varies. I was just throwing it out there.

Food for thought. I suppose you could have two computers for roughly the price of one that way.

[Lee]

Hey Lee,

I can absolutely confirm for you that HP does NOT have US based support. It is outsourced to the Asia and the Philippines, etc. No aspersions on those countries, but it is very hard to understand and communicate with the support reps and/with their HEAVY accents. Call quality is not good either. The other thing I've found is that it takes them forever to determine that you have a warranty and support plan. I've been on the phone sometimes for a good half an hour before they were able to locate me in their system. And Scott, yes, every HP laptop I've ever had - and HP desktop too! - has had an Intel chip. For reasons beyond my comprehension, I have just not had good experiences with HP, neither with the hardware, nor with the support. And their printers, supposedly the core engine of their business, forget about it! They have been just dreadful for me. Three different HP All-in-one printers over the last ten years and all of them have been problematic in one way or another. In fact, not long ago, HP lost a class action suit that several plaintiffs launched against their printers. The lawsuit alleged that HP printers would alert their users that they were low on ink prematurely and would stop working. The lawsuit charges were upheld in court and HP was ordered to make restitution to those customers that were part of the class action suit. I didn't join in - I'm not the "class action-type" - but I can vouch from my own personal experience, as to the veracity of the charges. To sum up, I am not really the complaining type - I'm generally pretty easy to please. But my experience with HP has not been very good. And I have bought 1 desktop, three laptops, and 5 printers from them over the years. No more. My next purchase will be from a competitor. No axe to grind; I'm just tired of all the headaches and problems.

I have actually had mixed experiences with HP. I bought an HP laptop around 2001 and had nothing but positive experiences with it. As a matter of fact, those positive experiences led me to buy another HP my next time out (nothing went wrong with the first one--my son who was two years old at the time apparently thought it was thirsty--so he poured a glass of water on the keyboard).

I bought my second HP laptop used, and I had quite a few problems with it. I never knew whether to blame it more on HP or on the fact it was used. But that is also the period when I acquired my aversion to HP's Asian-based customer support. Not that they don't work just as hard as or harder than U.S.-based customer support, but the language barrier can be too much to overcome.

[ISalzman]

Well if you are really dead set against another HP, I will only tell you this...

I have an Acer netbook and a Asus netbook. Both HD's completely crashed and I had to send them off to have them replaced. They were still under warranty, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered.

So I would do what Lee is doing if you're going to buy another one, i.e., read the reviews on the internet and see what's what. At least that way you're going in somewhat informed.

Good advice Scott. And I will consult the reviews when I'm ready to buy again (which won't be for a while). But I can tell you that my previous HP laptop had gotten sterling reviews (ZD Net, PC Mag, Consumer Reports, etc.). And it turned out to be the biggest clunker I ever had. I had to send it into HP for repairs twice. And even then, it never worked right.

[ISalzman]

But that is also the period when I acquired my aversion to HP's Asian-based customer support. Not that they don't work just as hard as or harder than U.S.-based customer support, but the language barrier can be too much to overcome.

Yeah, the support issue is a tough one to overcome. There used to be a computer manufacturer that was Christian-owned. They used to advertise in Christian Computing Magazine. Their CEO even used to write articles in the publication from time to time. In their print ads, one of the boasts they made was that they only had US-based support. But I don't know what ever became of that company. I haven't seen their ads in a while now. I can't quite recall their name, but I'm inclined to think that it was something similar to 'PowerBook?'

[Adelphos]

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You know, I got to thinking, Irving, and I don't know if there is a lemon law where you are, or much about it, for that matter, but it sounds to me like you've bought a lemon (several times, actually), so you might contact HP (if you bought it directly from them, otherwise the store you bought it at), and tell them that you got a lemon and demand that they replace it with a new one ala the lemon law.

Can't hurt to try.