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A Day by Day Log of the events as they unfolded
Day #1: December 19, 2005
My HP MD5880n arrived today. Unfortunately, even though there wasn't any outward appearance of damage it's basically dead on arrival (DOA). After waiting about 3 hours for it to reach room temperature I plugged it in and turned it on to start setting it up. I was greeted with the most annoying and loud sound. It sounded like someone had started up a leaf blower in my HT! I immediately turned it off, but the sound didn't stop for about 1 minute. Knowing a bit about DLP sets I surmised it must be a faulty cooling fan (bearings?) and the tech support person I talked to agreed. Getting through to HP tech support was a bit of a pain since I had to go through a series of menus and people who didn't even realize HP made TVs - but now that I've figured it out (you say "television" to the automated voice response router and you get through quite quickly to a tech support person for their "television" line) it wasn't quite as bad today. And I also had to jump through some hoops to get a service appointment (the guy I talked to had to get approval from a supervisor who was supposed to call me back tomorrow to arrange for a service call.
Day #2: December 20, 2005
The HP Customer Service Representative never called back as he promised so I called back this evening. Tonight's experience was a lot better. I talked to someone knowledgeable and have now been given an e-mail contact with an HP engineer who will determine whether a field trip or a replacement unit is in order. Once I was told that putting the set on with the noisy fan for a while would not hurt any electronics but just be annoying as hell I decided to apply a signal to the set and that's where problem #2 came into play. The image was horrible. Mottled, moiré-like, solarization-like, you name it. It visually reeked. Something is definitely wrong with this unit and the ball is now in HP's court to make it right. If a simple fan module replacement and some video firmware update does the trick with a reasonable assurance that the problems are taken care of then we'll see. But I have this nagging feeling that this set is either an early one (no card mentioning a firmware update was included in the box) or something worse. Like I said, the ball is in HP's court. The engineers have a lengthy e-mail with supporting screenshots and they will let me know (hopefully by tomorrow) what's what. The set itself physically looks great and fits in perfectly with my HT. The menu system, options, remote and all the ergonomics including jack access and wire management are well thought out. But there's that little matter of a picture that's downright ugly and a leaf blower in my HT that makes me reserve judgment until HP gets me a set that works. I'll let you know how this all resolves itself. Things will work out eventually.
Days Three, Four and Five: December 21-23, 2005
No call back (I really didn't expect one based on past performance.) A third CSR was nice enough to keep calling me back at least twice a day, sometimes more, telling me that they were still trying to "determine if service would be required." They were kidding, right? What a joke!
Days Six and Seven: December 24-25, 2005
Christmas Eve and Christmas but Days Eight and Nine brought no further response (even though HP service was open, I later found out.) I guess CSR #3 gave up.
Day Ten: December 28, 2005
I finally got a commitment from HP that they would send out a repair person and send a new Fan Housing and a Light Engine. The appointment was scheduled for Day Seventeen, January 4, 2006. Ten days to even schedule an appointment is not acceptable but what was my alternative? Not a good way to treat a paying customer in my opinion.
Days Eleven through Sixteen: December 29, 2005 – January 3, 2006
Happy New Year.
The fan shipped, but no light engine, even though I called several times to tell HP that the e-mails they sent me indicated that the light engine had not shipped as of yesterday. They assured me that the computer said it was in stock so it should be there. ("Maybe it's all in the same package.")
Day Seventeen: January 4, 2006
Naturally, the service tech called this morning to tell me he never received all the parts ("only the fan") so he couldn't come over. I asked if he could at least come over to see what I'm talking about (I haven't even addressed other issues discussed here like the HDMI situation and pin cushioning since I can't leave the set on long enough to test this out without melting my brain). He said to me, and I quote:
“I only do parts replacements, no adjustments.”
Jeez! I wasn't expecting an ISF calibration, just some evidence that my set is DOA.
A call to HP got me a CSR who said she's going to tell her superior to look into the missing part situation and then get back to me. After 7 hours I called back (didn't hear from them even though it was implied) and was told by another CSR (about the 10th one I've talked to) that her superior had sent off an e-mail regarding the missing light engine to corporate and should hear back "in a day or so."
This is where I came in. I'm totally disgusted with HP "support" at this point and have told them that if I don't get action by the end of the week I want a replacement unit since these are obviously available even if the parts aren't. I've sent two separate e-mails with pictures to "Leo Shen" the mysterious engineer and haven't even gotten the courtesy of a reply that he received them (Even just a "got your e-mail and am looking into it".) I know they got through since I c.c'ed several other people and they couldn't believe the contents. This is just plain inconsiderate. I don't care how busy the man is. HP requested that I take pictures and fill him in with as much detail as possible. It's not as though I was seeking him out on my own.
When I saw the HPs at CEDIA I considered them the best in show (I liked them even better than the Sonys, etc.) and decided to add one to my HT. The 5880 looks great there - until you turn it on!
In over 50 years of purchasing electronic equipment I've never been treated so shabbily and so incompetently by so many people. The HP Micro displays may turn out to be great units, but based on their warranty support I cannot recommend them to anyone. This may all work out eventually and I may end up with a great performing set, but the bitter taste it has left in my mouth will always linger. At this point, knowing what I now know, I would have gladly forsaken "true 1080p input" for those 1080p units that scale up to 1080p from 1080i. It's not even a question of a trade off; it's a matter of treating the customer with a little respect.
TV "service" has become a disaster. We live in a "replacement" society where these guys wouldn't know a resistor from a capacitor much less how to use rosin core solder. (My long experience building countless Heathkits rears its ugly head here). And I completely understand that replacing rather than repairing has become a cost-effective business model which is why I am dumb-founded by HP's reluctance to send me a replacement swap out for what is obviously a defective product. Sending in replacement part hacks is not a solution for a Dead On Arrival unit. Getting the faulty unit back to their shop for "refurbishment" and resale is the only right (and cost-effective) thing to do. If they think I'm some sort of finicky consumer with phantom issues (I'm not) the least they can do is send someone over to see what's what.
Day Eighteen: January 5, 2006
Day 18 and counting with no personal contact with anyone from HP is not right. It proves they are not set up to support their products in an acceptable fashion.
I'm currently working on a couple of options that go beyond the usual HP "Customer Support" pathways.
Day Nineteen: January 6, 2006
On a hopefully positive note I think I may have received a bit of good news from HP today. In the first place, when I placed today's call to HP Service (they hadn't returned a promised call reporting on case progress yesterday) I managed to connect to a very competent "old school" tech ("Will") who shared my interest in electronics going back to the mid-50's. As he looked over my problem (and conferred with his superior) he told me that his supervisor had received word yesterday that they had "escalated" my case up to the next level. And, while we were talking on the phone word got back to him that the second level escalation had been increased to Level Three (whatever that means in HP corporate speak). In any event I think that more influential people are being exposed to my case and that should yield some tangible results next week. Will also provided a bit more information about my problem that makes a lot of sense. Even though an earlier tech had diagnosed my severe (chain saw-like) noise as coming from a cooling fan (especially since it continued for about a minute after shutting off the 5880) Will said that this could definitely be a severely misaligned color wheel. For one thing, they are capable of horrendous noise if bad. Additionally, he told me that the color wheel doesn't stop immediately when the unit is shut off because of the high speed that it is spinning at. He said it takes considerable time to come to rest and often stays on until the fan closes down. If, in fact, this is the case, then it is very possible that my noise problems and my awful picture are part of the same issue.
One of my concerns was that a noisy fan and a faulty picture were symptoms of a set that had major unrelated problems. He also said that in cases like this they usually replace both the fan and the light engine because they are the only moving parts in the unit and that this way they are relatively certain that they will nail the problem the first time around. I have no problem trying this service call as a first step (although the length of time for HP to get me the parts and the service has been a sore point). Other than the fact that I get this terrible noise and that the picture is not acceptable by any standard, I'm happy with the set (no, I'm not trying to be a wise guy.) The physical look of the set is pristine (no blemishes, no bumps, etc.) I don't think I have the speaker buzz problems, although it might be hard to notice since the (cooling fan or color wheel) noise starts up about 10-15 seconds into an ON cycle. While I am pursuing a replacement through my dealer as "Plan B" I'm still hoping that "Plan A" yields positive results.
Finally, later in the day I received a call from HP corporate in California, thanks to an internet acquaintance that works at HP in another division and put my story out over their internal network. The gentleman who called (not HP service) said that he was going to see to it that this issue resolved itself to my satisfaction. He gave me a contact number if nothing occurs in the way of information by Monday.
So Day 19 has at least shown me some light at the end of the tunnel. I'm also hoping it shows me a light engine soon. It appears that HP is finally trying to sort things out although it took a lot of effort on my part and the intervention of the kindness of strangers. I don't want to be accused of being an HP basher. I've had several (actually more than several) good experiences with HP products over the years. That's why this course of events took me by surprise. It's been a bumpy ride but I hope that it's over sooner than later.
In this continuing odyssey, I received an e-mail from a "Case Worker" from HP late in the evening. He claimed that he had been trying to call me all day and couldn't reach me. This is interesting because I was home all day and have call waiting and an answering machine for backup as well. He also waited to e-mail me until office hours were conveniently over. Based on HP's performance so far I'm betting he had my phone number wrong. I'll try to call him at the number he gave me as soon as he's in the office on Monday.
This is totally unrelated to the earlier call I got from a different HP division so it's clear that there are communication problems within HP. No wonder they can seem to find the part (a light engine) they were supposed to send me.
Day Twenty Two: January 9, 2006
This is frustrating. HP has been in contact with me regarding the "missing" parts - specifically the light engine, which is the heart of the machine and most likely the major source of the troubles. Apparently, even though it was supposed to have shipped out to me on December 28, 2005 it still hasn't shipped. After much checking (and intervention by at least three "higher level HP people") it was determined that this part was back-ordered and not noted as such in their computer system. I knew it hadn't shipped because the web site I was told to check kept informing me "not yet shipped" while the fan module (another potential problem) had shipped and arrived at the service technician's office on January 3, 2006, well in time for my scheduled January 4, 2006 repair which, of course, never came about.
Another call to HP today (to my "HP case worker" in this "elevated" status of my odyssey) verified that the part has still not shipped. This time I was informed that it was on "5 Day Backorder" but the good news was that this period had just about expired and that the light engine should ship "any day now."
Excuse me if I'm a bit skeptical at this point but I'm at the close of Day 22 and the set is still in the same non-operative condition that it was the day it arrived, well before Christmas.
Day Twenty Four: January 11, 2006
Today I had a conference call with myself, my "Case Worker" from HP on the East Coast and a person in HP Corporate on the West Coast. At that time I stated that I expected them to either get me the required part (the light engine) or a replacement unit. After 24 days it was ridiculous for HP to force me to wait any longer for a replacement part for a set that was delivered DOA. They agreed and my case worker told me that he would definitely contact me tomorrow with an answer regarding the availability of the light engine. I believe the phrase; “You’ve got my word” was bandied about by the case worker. If it's just a matter of days (not weeks) for the part to reach the service person they we would proceed that way. If there was going to be any protracted delays then they would start the process for a replacement unit.
As the sun sets this evening I'm hopeful, but not yet confident, that HP will honor their word. After all, I've been told a lot of things by a lot of people at HP over the past 3 weeks and actions speak louder than words.
In the meantime, things are backing up in my HT. I've purchased several pieces of new equipment that have on-screen menus and it is not possible to set them up without a working TV monitor in the room for a number of reasons. Using the front projector really isn't an option since some of the set-up requires the HP to be in the loop.
Day Twenty Five: January 12, 2006
Guess what. No phone call from HP today even though it was specifically promised by the "Case Worker." I waited until office hours were over so that he ("Josh") would have ample opportunity to respond regarding the missing part.
At this point I have absolutely no patience, nor any faith in HP. This has been nothing but a series of broken promises and total inaction by all involved. I followed today's non-events with a phone call to my "Case Worker" (left a message - no big surprise), a follow-up e-mail asking why I wasn't contacted and even another call to HP corporate in California (left name and message at 4pm PST, but received no response from corporate so nothing can be done until tomorrow.)
Without a doubt I will be on the phone first thing in the morning to find out why I didn't even receive the courtesy of a call - especially since they told me they would definitely call today no matter what transpired. They are great at apologizing but not so good at doing their job.
This has not only become frustrating. It has also become insulting. You don't promise a call back and then not call.
DAY #25 and no end in sight.
Day Twenty Six: Friday 13, 2006
Today I finally reached my "Case Worker" and asked him why he didn't call me yesterday as specifically promised. He apologized and told me that his "meetings ran late" and that he had some other people to call back as well. This guy certainly lacks any people skills at all!
I then asked what the final resolution to the missing part (light engine) situation was and he told me that he did not have any information as to when, if ever, the part would be available (I find that hard to believe - the part not being available at any point) and that HP would be happy to take the set off my hands and send me a check to be used to purchase a set that would fit my needs. All I had to do was fax him a copy of my bill of sale. He would then authorize someone to come over with an empty box and pick up the set.
After I got off the phone and was assembling the paperwork it occurred to me that he never mentioned a replacement. I was so taken aback by his comment that they would recompense me for the set and let me buy a different brand that I lost sight of the fact that this would cause a lot of additional problems and given HP's track record on this so far there was no guarantee if and when I would get my money back, much less when I'd be able to install a set from any other manufacturer in my house. This could last for several more months before sorting itself out! Besides, I based my decision to purchase the HP model on its features and what had been observed at CEDIA and it wasn't a question of whether or not this was the set I wanted, but a question of getting one that works. If after using a working model for some time I found that it had flaws then I would consider asking for a refund. But it seemed a bit premature to give up before the set ever turned on normally.
A little background regarding my purchase. When I decided on this set in early December I went to HP shopping to buy one. Unfortunately, they were out of stock on the 58" model (the one that fits perfectly in my HT) and couldn't promise anything prior to the holidays. A friend of mine is a custom installer (and an authorized HP dealer) and he told me that his distributor had them in stock - they just didn't have any stands in stock. Although the unit would be shipped from Washington (state) to NY there wouldn't be any problem since HP would warrant the unit no matter where it shipped from/to in the states. So I went ahead and ordered the display from him and ordered the stand from hpshopping.com on 12/12/05. The stand arrived two days later and the set arrived via freight on 12/19/05.
That's when all the fun began as chronicled in these pages. When I found out the set was defective (even HP customer service agreed that the sound they could clearly hear over the phone wasn't "normal" and needed attention) I naturally assumed that "service" would either mean prompt attention to fixing or replacing the faulty unit. We all know now that this assumption was a little presumptuous.
I also just received a call back from HP corporate where someone has been made aware of the situation and has promised to oversee this until its resolution, so maybe things will turn around. The fact of the matter is that HP should have acted in more timely fashion to deal with this. A customer shouldn't have to go through all the steps I had to go through in order to get some response.
So now I wait for confirmation that my replacement is on its way from hpshopping.com I would think that I should be in their system within a few days (if obligations are met) and that it should be smooth sailing from then on.
We shall see. Fingers crossed....
I got a call back from the HP "Case Worker" this afternoon confirming that they had received a copy of my bill of sale and were now in the process of sending me a new unit. They told me that they were using North American Van Lines to send me my unit and that HP itself would now be considered my "dealer." In other words, no more intermediaries. They also said that the shipment would be handled in two stages. First they will ship me a new unit (allow 7 business days so I'm estimating the middle of the week after next, around 1/25). Then, a separate shipper will come and pick up the faulty unit, using their own box, etc. The reason for this, according to HP, is so that they can bring the set to their facility to determine what went wrong (and probably to sell it as a re-furbished unit if they can ever find a light engine).
In any event, assuming that things go as planned (I'll believe it when I see it) there is a good chance that I will finally end up with a working unit and, if I have any further problems, will be dealing directly with HP itself since they are now considered to be my dealer.
I'm currently in negotiations with Paramount regarding the screen rights to this story.
Day Thirty Two: January 19, 2006
One month (!) has passed since this whole thing started and I’m still waiting for delivery of my replacement set….
Day Thirty Seven: January 24, 2006
Late today a replacement unit arrived and I'm happy to report that it appears to be working perfectly right out of the box. I quickly connected it to my HD Dish 1080i source material (the best I have right now) and was amazed at how good this picture looked. It easily beat both my Panasonic 37" HD Plasma and my Runco CL-710 when viewing HD content (as it should, since they are 720p units). And that's not any disgrace to the Panasonic and the Runco since they both produce what I consider to be excellent pictures.
HP will be sending a team over to pick up the old set next week to take it to their labs (so they claim.) In the meantime I'll be spending at least the next couple of days integrating the HP MD5880n into my home theater. With two HD displays (including the Runco CL-710 FP) I want to make sure that all sources get to all displays. In order to accomplish this I've recently purchased a DVD0 iScan VP30 HD scaler/switcher. Not only will this give me a hub for all my video sources (I still prefer to pass all audio through my Lexicon MC-8, thus avoiding any HDMI audio issues) but the VP30 will allow me to scale everything externally to 1080p for the HP and 720p for the Runco so that each display is handling its native resolution directly. This seems to be the best way to connect these things.
And within the week I will take delivery on my new laptop (Dell M170) which, with its DVI output and graphics card (NVidia 7800 Ultra) has the ability to provide me with 1080p source material immediately. This will let me check out the HP's ability to handle native (not upscaled) 1080p input directly prior to the release of Blu-ray.
Day Forty Five: February 1, 2006
The Insanity Continues...
Well, after 45 days they finally came and got my DOA original HP MD5880n, but even that didn't go without incident. Over the past few days I received several calls from some company called "Decision One" (I believe they repair computers) that someone would be picking up my set today (Wednesday) between 8 a.m. and 12 noon to ship it back to Hewlett Packard. Around 9 a.m. I received a call from a Decision One technician who said that he was coming over to coordinate the exchange and to set up the TV that was being delivered. I informed him that no exchange or set up was involved since I had received my replacement a week ago and all that was going to happen was for the old set to leave my premises. The technician seemed surprised but said he'd be over at 10 a.m. to "coordinate the paperwork" since the trucker would be there by then.
At 10 a.m. the technician arrived and, of course, no trucker and no box. After a few phone calls he found out that nobody could find the trucker even though they were supposed to be there at that moment according to the dispatcher. The technician spent about a half hour with me marveling at the great HD picture on my working 5880. His comment, "I've never seen one of these sets before" didn't exactly instill in me any confidence regarding his ability to provide setup or service had that been required. Luckily, that wasn't necessary. At about 10:30 the technician told me he had another appointment scheduled about 15 miles away at 11 so he would have to leave. A final call to the trucking dispatcher verified that the trucker was missing in action so the technician left for his next appointment. He told me that since I appeared to know what I was doing just to sign any paperwork if and when the truckers appeared.
Fifteen minutes later a truck pulled up with two workers and an empty HP MD5880n box. They had no idea that a technician was supposed to meet them and said that nobody had contacted them all morning. They brought the empty box into my garage (where the technician and I had placed the faulty set) and then attempted to get the set packaged up. This was hilarious. Although the box was the right size the packing inserts were in no way able to accommodate the MD5880n. It was worse than trying to solve Rubik's Cube or a 6 star Sudoku! Finally the truckers said, "Screw This! You're just returning the set to HP, right?" I told them that this was the plan. They then proceeded to place the set in the box and used some of the packaging material to loosely hold it in place as they slid the top of the box over the set and onto the base of the box and the skid. They then loaded the skid onto the truck and mumbled something about wrapping it up tightly back at the warehouse before shipping it back to HP. I signed and dated the receipt and off they went.
Wait. There's more.
About an hour later, as the clock struck 12, the doorbell rang and when I answered a man in a pickup van said he was there to pick up some sort of TV for HP. I said it was already picked up and asked him if he had a box with him. Of course he didn't. When I mentioned that "Decision One" had picked up the set he commented that this was probably a case of some secretary placing the pickup order twice. He then put my entire predicament into perspective when he said, "At HP the left hand doesn't know that the right hand is doing." Truer words were never spoken. This should be on the front page of the manual!
And now the kicker. As I was sitting at the computer writing the second paragraph of this account the phone rang. It was the original technician from CompUSA (the guy who was supposed to come on January 4th.) He was calling to inform me that the light engine had arrived and that he wanted to come over and install it in my TV. As soon as I stopped laughing I told him that if he hurried he might be able to catch the truck with the faulty set. It sure wouldn't be too difficult to repair the set since it was only loosely packed in the carton. However I told him to be careful to avoid some guy in a pickup van (with no box) who was looking for a TV to pick up and who, therefore, might not be paying too close attention to the road!
We both had a good laugh when I filled him in on the day's events. I thanked him for his perseverance in this matter. After all, the repairman was just trying to do his job and wasn't responsible for this massive screw-up. He told me that this happens all the time since the people who schedule these things don't coordinate them very well and that very often he has to make several calls and trips before an issue gets resolved. I believe that Mr. Pickup Van had said it more succinctly with his "Left Hand/Right Hand" comment.
So what's the moral of this story? Today's events just prove to me that it is imperative that if you are looking to get one of these HP sets that you must align yourself with a dealer who is equipped to handle any exchanges without any middlemen involved. If you get a good set (probably much better than a 50-50 chance) you will be extremely pleased. But if you run into a lemon, as I did, you need a "Plan B" since the alternative is frightening.
Caveat Emptor!
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