HP US warranty for international users

[mxm]

I'm planning to buy a H2210 in the US, but I live in Europe. HP states that the US warranty isn't valid in other countries (the fu**ers) :twisted:.

Has anyone, living outside the US, had problems with a faulty HP PDA, bought in the US? What could you do with the warranty?

[Small Town Man]

Most iPaqs do have international warranty. I'm not sure if they all have.
Only one time I got the ipaq back with a german ROM (had english ROM).

[petvas]

I've bought my iPaq 5555 from Compusa in New Orleans. iPaqs have an international warranty, so there is no problem 8)

[Paula]

I can also back what Petvas has said. My unit will be coming from the US as well so I contacted HP here in New Zealand and they told me that iPaqs are covered by an international warranty and that I would have no problem getting a replacement for the unit here. Yup, an automatic replacement. They told me it is cheaper to replace the unit than repair it.

Cheers
Paula

[Janak Parekh]

Paula, that might be because NZ doesn't have the repair facilities like we do here. Most definitely they won't replace your unit by default in the US -- they'll only do that if the issue isn't solved by multiple replacements. You're lucky. :)

--janak

[Paula]

Janak,
:lol: I know how lucky we (expat American here) are to live in such a small country where they replace small expensive (NZ 2 x 1 US + 12.5% + $$$ for good measure) items like PPCs.

Then, on the other hand you can't pop into any electronics store (I miss CompUSA and Circuit City oh and I can't forget EggHead) to play with the various models either. :cry: I called one of the major suppliers and asked if they had a few different makes on display, he told me that they stopped displaying PPCs because of theft. This means if you want a PPC here you have to guess that a model will be right for you. This is why I ask tons of questions about the various makes/models.

Cheers
Paula

[mxm]

I hope all of you are right, it's just that a HP customer service slave here in the Netherlands said that Ipaqs with US warranty aren't supported in the Netherlands, silly man. He might be right though :?

[Paula]

mxm,
I would double check before you buy. Perhaps you should call back and ask to speak to the manager of the department. I know 2 years ago HP didn't have an international warranty on PPCs. It may be that the person you spoke with isn't aware that the International Warranty exists.

Cheers
Paula

[mxm]

They told me it is cheaper to replace the unit than repair it.

Paula, that might be because NZ doesn't have the repair facilities like we do here. Most definitely they won't replace your unit by default in the US -- they'll only do that if the issue isn't solved by multiple replacements.

I'm not sure if you're completely right there, Janak. A lot of service centers replace your broken toy after 5 minutes looking at it and concluding that it's to complex for them to fix it (why they even bother, no one knows, probably just justifying their job).

If you think about it it is cheaper to replace than to fix. Let me try to work out an example:

Let's say you have an Ipaq 5450 ($500) with a faulty screen
Let's say the wholesale value of the 5450 is $250 (I have no idea, I'm just guessing here)
Let's say a HP customer service person (CS) cost HP $70 an hour
Let's say a HP technical wizard :mrgreen: (TW)cost HP $100 an hour

- You e-mail HP telling them about this faulty screen, this CS person replies you should visit a service center or send the PPC in.
Costs HP 15 minutes equals: $ 17,50.
- You visit the service center and the man behind the TW looks at your 5450 and concludes it has a faulty screen (the genius in that is amazing) and starts to fill out a large form and sighs deeply.
Costs HP 20 minutes equals: $ 33,33.
- Another person (equal to a CS person) processes the return and sends it to HP tech repair.
Costs HP 10 minutes equals: $ 11,66 plus $10,- FedEx.
- Another person (equal to a CS person) processes the package they recieved and sees that the first TW hasn't filled in the form correctly, now (s)he doesn't know which TW to send the 5450 to, (s)he takes 20 minutes to analyse the package, the 5450 ("this silly thing doesn't work!!"), complain to her/his boss ("what am I supposed to do, call them"), call the service center to complain to them.
Costs HP $ 23,33, $ 5,- boss costs, $2 phone costs
- Another TW gets the 5450, looks at it an concludes the screen is faulty, the 5450 needs a new screen (another genius at work here, stay clear!). With a bit of luck they have the new screen in stock, but the TW has to find it first (oh oh).
Costs HP 5 minutes analysing: $ 8,33, 2 minutes concluding: $3,33 and 15 minutes searching (mind the coffee break) $25,-
- The TW goes to work, this takes 1 hour (I'll leave all cynicism behind here)
Costs HP $100,-, the replacement screen costs $ 30,- (?)
The TW fills out his timesheet and the other forms to send the 5450 back to you, he's had a lot of coffe and is feeling good, so he takes 5 minutes.
Costs HP $ 8,33
- The CS equal processes the sending of the 5450 and sends you an e-mail your 5450 has been fixed. Takes 10 minutes.
Costs HP $ 11,66 and $ 10,- FedEx.

So what do we have as a total? $ 299,47

[mxm]

mxm,
I would double check before you buy. Perhaps you should call back and ask to speak to the manager of the department. I know 2 years ago HP didn't have an international warranty on PPCs. It may be that the person you spoke with isn't aware that the International Warranty exists.

Cheers
Paula

You're probably right, I already sent an e-mail to HP in the US with the same question, lets see what they have to say.