HP Spectre x360 issues

SpotAShonky
1

What does: 1 Self-Immolating Laptop + Denied Refunds + 3-year battle =?

It Equals : 1 Non-Disclosure Agreement + Discharge of all and any claims + 1 Full Refund

March 2017

I purchased a HP Spectre x360 from the Australian HP Online store for $ 2,637.

October 2017

One evening the laptop began to overheat. It became too hot to touch and began to smoke. After the laptop had stopped being a burn hazard, I could see that the USB-C ports had been burnt out.

I contacted HP and asked for a full refund, they refused. And offered the laptop be repaired. A technician came out, saw what was wrong, ordered the part (from memory it was a motherboard). And returned sometime later and fixed my laptop.

I figured that was the end of it.

November 2017

The motherboard had to be replaced a second time.

June 2020
By this point, the laptop was completely dysfunctional. It could not be unplugged from a power source without turning itself off, the screen kept freezing and glitching, and the touchscreen did not work.

I again contacted HP and asked for a refund, they refused. I continued to escalate the case and they kept denying me a refund.

It was at this point I began to look into consumer protection and stumbled across the Choice website for the first time. I wish to say thank you for creating such brilliant and accessible consumer rights and protections information. It was because of Choice that I realised the company had broken the law. And I had it in writing.

I had a copy of an email chain from 2017. In this email chain I had asked for a refund. But HP had denied me a refund. This denial occurred after my laptop overheated, began to smoke and burnt its insides out.

I sent a copy of the email chain to HP. And finally, the company agreed to a full refund.

I then got an email to arrange the refund and for the company to pick up the laptop.

Near the end of the email there was a near indecipherable paragraph of legal mumbo jumbo that said, and I paraphrase:

To get your refund, you have to discharge all claims that you currently or in the future have against us. Also, you agree not to tell anyone about this case or what’s in this email unless a court tells you to do so.

August 2020

I got a full refund. 3 years after I had first asked for it.

So I wish to put forward a Shonky product: HP Spectre x360
and a shonky compacy: HP.

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2

Welcome to the Community @JustLaura,

Your experience sounds dreadful. Unfortunately many companies ‘repair’ faults by addressing the symptom not the cause. An educated guess is the problem in your Spectre was not the motherboard, but perhaps the power supply, another part, or even a slightly frayed wire causing a shorted circuit, that toasted the MB.

Many of us have had our product repeatedly repaired for the problem to reappear, over and over until the warranty expired and then were ignored. The ACL is our protection for that when the consumer is aware of their rights and the company is willing to comply.

This Choice article might be insightful.

Thanks for posting! And pleased HP finally stepped up under your commendable perseverance.

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