I first wrote about ordering a new computer here. Then, I mentioned how long I was waiting for it here. I further elaborated on my situation here where I talked about one of the online tools I am using more of these days. Finally, the big day was here and my Envy arrived – you can read that story and see the pictures of it here.

My laptop is nearly perfect. It’s fast (works in Photoshop and Lightroom processing images with amazing speed) and its pretty. But it has a major flaw: something goofy is wrong with the hardware.

From the second day after it arrived, I noticed that the “p” key only sometimes worked. Occasionally it would miss when I was typing and at other times, like now, “qe” or “qerw” comes out instead. Frequently it wouldn’t work at all. Several other keys began to miss soon after and now I have to rely on copying the characters that don’t work into Notepad and using the On Screen Keyboard. 

I called the Envy Technical Support line on Friday night. I was feeling extremely frustrated and disappointed that after all of my recent computer troubles, and after waiting for my laptop much longer than was originally promised because of shipping delays, I had received faulty hardware. The person I spoke with was quite nice, but quickly came to the conclusion that I must need a new computer all together because I had faulty hardware (she had me enter a recovery area of the unit which is evidently outside of Windows and since I could not type with the keys in question there she determined that I had faulty hardware, not software). No other suggestion was offered to me at that time (i.e. it was never brought up that I was fully under warranty and had purchased additional 3 year protection that I could use). She then proceeded to transfer me to the HP Home Shopping Store and everything went downhill quickly from there.

I had an incredibly difficult time understanding the sales representative. Long story, filled with terrible customer service from several levels, short, I will be shipping my Envy back for warranty service tomorrow. My warranty contract states that I should receive my computer back within 5 business days and that is much faster than the estimated one plus months I was repeatedly quoted (at least I think that is what they said).

I am feeling frustrated with the entire situation right now. I got a shiny new toy after a terrible computer disaster that I hoped would make everything smooth sailing again, only to have a shiny busted new toy that I have to go through the hassle to ship back and more time to wait. I’m out a significant amount of money which makes the whole thing worse.