Categories: News, Rumors and Gossip
According to the feedback I, and others have had from HP and their Repair Centre, HP currently are unable to provide hardware repairs or replacements for their MediaSmart Servers in the UK.
The earliest evidence I have seen of this is from the beginning of April. However, it could have been an issue prior to that. My MSS Power supply failed on 21st April and I have been told by the "HP Repair Centre" that there is no timescale set for when replacement units will be available and that their engineers haven't been given the necessary training to fix these products.
UPDATE - 2-May
Today I have been told that they have one unit available and it will be sent to replace mine on Tuesday. Maybe they are finally starting to get stock??
Working on Behalf of HP
Fort Collins, United StatesI'm really sorry that you are having problems. I spoke with our support manager about your situation, and he is working with the UK team to make sure we address your concerns.
What is your hardware configuration on your server?
Cindy
Disclaimer: Any opinions I might express are my own, and in no way represent HP.
Hi Cindy,
Am I take it that you are based in the US? I presume so because you're the only person from HP so far that actually sounds like they have the slightest interest. I am very grateful that you spoke with your support manager. I think that the UK team could learn a thing or two from you.
I am using an HP MediaSmart EX475 completely standard other than an extra 1TB disk.
Working on Behalf of HP
Fort Collins, United StatesHi -- Yes, I am based in the US, and I sit with the R&D team which developed the MediaSmart server and NAS products. There is a support manager here as well, who oversees the regional teams, and he is looking into your support issue. If you would like to privately give me your name and contact info, it would help, to make sure we are not guessing who you might be . . .
Cindy
Disclaimer: Any opinions I might express are my own, and in no way represent HP.
Would it be enough if I give you my Reference numbers that HP have given me to help you determine who I am? I'm just not so comfortable with handing out my details online - no offence.
Apparently *my* issue should be resolved on Tuesday, however, there seems to be a fair few others who are not being dealt with so quickly.
Would you be willing to tell me if there is a known issue with getting stock of these server to the UK? Also, is there a common trend to the PSU failure? I know these questions put you in a difficult position, but hey, I'm the customer.
Administrator
United StatesViolation said: I'm just not so comfortable with handing out my details online - no offence.I want to make sure you know that you don't have to post anything like that here in the forums. Every member on the site has a private message inbox where you can send and receive messages to/from other members in private. These private messages cannot be seen by other members of the site. To access your private messages inbox, click the little envelope in the green member box at the top of the page, or click "My Messages" in the My Stuff menu in the right column.
Is anyone getting any better performance out of the UK Support side, or is it still no good?
Having read a number of comments from a number of UK based MSS users with PSU problems there appears on the face of it to be an issue here, and a continuing lack of spares/replacement units for customers with failed hardware.
I guess one question that does come to mind though is whether the PSU up to the job, or is the 220V UK voltage too close to the PSU's upper limit and it can't take it, weven on a filtered supply. I only have two drives in mine (500GB + 750GB Seagates) and the PSU died after 5 months of being on 24/7.
I hope that as HP folks appear to be reading this thread, and other threads from unhappy UK users both here and on other MSS owners websites, then it seems to me that it should be ringing alarm bells both for poor UK repair support and possibly an issue of a design flaw/component problem with the EX series?
And yes, I can also PM my case number if it's appropriate and can help in any way. Currently I'm without backup hardware (my MV2020 doesn't have that much spare capacity) and the webshare is now down too - possibly for weeks if last year's issue with the MV202 was anything to go by (same repair centre in Warrington involved).
Sorry to hear that you have experienced the same issue that I had.
When did this happen?
If this happened very recently, you may well find that they have resolved their short supply issues and that they are in a position to replace your unit fairly quickly. However, if there is a design fault/oversight with this PSU then it really should be addressed quickly.
I have 3 disks in my HomeServer and since the replacement PSU, it seems stable and I've had no problems. I also have it running through a Surge Protector as I did from day one but I'm hoping I will not see this problem again... ever!
Failure some time last night (21-22/05/2008) - and the UK HP Repair Centre have now failed the 8 hour response time - no surprises there then. I'll update once I have had a frank exchange of 'issue management' with the HP Support team in the next few minutes.....
Update 17:22 22/05/2008
After a deep and meaningful conversation, and some wriggling and story changing by the telephone support team I have an answer.
You guessed it........There is currently no stock of any MediaSmart Servers held by the HP Repair Centre in the UK, nor is there any ETA of when stock may become available again.
..........but you can buy a new one from a number of suppliers......
Pretty poor for the world's No1 Computer manufacturer.
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