Should I get a laptop from the HP website?

[sirderpalot]

I'm considering getting an HP and I'm wondering if I should get it direct from hp.com or from costco.com. Is there a difference? Would a laptop from costco.com be any more or less reliable than one ordered from hp.com?

 

[fralexandr]

there should be no difference other than that costco has a 2 year warranty (and allows exchanges and stuff to occur there), can't be customized, and gives you the product right then and there.

HP sometimes has coupons on their notebooks, has to ship you the notebook (and depending on the warranty you'll have to ship the notebook out and be without it for a few weeks), and typically has a 1 year warranty unless you upgrade it.

so if some of the coupons are good enough and you can wait a few weeks, you can just buy from hp
http://slickdeals.net/hp-home-home-office-store-coupons/
if what you want isn't covered by a coupon, it's probably better to just buy it from costco

HP historically has had the worst failure rates (as claimed by squaretrade) so if you're worried about reliability you might want to go with ASUS or anything other than HP, Gateway, Acer, or Lenovo (non business grade, Lenovo thinkpads are still good)

expected failure rate for HP for the first 3 years is 25% (by then you might just want to upgrade anyway though)
http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf

 

[corkyg]

Get it from Costco - they will probably be around longer than H-P insofar as the PC business goes.

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/22/139859318/hp-plans-to-spin-off-pc-business

H-P just named a new CEO who will lead them out of the PC world.