Oh, don’t get me wrong: I used to think of them highly. My first laser printer was a Hewlett-Packard. My most recent inkjet printer purchase was from Hewlett-Packard as well.
So, when I was looking for a new computer in the winter of 2001 and saw a complete system made by Hewlett-Packard, I bought it. An HP Pavillion XT993, with Windows XP preinstalled.
My first warning sign appeared when I took the system out of the box: Instead of giving me a Windows CD, or perhaps a set of diskettes, they created a hidden section on the hard disk. If I need to recover a system file, or perhaps reinstall some feature, the system just reads it from the hidden disk.
That may actually sound good to the uninitiated, as it seems to simplify matters. In reality, it is a disaster waiting to happen. We all know that disks crash eventually. When mine does, I will have no way of recovering the system. I have no Windows CD. I have no way of creating a backup of those files. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
My only option in the case of a hard disk failure will be to send the whole system back to Hewlett-Packard and have them place a new disk in. Of course, I am perfectly capable of replacing a hard disk, but Hewlett-Packard will not let me do it. I will have to pay them to do it. And pay them more than what I would pay for a Windows CD!
Well, my disk has not crashed yet. But my computer did. It died mysteriously in July of 2002. Still under warranty. Now, it does not matter it is under warranty. Hewlett-Packard does not give you a toll-free number to call. No, you have to call them long distance in the case of a system failure. And they talk and talk and talk, as if wanting to punish you for buying one of their computers. Eventually, they sent me a box with packing instructions. The instructions said to make a backup of all my files. Now, how are you supposed to back up a crashed system? It does not boot. It does not run. But you are supposed to back it up anyway. And, by the way, all prior versions of MS DOS and Windows used to come with a backup program. But not Windows XP. At least not the version that came with my Hewlett-Packard computer.
So, I placed my computer inside the box and marked in big letters that I was not able to back the system up. HP paid for the shipping and eventually returned the computer back to me. What was the problem? Well, according to Microsoft web site, the HP-specific version of Windows XP had a bug: If you created a restore point and then did restore, well, the system would crash. So, HP fixed it. How? By wiping out all of my data and reinstalling the system. They destroyed almost a year’s worth of my work and arrogantly enclosed a note stating:
This PC has been proudly repaired and thoroughly tested at HP's Repair Facility.
Well, it still does not come with a backup program, but I occasionally copy important files to a CD. Of course, it is hardly the way for regular backups.
Then, I started reconfiguring the system to my needs. I plugged in my Hewlett-Packard printer but the system did not notice. So much for Plug and Play. Luckily, or so I thought, the Hewlett-Packard computer comes with a highly touted instant support. You just type in a question. Your computer connects to the Internet and sends the question to Hewlett-Packard tech support. Within two hours, someone sends a reply which consists of another question. You answer the question and wait for several more hours. Then they ask you another question, and again you wait for hours. Finally, they switch shifts, so your support technician goes home. You get a message from a new technician who starts asking you the same questions the first technician asked. Eventually, you need to go to bed. In the morning, you will find a very angry message from Hewlett-Packard tech support about them not being able to reach you.
Of course, all that happens only if you are lucky. Sometimes it takes them two days to send you the first question and then they get really angry at you for not reacting immediately.
Also, once you use their instant support, you can say good-bye to your voice phone line. Every time you turn on your computer, it automatically dials up and connects you to the Internet, so it can check whether you have a message waiting from Hewlett-Packard tech support.
The only way to prevent your computer from dialing up to your ISP all the time is by deleting an entry in the Windows registry. But Hewlett-Packard does not tell you that. Or, of course, you could get DSL so you are always connected anyway.
But I am getting away from my Hewlett-Packard Plug-and-Pray printer. Since my Hewlett-Packard computer did not detect my Hewlett-Packard printer, I used Hewlett-Packard instant support and asked them what to do. Several hours later, I got my answer:
“We do not support that.”
“You do not support your own printer?” I asked. They replied instantly:
“If you cannot work with us, request to have this ticket closed!”
Can you spell arrogant?
Luckily, I know something about computers (probably more than Hewlett-Packard support technicians) and was able to fix it on my own. And I was also able to figure out which entry in the registry to delete to reclaim the use of my phone line (sorry, if you are a HP user whose computer always dials up, please do not ask me what I did, I did not write it down as I decided never to ask for their help again).
Fast forward to April 2003. I was watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets using my Hewlett-Packard DVD player (after all, both Hewlett-Packard and Harry Potter abbreviate to HP), when during a quidditch match, my computer just turned off. And it would not turn on, no matter what I tried. Frustrated, I went to bed, hoping for a miracle in the morning.
Well, in the morning my computer still did not work. I decided to forgo Hewlett-Packard and took the computer to a local computer shop. Quickly, they diagnosed it and determined I needed a new power supply. They asked me whether the computer was still under warranty as they were an HP authorized repair center. I told them when I bought the computer.
Soon, the local shop called me and said that Hewlett-Packard refused to sell them a new power supply. And that it was not a standard power supply design, so they could not just give me an off-the-shelf power supply. Hewlett-Packard told them that since I bought the computer at a Wal*Mart and it was no longer under warranty, they wanted to make more money off me. I had no choice but to call them, send the computer to them, and have them fix it. Meanwhile, the HP technician told me that I could buy a power supply from them and save some money. He then asked me some question and assured me that it definitely was not the power supply, but that the problem was somehere else. And he wanted me to pay him $30 for him even to talk to me (though, eventually, he decided not to charge me the $30 because the local shop had already determined what was wrong with it, even if he positively claimed that they were wrong).
He then charged my credit card for $262.70 for them to look at it. I begged him not to delete my hard disk. He assured me they would not.
Well, two weeks later I got my computer back. Hewlett-Packard determined it was the power supply and replaced it. They did not wipe out my hard disk but deleted my own user account from it. I was able to restore it more or less, but some of my software refuses to run because it cannot find itself in the registry. They also wiped out all the updates to Windows XP that I had installed over the time. And, talking of time, they changed my time zone to their own.
So, whoever reads it, I hope you understand why I will never ever buy anything from Hewlett-Packard again, and why you should think twice before you do.