After the story of a deaf and bed-bound girl whose laptop had been bouncing back and forth between Best Buy Geek Squad repair for 3 months went up on Consumerist, the ambassador for Geek Squad City, Randy Ratliff, reached out to help. “The buck stops here!” he said in his email. And of all the many who say that, he’s one of the few to mean it. He investigated the issue and now Jenni’s sister has a new laptop. [More]
Best Buy Holding Deaf Bed-Bound Girl's Laptop Hostage Since May
By July 13, 2011
Jenni’s sister is disabled and bed-bound, and her laptop is her portal to the world. So when her HP laptop had to go in for repair, it was a big deal. It was an even bigger deal after the Geek Squad spent over a month dickering with the repair and while it was in their hands, the warranty ran out. Now Geek Squad won’t give it back unless the full out of warranty price is paid, and HP says it’s not their problem, it’s Geek Squad’s. Meanwhile it’s been almost three months and Jenni’s sister has no computer. [More]
HP Gives Gal Warranty By Accident, Knows It, Lets Her Replace Laptop Anyway
By July 1, 2011
Donni is totally stoked! She bought a refurb HP laptop that kicked the bucket after its 90-day warranty expired. She gave up hope but then HP randomly sent her an email asking her if she wanted to renew her warranty. Donni called them up and they scratched their heads and said, yeah, that shouldn’t have happened, but they went ahead and let her get the warranty and replace her laptop anyway. For this reason, Donni is very happy with HP. [More]
HP Notebook Can Apparently Shield Soldiers From Enemy Fire
By June 24, 2011
We get a lot of complaints from readers about their HP computers and the company’s customer service. But one person who won’t be complaining is the U.S. soldier whose HP notebook took six bullets intended for him. [More]
HP Will Keep Sort Of Fixing Your Computer Until Warranty Runs Out
By June 22, 2011
Terry is a graduate student, and doesn’t really need to be shipping his only computer off for repairs every few months. If the computer is unplugged while asleep, the display refuses to come back on. He paid extra for an “in-home” warranty, so why does he have to keep mailing his computer to HP so they can not really fix it? He tells Consumerist that HP really seems to want him to leave him alone, being consistently rude. Even the person who answered the phone at executive customer service called him an “angry person with a phone number.” Maybe he wouldn’t be so angry if he had a working computer. [More]
HP Call Center Supervisor Can't Help You, Answers To No One
By June 2, 2011
Consumer electronics have this terrible, terrible habit of breaking down shortly after the manufacturer’s warranty is up. In Eva’s case, the battery of her HP laptop self-destructed just two weeks after her original warranty ended. She thought that perhaps since her battery had started failing during the warranty period, they might give her a break. Nope. Thus began her battle of wills with R., the HP call center supervisor who can’t help you, but answers to no one. [More]
HP Starts The Tablet Smack Talk, Claiming Theirs Will Beat iPad
By May 25, 2011
We can just hear it now: “Your tablet is so stupid, it thought a quarterback was a refund!” Hewlett-Packard hasn’t released their TouchPad tablet computer yet, but already they’re smack-talking iPad and Android devices and claiming it’ll be the best one ever in the whole entire world. So there! [More]
Via Email, HP Apologizes For Sending Too Many Emails
By February 24, 2011
HP apparently sent some customers too many emails recently by accident. So they sent out an apology to them, via email. No doubt they will realize this additional email was an unwanted further intrusion and send out another email to apologize for it. [More]
HP Pretends Linux Voids Netbook Hardware Warranty
By February 11, 2011
Installing a different operating system on a computer does not change its hardware. This is a simple enough concept…unless you work in technical support for HP. Their phone tech support have joined their Geek Squad brethren in insisting that a Linux-infested laptop was no longer under warranty.
Kyle didn’t want to put Windows back on his netbook just so his problem would fit phone support’s standard script. He tried to make tech support see logic…and eventually they did. (Or gave him a new battery so he would go away, but the end result is the same.)
Each Of The 8 HP Laptops I've Bought Suffer From Blue Screen Of Death
By February 10, 2011
Dan made a boo-boo and now he’s blue-blue. He broke his wife’s laptop and decided to replace it with a HP DV6t Special Edition laptop, picking one up for himself too. But he’s not the only one suffering from discoloration, so are his laptops’ screens. They’re continually afflicted by the dread “Blue Screen of Death.” He’s called and complained and exchanged the laptops several times, but each time, BSOD. They’re on laptops 7 & 8 now. What’s the deal? [More]
Snapfish Takes On Too Many Christmas Orders, Then Avoids Customer Contact
By December 23, 2010
Stacey is a longtime customer of HP’s Snapfish service. She tells Consumerist that she wasn’t able to get her photo calendars ordered until December 19th. No worries, though: the shipping deadlines on the site said that they’d be able to get the calendar out in plenty of time if she paid for two-day shipping. Except this turned out to not be, strictly speaking, true. Stacey found herself without her palnned gifts and suck on the phone with a customer service agent whose entire job, it seemed, is to “listen to people complain and then to explain how busy HP is.” [More]
Sorry, It's Your Fault HP's Programmers Screwed Up
By December 16, 2010
If a company’s software won’t work with its own products, whose problem is that? Chris reports that HP seems to believe that because their own software won’t work with one of their own products (for which it was recommended) that this is his problem. [More]
EECB Gets HP To Replace Laptop They Tried To Pass Off As Water-Damaged
By December 15, 2010
Charlie sent in his HP Mini for repair after the keyboard and mouse stopped working. They denied his warranty repair by saying that a loose tape was caused by water damage, which, while not only unlikely on the face of it, seemed impossible to Charlie as he babies his computers like they were Fabergé eggs. So he launched his campaign on HP upper management… [More]
Snapfish Offers Special Deal: Get No Photobooks For The Price Of One
By December 8, 2010
Karina writes that she found a fantastic promotion from Snapfish: order one photo book, get two free. A great deal if you want to try putting your photos in printed book form. Snapfish can’t quite get it together to actually print and send Karina’s books, though. They keep canceling her order without issuing a refund, and no one seems to know why. [More]
HP's Idea Of Fixing A Coupon Is For You To Buy A 2nd Laptop
By December 3, 2010
Talk about buyer’s remorse. Hours after David bought a new laptop from HP with a $150 off coupon, they rolled out a $200 off coupon. HP’s first suggestion to solve this was that David should buy a second laptop at the reduced price and then return it. Excuuuuuse me? [More]
Was Our Rejection Two Coincidental Typos, Or Vast Rebate Conspiracy?
By October 6, 2010
Have you recently had an HP rebate cruelly denied even though you followed the instructions flawlessly and included all items asked for? A. tells Consumerist that this happened to two family members in two separate transactions. It may have been a coincidence, but still made A. suspicious. [More]
HP CEO Resigns Following Revelation Of Inappropriate Relationship
By August 6, 2010
After five years as CEO of the world’s largest maker of personal computers and printers, Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark “That’s What I” Hurd stepped down from his post on Friday after the company discovered he’d been intimately involved with a former contractor… and falsified documents to cover it up. [More]
Palm Holds Fire Sale, Almost All Apps Half Off
By June 21, 2010
Palm, which is a smartphone company that is not Apple, has halved the prices of almost all apps in its U.S. app store until July 9th. Although I called it a fire sale, mocoNews thinks maybe it’s a way for HP to “say that Palm devices are here to stay.” Either way, if your phone uses Palm’s webOS then this is a great time to pick up some apps at a big discount. [More]
