Hewlett-Packard has announced a recall of more than one million HP Fax 1040 and 1050 fax machines in North America because the machines have faulty internal electric components that can fail, causing the machines to overheat and possibly catch fire. [More]
hp
Letter Detailing Sexual Harassment Allegations Against Former HP CEO Released
By 12.30.11
Those of you who still remember the summer of 2010 may recall when then-CEO of HP Mark “That’s Not What I” Hurd resigned following vague mentions of an inappropriate relationship with a female contractor. Yesterday, a court ordered that a letter, detailing allegations of sexual harassment, sent in July 2010 from the contractor’s lawyer to Hurd, could be released to the public. [More]
HP Customer Service Rep Suggests I Find A Man To Help Fix A Monitor
By 12.2.11
What is a poor, weak woman like Consumerist reader Tara to do on her own when she can’t get a computer monitor to work? According to an HP customer service rep, obviously the right thing to do (when his advice has failed) is to get a man to help her. [More]
HP Responds To Claims That Hackers Could Cause Your Printer To Go Up In Flames
By 11.30.11
Yesterday, we brought you the story of a team of Columbia University researchers who claim they have discovered a way that hackers could infiltrate any number of networked printers to do anything from steal information to cause your paper to smolder and possibly catch fire. But the folks at HP, which was singled out in the report, have now come out to defend their product and refute the researchers’ claims. [More]
Researchers: Some Printers Vulnerable To Hack Attack That Could Lead To Fire
By 11.29.11
It’s like something out of a movie starring Matthew Broderick. Researchers at Columbia University claim they’ve discovered a vulnerability that could let hackers remotely access your printer for nefarious hijinks, like making said printer go up in flames. [More]
The 4th Replacement Laptop HP Sent Me Doesn't Work, Either
By 10.27.11
John bought a rather nice HP laptop for his business, and it would be nice if it would work. Ever. Every time they boot up one of the replacement machines HP has sent, it crashes. They’re now on laptop #5. [More]
Adventures In Ordering A Clearanced HP TouchPad
By 8.23.11
RIP, HP TouchPad. A long time ago–well, about three months ago–HP claimed that their WebOS-based tablet would be the greatest on the market. Now, our tipline is buzzing with customers clamoring to get their hands on a TouchPad tablet: not because it’s a hot tech toy, but because the product’s being discontinued, and retailers dumping them for $100 or $150 depending on storage capacity. [More]
Fighting For A Working HP Laptop For 8 Months
By 7.25.11
Try as they might, HP just seems to be incapable of getting David’s repair right. When repairing his wireless card that was damaged in a previous repair, they broke the motherboard. Fixing the motherboard, they broke the screen connector. And so on. Even the replacement computer they gave him started to fail, and then they failed at fixing that correctly. This ridiculous dance has been going on for 8 months. [More]
Best Buy Replaces Deaf Bed-Bound Girl's Laptop After Holding It Hostage
By 7.22.11
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 7.13.11
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 7.1.11
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 6.24.11
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 6.22.11
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 6.2.11
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 5.25.11
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 2.24.11
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 2.11.11
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 2.10.11
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]
