We posted Nathan’s story about his inability to get HP to help him with his laptop battery problem yesterday. Now the company quickly diagnosed the issue and offered to do a warranty exchange with the computer. [More]
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HP Won't Fix My Laptop Battery Problem
By 1.11.10
UPDATE: HP has offered to replace Nathan’s laptop via warranty. [More]
How David Got A New Laptop From HP
By 12.30.09
David and his wife got stuck with one of HP’s lemon laptops, and since the repairs just kept involving more faulty parts, they weren’t solving the real problem. Here’s how he eventually got a brand new laptop–different model–from HP. [More]
Consumer Reports Tests "Racist" HP Webcam
By 12.22.09
Consumer Reports decided to test the now famous “racist” HP webcam for themselves, being product testers and all, to see if they could replicate the problem or even find a solution to it. The solution: the webcam needs foreground light to function, and the more pigment in your skin, the closer you seem to have to sit. [More]
HP Face Tracking Camera Doesn't Track Black Faces?
By 12.21.09
If you want to take advantage of this HP web cam’s face tracking feature and you’ve got dark skin, you’d better, I dunno, sprinkle glitter on your cheeks first or something. The software doesn’t seem to be able to recognize you otherwise. [More]
FTC Sues Intel For Decade Of Illegal Sales Tactics
By 12.17.09
The FTC sued microprocessor giant Intel yesterday, alleging the company had engaged in illegal sales tactics for the past 10 years, relying on backroom strongarming instead of over technical innovation to maintain market dominance. [More]
HP Returns Computer With Faulty Repair, Bonus Dust Bunnies
By 11.12.09
Marc thought he was being practical when be purchased a four-year warranty to go along with his HP desktop. After about a year, the computer failed. No problem. Just send the tower in for some of that stellar HP repair service. Except there’s probably a reason why you rarely hear the words “stellar,” “HP,” and “repair” in the same sentence.
NY AG: Intel Is An Illegal Monopoly That Uses "Bribery And Coercion"
By 11.4.09
Andrew Cuomo, the Attorney General of New York, has filed a lawsuit against Intel, claiming that the company is an illegal monopoly that engages “in a worldwide, systematic campaign of illegal conduct – revealed in e-mails – in order to maintain its monopoly power and prices in the market for microprocessors.”
HP Refuses To Make Good On $100 Cash Back Promise, Won't Explain Why
By 11.2.09
David is trying to reach HP executive customer service. He wants to find out why they reversed the $100 cash back offer they’d originally extended through a promotion with Microsoft’s new search engine Bing, and why the only reasons they’re giving him are either inapplicable or demonstrably false.
Reader Receives $900 For Broken Laptop In Small Claims Court
By 10.23.09
Ryan in North Dakota bought a very nice HP laptop in 2007. This particular model, he DV6000, has a certain flaw, and HP extended the warranty to cover inevitable repairs. But when the computer broke down for the second time at the tender age of two and a half years, and HP wouldn’t repair it for free, he was angry. He had expected to get at least four years’ use out of the laptop.
HP Sells Ink By Wasting It
By 9.22.09
Reader Michael Dillon recently noticed that the Weather Channel’s “printable” 10-Day Forecast page isn’t exactly printer-friendly: it includes an ad that’s roughly 80 percent solid black. Printing it out would mean wasting ink. That ad is selling… (drumroll, please)… HP printer’s ink.
So You Want To Sue The Company That's Screwing You Over
By 9.18.09
Jon wants us to recommend a good lawyer to sue HP for screwing him over on laptop repairs. We do not offer legal advice like that. We do, however, believe strongly in the power of small claims court.
Reader Says HP Knows Old Laptops Are Rotten, Doesn't Care
By 8.31.09
Bobby thinks he’s spotted a widespread problem with the HP laptop he bought a year and a half ago. His computer runs too hot and burns itself from the inside out, roasting its innards.
HP Throws In Free Wooden Pallet With Every Power Cord Purchase
By 8.21.09
We know not all of our readers agree on our stupid shipping gang posts, but here’s one we can all get behind: you probably don’t need to deliver a ten-foot power cord in a large box on a wooden pallet.
Best Buy Won't Let Reader Exchange Money For Functioning Computer
By 7.21.09
Best Buy is an electronics store. The purpose of such a store is to allow customers to exchange money for electronic devices, then take those devices home and use them. Unfortunately, the Best Buy in Yuma, Arizona doesn’t seem to take this mission seriously, and has given reader Elizabeth such a run-around that she isn’t interested in buying a computer at all anymore.
HP Ruins Yet Another Laptop Repair—Three Times And Counting
By 6.23.09
Tyler needs his laptop repaired, but he’s got the bad luck to own an HP product. If you read Consumerist regularly you know that Hewlett-Packard has one of the worst track records for taking care of its customers. The last time we posted a complaint, the person who reached out to us from the corporate side was a third party at a PR firm hired by HP, if that tells you anything about how little they care about doing a good job. Read Tyler’s recap below and remember it the next time you’re in the market for a computer.
More Info On Replacing An HP Laptop Motherboard
By 6.10.09
We asked John, who wrote to us earlier this week about replacing the motherboard in his HP laptop, to send us a link to the listing he found for $150. Below is his response.
