You have to love HP products and their customer service and technical support

[ChezJoe]

I don't disagree with most of what you say DEXTER,
my POINT is that if you are TECH HELP you better be good at it
and not fumble around without a solution to the problem.

HP intalled all sorts of sofware in my PC, none of it
got close to resolving the issues I had with the printer.

I call Tech Help as a last resort.

[Bskull]

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@Gotti wrote:
Well, CherylG, I have a related story and I'll try to keep it short; My Fiance purchased an HP laptop about a year and a half ago while I was overseas. Obviously, though she is incredibly smart, she doesn't know much about computers or she wouldn't have bought this junk. Anyhoo, fast forward to about a month or so ago- she's surfing for wedding stuff, hits a website in China and gets a major virus. Despite my best efforts, the only solution is a complete OS reinstall. It's over a year old and no longer under warranty, but no big deal, I build computers so I offer to fix it for her. So I ask her where her OS install disk is. She never got any disks! So right then I know this is gonna be fun. I bite my tongue and start checking for an alternate way to reinstall her OS. That's when I come upon the "HP recovery disk" option. I completely forgot about how long it took to clean out all the HP-installed CRAPWARE the first time she asked me to help with her computer. So anyways, I went the recovery CD route while she called HP to order the OS disks the laptop should have came with in the first place, which is a nightmare story unto itself and which to this day she still has not received. Anyways the recovery cd does exactly what it says. It restores the laptops operating environment to the same condition as the day she bought it. Which is to say COMPLETELY LOADED WITH CRAPWARE!!! So after another failure (ATI driver issue this time), I sit here after reinstalling her OS again from the wonderful "HP recovery disks" again and can tell you this; It took about an hour to reinstall the OS and it's taken me the last 2 HOURS using PC-decrapifier and manually deleting and uninstalling stuff to get all the shovelware off of her computer again. PC-decrapifier itself removed DOZENS OF ENTRIES!!! My point is this; send the bloody OS disks with the computers or don't sell the computer. Period. If an OS disk gets missed, send it out when your customers call and request it. THE RECOVERY DISK OPTION IS AN AGGRAVATING, USELESS JOKE. Needless to say, she knows better than to buy anything from HP again, after hearing me curse and swear for the last three hours in complete frustration. In short, cherylG, your suggestion WON'T HELP ANYONE.

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If you want to get the original retail OS, then please spend the additional cost to custom build your computer as an OEM company does not have to provide the original retail disc, but just a method to recover back to the original factory condition. This particular rule was established by Microsoft and all OEM companies so if you wish to dispute such a rule, please contact Microsoft.

Message Edited by Bskull on 01-30-2009 08:22 PM

[Gotti]

Bskull, Clearly you missed my point which is that the 'original factory condition' is the problem. You LOAD new PC's with ridiculous amounts of crapware that can take hours to get rid of, not to mention the additional time required just to install the OS. The recovery option creates a recovery disk loaded with all the same crapware.

 "please spend the additional cost to custom build your computer as an OEM company does not have to provide the original retail disc". This is exactly what I've done for her. Btw, it works out cheaper to custom build a computer, even when taking into account the cost of a retail OS disk, which obviously doesn't come filled with crapware. It's a good sign that you encourage customers to spend their money building their own computers rather than purchase one through your company.

I'll finish with this; If you're going to sell PC's, DON'T load them up with shovelware and include an original retail OS disk.

If you can't do these two things you shouldn't be making/selling computers. It's not always about what you HAVE to do, it's about what you SHOULD do to keep customers happy. Of course, you've already recommended that your customers build their own computers instead, so clearly you don't need any customers.

[Bskull]

Gotti, I am not trying to keep customers away from HP products and I do not speak for HP in this matter. However, whether it be Dell, Gateway, or HP, when you buy any OEM machine you will get software that people like Microsoft and Symantec will pay the company to include that software so that they can get sales out of it and these also include them because the OEM companies feel that they should be there. They are easily removable and are not needed for OS functionality. Once again, if you do not want such things and are willing to pay for a retail copy of vista, which in itself ranges 99 (home basic) to 149 (home premium) for home users, then go buy all of the custom parts, spend the possible 500 - 700 dollars to get the parts, find somebody or learn to assemble it yourself, and install the drivers yourself, then you will be alright. OEM companies like to keep things cheap by doing all of these actions for you, but everything does have a price to pay in the end. I just advise to all to choose carefully when buying a computer as to make sure that one is getting the machine he/she needs.

Admins, please lock this as this has gone off-topic (which I apologize greatly for my own off-topic postings) and is going to turn into a flame war in a forum suggestion forum.

Message Edited by Bskull on 02-23-2009 06:44 AM

[ChezJoe]

Typical of the TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT attitude of powerful companies.
Suppress critics!!... But, I think the point has been made, close it and will open a new TOPIC!