# Opinions about HP products. Anyone else hate this company? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 9, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313 "2004-05-09T18:19:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EsotericEnigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e274bd/32.png) [@EsotericEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EsotericEnigma)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/1 "2004-05-09T18:19:05Z")
Without going into too much detail, I’ve had some seriously ridiculous problems dealing with HP employees and products recently. I was wondering if this problem is widespread, so if you have any opinion about HP products or customer service, post them here. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/2 "2004-05-09T18:25:08Z")
The General Questions forum is for factual questions. Opinions and surveys go in the In My Humble Opinion forum, so I’ll move this thread over there. bibliophage moderator GQ ---
**Author:** ![harmless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/2acd7d/32.png) [@harmless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmless)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/3 "2004-05-09T18:32:25Z")
OOOohhhhh! ME! :mad: My employer insists on using HP1100 printers at work. :rolleyes: These things are sooooo bad, [Hewlett-Packard was sued over them.](http://www.interex.org/hpworldnews/hpw206/pub_hpw_news11.jsp) We got about $75 bucks for ever printer we could prove we had repaired because of this defect. Total cost of repair to our company: $158 per printer. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/4 "2004-05-09T18:36:09Z")
I have a HP ipaq which is superb (apart from the fact that it does not have wireless networking built in) but I guess most of the credit for that can go to compaq as the former producers of the ipaq. I have never had reason to complain about the printers either. If anyone I am angry at Lexmark for discontinuing printer cartridges for their printers so quickly. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/5 "2004-05-09T19:07:23Z")
I used hundreds of different UP products over the last 30 years. HP makes OK products overall and some are highly noted for their excellence. As one of the largest PC equipment companies on the planet they’re bound to have a few misses in addition to hits. I think where a lot of people get pissed off at HP currently, is HP’s policy in recent years of relatively poor and/or quite expensive support (IMO) after the warranty period is over for their less expensive household/small business PC lines. Online driver sets for their older PCs are meager at best and most of the time you have to go to [www.driverguide.com](http://www.driverguide.com) or similar driver sites to get essential audio, video, modem and chipset drivers. It’s a HUGE and unnecessary waste of time to have to hunt done these drivers when they could easily post them on their support website. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/6 "2004-05-09T19:23:15Z")
Best. Calculators. Ever. I also have a little Ipaq that’s decent, and I recently bought their low-end laer printer, which is working well. Years ago, I used HP PCs that weren’t particularly noteworthy in terms of performance but were built like tanks. So overall I’ve had a positive experience. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/7 "2004-05-09T21:17:50Z")
> [@astro](#): > > I think where a lot of people get pissed off at HP currently, is HP’s policy in recent years of relatively poor and/or quite expensive support (IMO) after the warranty period is over for their less expensive household/small business PC lines. Online driver sets for their older PCs are meager at best and most of the time you have to go to [www.driverguide.com](http://www.driverguide.com) or similar driver sites to get essential audio, video, modem and chipset drivers. It’s a HUGE and unnecessary waste of time to have to hunt done these drivers when they could easily post them on their support website. I agree about the tech support. I have as my main computer an HP Pavillion ze4100, it is now just over 1.5 years old. I misplaced the small package of discs that comes with the macine in case you have to wipe everything and start over again. Just after the blasted warrenty ran out. For some reason nobody can determine, the OS stopped working totally. Turn it on and nothing. I happened to have a copy od SuSe linux that a friend of mine gave me to see if I like it as an OS on an older laptop I own, and it was the only way I could get the now expensive HP paperweight to do anything. Still couldnt access any files on my laptop, but I could at least go online and get my emails. They gave me a long song and dance how they couldnt find my computer in their database, couldnt even find my warrenty info until I went and gave them my original build order number. Then they mysteriously could find it… :dubious: HP wanted $150US [after shipping] to send me a copy of my OS, when all I needed was a reinstall on my OS. I bought XP pro at a computer show OEM still wrapped for $45. Computer sucked in the discs, relaoded XP over top of everything, didnt lose anything and it works fine now. I have no problem hardware wise though, I use this gimpy little computer to play everquest on, not _that_ is a computer resource hog! ---
**Author:** ![fortytwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f9ae1b/32.png) [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/8 "2004-05-09T21:23:56Z")
My only HP product is a Laserjet4L printer. I’ve had it for nearly 9 years and never had a moment’s trouble with it. Sorry. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pasunejen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58956e/32.png) [@pasunejen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pasunejen)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/9 "2004-05-09T21:37:38Z")
I have a Pavilion zt1195. A week or so ago there was an antivirus software fiasco that ended up requiring reinstallation of XP, and there have been a few Issues since–frustrating things that I’m going to have to deal with eventually but can ignore for now. I’ve talked to a few other people with HP laptops and their experiences have been much the same–fine until the first time you have to use the system recovery disks (and most of them have had to use them, which may tell you something right there), slightly wonky forever afterwards. So while I’ve had a fairly good relationship with my computer up to this point, I don’t think my next one will be an HP. I should add, though: In the event that I ever require a new printer, it probably _will_ be an HP–I have nothing but good to report of the printer/scanner/copier I bought three years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/10 "2004-05-09T21:48:24Z")
Used to use HP-UX unix workstations at work. I had no complaints. Of course, I didn’t have to deal with HP support, our IT dept did that. But day-to-day, the machines worked well enough. ---
**Author:** ![whatami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/85f322/32.png) [@whatami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whatami)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/11 "2004-05-09T21:59:15Z")
Last week I went out and got an HP Laptop. I already own an HP desktop that is about 2 years old and I have 2 HP printers. I’ve got nothing but good to say about the hardware portion. The performance I’ve gotten out of my machines is great. I don’t like calling their customer service though. Another company that has outsourced many of their tech support jobs over to India. It makes it hard to understand many of the operators. I also don’t like the VoIP that I think they use. It feels like I’m talking on a CB or something. ---
**Author:** ![cherry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cherry)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/12 "2004-05-09T22:30:04Z")
I have an HP pavilion 750n and have had no problem with it so far. I haven’t had to contact customer support for it. I even bought extended support from Future Shop and have not used that either. ---
**Author:** ![iwakura43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de0a6/32.png) [@iwakura43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwakura43)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2004, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/13 "2004-05-10T00:51:31Z")
Say what you want about their PCs (yuck), printers (hmm) and cameras (eh), HP calculators are world class. My dad is a civil engineer, and he’s been using his HP calculator for over twenty years now. Go RPN! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2004, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/14 "2004-05-10T00:56:52Z")
I have an HP1200(ce?) printer… 60,000+ pages later and its still going fine. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2004, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/15 "2004-05-10T00:58:25Z")
Damn no-edit “feature”. You think that since we have to pay for this site now we could at least be granted the courtesy of correcting our irritating misspelled words. “It’s”. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2004, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/16 "2004-05-10T01:03:40Z")
I was an “HP bigot” for years (as in, pro-HP), because the HP3000 minicomputer line was an amazingly fast and reliable system. The database management system was embedded in the operating system, so it **flew**. However, it wasn’t open-systems compliant, so HP finally pulled the plug on this line a few years ago. Sad, but perhaps understandable. Now, as a result, I have no more loyalty to them than to any other tech firm. ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/17 "2004-05-10T03:40:41Z")
I once had a computer that was an HP. The USB never worked. Their tech support was not helpful at all. My dad had an HP. The cd reader never worked. Their tech support was not helpful at all. My brother had an HP (we all bought them at the same time). Something was wrong with his, but I can’t recall what. Surprise! their tech support was less than helpful. I will never buy another HP product again. ---
**Author:** ![EsotericEnigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e274bd/32.png) [@EsotericEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EsotericEnigma)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2004, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/18 "2004-05-10T06:37:39Z")
Well I guess it’s time to go into detail about the nonsense that caused me to start this whole thread. The first HP product I bought was a 1210 printer/scanner. There is a sticker that labels the buttons on the printer, which was missing from our packaging. Fine, I say. I dont care if it looks pretty, I’ll just write what each button is for next to it and label it myself. Well it turns out that for some completely unnecessary reason, the printer is equipped with a sensor that will disable the machine if it does not detect the sticker. (wtf?) So I call tech support. This is where the real mess begins. I find out there’s nothing I can do to make the printer work even temporarily while they ship me a new sticker. (The sticker has something very peculiar that the sensor looks for, apparently. A sheet of paper over the sensor wont work.) Furthermore, it’s going to take them 2 weeks to mail me a new sticker, and I can’t simply bring the printer back to Target because the packaging has been opened. I’m really angry at this point, but it’s only the beginning. Two weeks later, there’s no sticker. I call them back, and the second tech support person assures me that he has ordered a sticker for me, and I can expect it in two weeks. (what? it’s already been two weeks!) Two weeks later, I call them back. No sticker. The THIRD tech support flunkie tells me that he sees no record of any replacement parts being sent to or ordered for my address at all. (Keep in mind that he verified my address and phone number beforehand, and they were both correct, so it wasn’t a simple address error). He assures me that I can expect a replacement sticker in two weeks…except that there is a problem with their distribution center, and it COULD take up to four weeks. I get the sticker 5 weeks later. A total of over two months since I bought the machine. And guess what! Part of their information gathering when calling their tech support numbers is your email address. I recieved two spam mails from HP within hours after that first call, but where the spam-senders are diligent and vigorous in their work, apparently the sticker-orderers and packagers are not. The second HP product I owned belongs to my wife. It was a digital camera that broke literally two days after the warranty ended. It wont even turn on. I called tech support, and they told me to bring it to my local radio shack to get it fixed. I called radio shack, who informed me that HP would charge me 150 dollars to fix the problem. We bought the camera new for 149.99. I call back tech support, and ask what else they can do for me. Apparently option number 2 was to send in the old camera and get a NEW shitty HP camera of the same model for 114 dollars. No thanks. Option 3 is to send in the old broken camera, and get a discount on a new, slick and cool camera of an upgraded model, for 150 bucks. That sounds interesting, I say. Tell me why I should buy that camera, or anything HP for that matter. I ask, specifically, “please tell me the features on this offer. Why should I buy this new camera from you?” He informs me that he’s only giving me options, and those are all the options he can give me. “But you didn’t answer my question. What, exactly are the benefits and features of this new camera?” After a few minutes of him avoiding and dodging this question, the tech support jackass finally told me that he didn’t know what the features of this other HP camera were. From there, I asked him if there were any way for us to get the pictures stored on the camera off, by sending it in or taking it to radio shack…not necessarily a “fix.” The pictures in the camera memory were important to us, and at this point all I wanted was to save them. He responded by telling me to turn it on and plug it into the computer. Like I said before, the camera does not turn on. I hung up. I am not buying an HP product again unless I see a serious change both in HP product quality and customer service, especially tech support. Rotten bastards. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eada6e/32.png) [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2004, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/19 "2004-05-10T11:48:35Z")
Any time I see anyone who’s bought a HP printer or the like, I laugh. I laugh about as much as I do when I see a person who isn’t a person who moves/travels a lot with a laptop (then I cough_yuppie_cough). It’s a waste of money, the cartridges for their printers are a bit too pricy for what they provide. I have a canon and it’s the shizzle. 🙂 Not a problem… except when ants decided to make a nest under the glass. :mad: I recommend canons to everyone. Cheap cartridges that equal all the others in the range. I can buy both my cartridges for the price my friend who owns a hp can buy one black. But then again, she’s the kind of person who will choose one product over an equal just because it costs more. (“but why not the other one.” … “oh, this one’s better.” …“why?” …“oh it’s just good.” … “but what’s so good about it.” …“oh, it’s just better.”) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2004, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313/20 "2004-05-10T15:11:35Z")
I like HP printers, based on my fairly limited experience of them (I have an HP all-in-one inkjet/scanner/copier at home, which I absolutely adore, plus a couple of HP inkjets at work). I come from a background of (being forced to use) Epson Stylus inkjets, which truly and horribly suck in a wide range of ways, so perhaps it is just the contrast that makes the HP machines look good. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-about-hp-products-anyone-else-hate-this-company/244313.md?page=2)