I purchased an HP Laptop computer in March 2003. Initial setup was very good and performance was excellent. Then things went to hell.

In summary:

I would never purchase another piece of HP equipment again. I strongly advise everyone else to avoid HP as if they distributed SARS virus with their equipment.

Details:

I was so impressed by the initial performance of the LapTop that I (in retrospect) got stupid and bought a desk top model. That is where it started going to hell. The speakers (mounted in the flat panel display stand base) did not work. I verified that it was the ones in the base by plugging in other speakers, which worked very well - into the mini-tower. Everything inside the mini-tower worked fine.

The first person I contacted, told me that I would have to reconfigure the BIOS. When I asked him how other speakers would work correctly if the BIOS was incorrectly set up, he stated that he was due to go off shift and would have someone else talk with me. THREE and ONE HALF HOURS LATER (this was online, so I had time stamps to refer to) I got a message asking if I was there. Since I was not in the room, they closed the ticket.

When I came back in, I told them that the ticket was NOT closed. That if they had far more that three hours to reply then I had more than ten minutes.

Out of approximately ten people working for HP that I have talked with (relating to the computers I purchased) I found that more than half have severely inadequate diagnostic skills, and seem unable to say anything that is not printed in the book they seem to require in front of them. Does this mean that all are "less than skillful"? I think not. It does, however, indicate to me that the HP training these people receive is inadequate or that the turn over in those jobs is so high that none are ever fully trained.

I'll spare you the gory details but the end result was that it took THREE REPLACEMENTS of the monitor to get one that worked correctly. As if that is not enough, HP does NOT have an 800 number for you to call AND I ended up having to call a number IN CANADA so it cost me not only long distance charges but international charges.

In my mind, they don't want my business.

6/14/04 Update:
The HP monitor went out two days ago. I went through all of the diagnostic procedures only to find that it no longer works (documentation is sketchy at best). I replaced the HP monitor with an NEC 17 inch flat panel, only to find out that the HP monitor was clearly inferior! The NEC monitor has a noticably clearer image, much better detail, much better color representation, took about one minute to install, etc. I wonder if the HP planned obsolescense will get me on the remainder of the system as well?

6/29/06 Update: Latest quirk.
In the hard drive supplied by HP they have about a 6 Gig partition for "System Backup" that MUST be there (and have the files their software puts there) OR IT WILL NOT ALLOW THE SYSTEM TO COME UP!. I have been having intermitent failures on the HD so I got another Seagate drive to replace the one in the machine. NONE of the sofdtware I can find will allow you to partition the drive in the way the HP software wants it (I'll admit I have not asked HP for a copy of their software because I thought that a waste of time). Anyone want a 3.65 G P4 machine??

Once I began to really use the LapTop I found that it didn't have a serial port. Once again I contacted HP and was told "Oh yes, you have 1 serial and 2 USB ports", NOT!

After multiple attempts at contact without spending money in long distance charges, (Their web page stinks) I finally got a response to my comment about the web page (I added a comment about the serial port problem and they finally replied the next day).

They now tell me that the model that I have does not have a serial port (well duh) and that I should go back to the merchant to see if they will replace it. They also told me that my other option was to buy a USB to Serial adaptor and use that. I did, and it doesn't work. I then test out all three USB ports and find that one of those DOES NOT WORK. It is one of the pair on the back of the unit. I sent the unit back for warranty work to repair the USB port that was not working. It was returned in less than one week (can't complain there) with a comment on the "repair sheet" that said no problem was found!

Bottom Line:

Let's see. First it does have a serial port, then it doesn't, one USB port will not be recognized by TWO pieces of commercial software but there is nothing wrong. Am I the one confused here or does the story (note that word) change with the person you talk to?

With the above in mind, do you know of anyone that would be crazy enough to buy from HP? I will not, ever again and I hope you look far more closely than I did before you purchase.

I think the article that stated "HP wants to over take DELL in the PC market" is roughly equivalent to my wanting to win the lotto. Ain't likely to happen but at least I have a chance when I buy a lotto ticket (even if it is only one in nine million).

Update:

I had someone with "a few shares" of HP stock write to me and ask several questions. He indicated he would let HP know that there were customers that were not happy. I got a call from the HP quality control manager within a few days. After we talked, he indicated that he would have the correct manager call me within a few days to correct the problems. That was MID JUNE 2003. I still have not received a call back. It appears to me that customer support is a name rather than a function or concept at HP.
January '07 - STILL NO REPLY!
HP doesn't know what customer service is.

UPDATE:
I found some information on how to uninstall the USB drivers on the laptop and after doing a lot of other reading decided to try that. Weellll, fat fingers live very close by. I managed to totally uninstall everything to do with USB. I then plugged in a stand-alone USB device (software can't be a part of the problem if it doesn't require software). Nothing happened. I then kicked off the "New Hardware" routine and after about thirty seconds of flashing screens (I would guess at about ten in that time) it came back and said "Successfully Installed", which it was. I then plugged in the Serial to USB converter that I have had for the entire time and it installed in just a few seconds.

A year and one half of crap because HP cannot install software correctly on their machines prior to selling it to you. Let me say again, based on my experience with TWO of their machines, HP doesn't understand or know about actual customer service.

Since that time I found out that - some - USB to serial devices register their serial numbers to a given port and will not function unless plugged in to the "registered" port. I now have three of the USB to serial adaptors, all clearly marked with the port position to plug them into. All work correctly. Let's see, HP "helpless" desk??

Update - again
It turns out that the USB ports revert to original configuration after some period of time (don't use them every day so I can't say precisely how long) because they now do NOT recognize the USB to serial adaptors AGAIN. I guess I'll just uninstall them again and hope I get the same results as last time.

HP should stick with printers!