I am most unhappy with HP and HP Technical Support (1-800-474-6836).

1. The Getting Started HP Notebook PC Series document refers on page A-1 to “the recovery discs included with your computer”. NOT included.

2. After first booting of new computer, there were no icons, including Start, on the task bar and no useful icons, such as My Computer, IE, etc, on the desktop.

So I consulted my HP Getting Started book which tells me first of all that I need merely use my "recovery discs included with" my computer or just use the System Restore utility. "Simply select Start, Help and Support, System Restore." Sounds great and in fact would be very useful ASSUMING the computer actually has the Start button available on the desktop.

3. 1st call to Technical Support in early August.
The “technician” clearly was new to the job and didn’t have a clue as to what to do. Instead of passing me to someone more experienced with my problem, the gentleman had me spend 45+ minutes repeating endlessly what I could or could not see on the desktop, the error message, my problem, my phone number, the computer model and trying out various simplistic maneuvers which weren’t likely to resolve anything.

In the end, he determined that I had a malicious virus and that I should contact Microsoft or he could pass me to other specialized technicians for $60.
Now how exactly would I have gotten a malicious virus not yet having been connected to the internet???

I eventually resolved the problem myself by reinstalling the operating system from the Recovery Discs which I had cleverly decided to make in spite of HP’s statement that “the recovery discs [are] included with your computer”.

And why didn’t the technician suggest reinstalling the operating system in that he knew I had no data whatsoever on the computer?? (Of course, why didn’t I think of that myself before calling!!)

4. Survey. After contacting Technical Support early August for my computer purchased July 31, I received an email from HP asking if I wished to participate in a survey concerning the technical support. The survey started by stating that I had contacted Technical Support for a computer that was no longer under warranty and asking me to confirm or deny. When I indicated that the opening survey statement was wrong, I got a message along the lines, thank you and goodby. Irritating.

5. 2nd call to Technical Support mid August. While trying to copy a video from my desktop computer via a cable connection, I received a message indicating that there was insufficient space on my C drive, and in fact there was only 135 MB left. In that the laptop and desktop both have a 120 GB hard drive and I had as yet put much on the laptop, it was not even remotely possible that the laptop be short of space.

The technician, while more knowledgeable than the first one a few days prior, gave up after 30 minutes of various efforts to determine the cause of the problem. First he suggested that my desktop might have a problem so I would have to contact someone specialized in desktops. When I rejected that (the desktop worked just fine!), he suggested, as did the first technician, that I contact another technician for $60, the number for whom would be communicated to me upon payment of the $60.

This is not technical support!

6. Accent. My last comment concerns the second technician Sam’s very strong accent. I speak five languages (though none of them from the Indian continent) and spent 40 years of my life teaching English as a second or third language to hundreds of foreigners: understanding accented English therefore is NOT a problem for me but I had to ask Sam two and three and even four times to repeat what he had said as I simply could not understand him.

I have three HP computers, so you can imagine that it is my fervent hope to never need HP “technical support” again. Apart HP “technical support”, I do like HP products.

Sincerely,

Karen Pratt Riggen