I have an HP laptop that i got in December of 2008... they come w/ a 1 year warranty... w/in that year i did have a problem w/ the screen displaying a rolling/tiling pic now and then, i was in warranty so was able to make a claim... all in all from the time i made the claim to the time i got it back was fairly quick and it was shipped back fixed... i was pretty happy w/ that... now on to my complaint w/ customer service, i had a problem w/ my laptop a couple nights ago (at this point i'm 5 months out of warranty), the cursor was just stuck and i knew i probably had to reset the computer to some kind of factory defaults, but i'm not exactly computer savy so i didnt know how to do that... I figured i'd call up HP tech support so they can help me reset the comp and get into the mode where i can reset the computer and do some basic troubleshooting... I get the rep on the phone let him know my problem, says he has to check something, says my warranty is over so there is nothing he could do, i explained i understood the warranty was over and told him i'm not looking to send the laptop in to be fixed or checked on, i just wanted him to do some basic troubleshooting over the phone w/ me, that was all... he said he was unable to answer and techincal questions since i was out of warrant and advised me that if i pay $59.99 i would be eligible for a one-time technical consultant over the phone or for $99.99 i could have support for another year... now granted I'm not familiar w/ how the whole computer business industry works when i comes to getting support as a customer (do all computer manufacturers do the same thing?)... when i heard that i couldnt get any simple help over the phone w/out paying money because my 1 Year Warranty was over, i felt like that meant after a year i was no longer a "valid customer".. my status as a customer is no longer w/out paying money to speak to someone? It was just comical to me... i work in tech support & billing for Comcast and I know there's alot of Comcast haters, but i can't believe a big name company like HP no longer offers simple troubleshooting help over the phone when warranty is over... the rep told me i could go online and get free support via chat-support... that's great, but my laptop cursor was stuck so i couldnt get on there... i ended up having to borrow a laptop so i could use that free online chat-support and after about an hour of online chat, i finally got the problem fixed... and it ended up just being some simple "restart, go into safe-mode... uninstall this, install BIOS, etc..." problem fixed, but apparently that's not something you get help w/ over the phone w/ a HP representative if your out of warranty and don't want to shell out $59.99 for one-time help... ok i'm done venting, that's my story...