A copy of the email I sent to HP:
have been a long time user of your products (3 laptops, at least and 8 printers or so...). You can check my home phone number and see the variety of products that I have owned (561-582-2718).

What a stark turn your company has taken in the past two years. As a consumer, I felt compelled to write this email from my 18 month old Macbook.

I spent two hours the other day attempting to attain some level of service for a problem with an HP Laptop (DV9700/CN7CPRB201) which refuses to charge when plugged in. I actually would not have bought any HP laptop because of the problems I have had with previous ones. I am a high school teacher and a parent purchased this computer at the beginning of the year last year and donated it to my classroom. Despite the fact that it remained deskbound in the room throughout the year, it is no longer functioning. It is the second (or third) HP laptop that "breaks" within a year because the input for the AC adapter gets wiggly and then, finally, breaks. I have a perfectly good laptop in the other room - same problem. (That old HP Laptop was fixed once for the same problem, before it broke a second time. The second time it broke, it was no quite out of "extended warranty" which had covered it the first time-but it was a COMPUSA extended warranty, and they were out of business. I checked into a repair anyway and the cost to fix it the second time it broke was too steep. That is when I opted for the Macbook and I really appreciate how well made this machine actually is.

Back to the current laptop issue: I called your service number at HP after no one replied to the email that I sent a week or so before. The resolution to my problem - NONE. Reason: your fault - this is not covered under the warranty. There is an extended warranty that the benefactor purchased through Office Depot and I will endeavor to get this machine working for my students by pursuing the "extended" warranty avenue. Nevertheless, your product is defective and I do not believe that I am the only one with this experience, as I myself had the experience before. Please note, I am 55 years old and do not bang my equipment around, jack it in and out of the wall, and abuse it.

Second defective product: HP All in one printer Model C4280 serial # CN7CPRB201which was purchased last year with a MacBook (via "free printer/rebate offer at Apple Store). I left it in the box for a year (didn't need it) and unpacked it in May 2009. Installed it. It continually responds that it is "busy" even when it is not. It continually floats into scan mode and pretends to scan and scan again. I have removed the drivers, removed the program, reinstalled the drivers, unplugged it, replugged it, etc. After it is unplugged from the wall for a period of day/s, it will work...ONCE...and then it goes back into scan mode until you unplug it again. You can force quit the program (it will start to scan again). I called your service department. "Sorry, the warranty is up... you can pay for us to help you...or you can pay to upgrade...or you can email us." I did email you, I said. You never responded. "Oh well. We can't help you." I must also tell you, as an American who speaks fluent Spanish and French, some German and Chinese, and teaches scores of Asians in my classroom, I have never spoken to call centers with individuals whose accents were thicker than the ones I spoke to the other day. I repeatedly asked them to slow down and repeat their words (causing the experience to be even more painful and protracted than necessary).