Dear HP and Interested Others:

This is a true story about an HP Pavilion desktop computer and HP Total Care, a J.D. Power and Associates Technology Service and Support Center.

My HP Pavilion desktop was purchased new on January 6, 2007. Approximately ten days after purchase, the hard drive failed and the operating system (Windows XP Entertainment Center 2005) would not load.

I contacted the HP customer service team several times before it was decided that my hard drive had failed and needed to be replaced. Approximately five days after this decision, I received a new hard drive via federal express and a second federal express package containing operating system recovery disks (no recovery disks came with the original PC.) The pictorial instruction sheet for replacing the hard drive was for a different computer, but I nevertheless was able to successfully replace the hard drive after an hour or so of effort. The operating system recovery disks are proving more difficult.

Three disks are necessary to rebuild the operating system. Two disks are for the XP operating system and these loaded slowly, but without problem. The third disk is clearly labeled Compaq Presario Supplemental Recovery disk and contains the following warning printed on the CD, "This CD can be used ONLY with a Compaq PC." I became suspicious when I read this warning, but thought that maybe HP was simply cutting corners to save money and using a sister company's product. After approximately 12 hours of attempting to finalize the rebuild of the operating system, an HP customer service representative determined that I was using the wrong recovery disk and promised to send new ones.

Four days have passed and I still have not received the correct operating system recovery disks. I have called the HP help center three times this morning and I estimate ten to fifteen times during the course of this problem.

During this morning's first call, I waited for approximately fifteen minutes in the automated answering system without talking to a human being. Then, I was silently disconnected.

During this morning's second call, I spent about fifteen minutes on hold before speaking with a nice person and asking him about the status of the replacement recovery disks. He gave me a federal express tracking number and, after the phone call, I went to the federal express website and found that the tracking number was for the first shipment of incorrect recovery disks.

As I type this message, I am on hold in the HP automated attendant answering system for a third time this morning waiting for a live human being to talk to me. Altogether, I have wasted about 45 minutes on hold this morning. Great news! A human being just answered. After taking my name, case number, model number, e-mail address, and all the other requisite information for the umpteenth time, I am now on hold once again as he seeks to find out the status and location of the replacement recovery disks. Meanwhile, I sit here typing on my old Dell Computer with a phone to my left ear waiting for the nice guy at HP Total Care to return to the telephone.

It seems like an hour has gone by, but its probably only five minutes or so. He's back, but he needs to transfer this call to a hardware specialist, and I am on hold once more. I take a quick trip to the bathroom with the wireless phone still at my ear, and when I pass the medicine cabinet, I recall that I had a physical examination yesterday and my doctor prescribed Benicar for high blood pressure. I wonder, is there a connection between my needing Benicar and my experiences with HP Total Care, a J.D. Power and Associates Technology Service and Support Center? I think my blood pressure is probably higher now than it was an hour and fifteen minutes ago, when I started trying to get help from HP.

A nice hardware specialist just answered the telephone. Apparently, HP never sent the replacement CDs. He promises they will be here by January 30 and gives me an order number for tracking purposes. I will wait and continue taking my medicine. Meanwhile, I have spent over one thousand dollars and fifty to sixty hours setting up and trying to repair my new HP Pavilion a1640n desktop computer. I lost all my work product generated during the ten short days that my computer worked before the hard drive crashed. And I am unconvinced that HP totally cares.