I'm thinking of renaming the blog 'Angry Old Pom'. Today I got an e-mail from HP about some feedback I left them last week.
What happened is, I bought another PC last week from an online shop. Our current PC has developed an intermittent fault in the power supply that means that it switches off for no reason at all, and usually it's right when you're in the middle of something. It's been happening more and more, and since it's intermittent, I thought it probably isn't worth taking it to be mended. It will sit on their test bench and be good as gold until they conclude that they've fixed it when in fact they haven't, but they charge us for looking anyway, as of course they must....business to run etc. So I figured it would be safer to just get a new one. It's been about 3 years since we got this....etc.
However, given our current circumstances, I chose to buy the absolutely cheepest thing I could find. It's got quite a good spec, and 2 gigs of memory. Only thing is....it doesn't have a CD drive included at the price ($299). No worries I say to myself, I'll use one of the two top end CD/DVD drives that I have from the computer before this last one. Cannily, I think to myself, 'ah, but what if I get the PC and the drives don't work for some reason'? So I test them on the current computer. The Sony one doesn't work, but the HP one does. OK... the current computer is a HP, but you know... I put 2 and 2 together and got 435.
So the new computer arrives, and I switch it on ...to see what Vista looks like.. and try to connect the HP Drive. No recognise..y. I go to find the driver from HP. Ordinarily, HP and all the manufacturers have a support bit on their web sites that have links to drivers for all their products. No longer with either Sony or with HP.... that is to say HP do have something.... but they have it set up so that you have to send them $2.95 and they send you a CD with the program on!!!! Hey... 'scuse me, but I thought this was a company purporting to be cutting edge! Perhaps they'd like to send me the program on vinyl, or maybe on a wax cylinder!? What's going on! So I wrote to complain.
Today they wrote back acknowledging that I'd made contact and asking me to fill out a survey so that they can 'improve their service' which apparently they are 'always' trying to do. AH...THAT's what it's all about! I did wonder! "So lets see... 'If we make it really difficult for people to get hold of the drivers for our products, we'll be improving on the current situation where they can download them at will....! EUREKA!" They explained in their mail that the survey would only take 5 minutes! FIVE whole minutes of my time! I decided to write back:
So you want me to give my feedback so that you can improve your service...
but you want to charge me to download a digital file from you for a drive that I bought from HP in the past.
A digital file is a no cost thing that HP have already, and supplying it costs them virtually nothing. The good will they get is worth more.
But they want to charge....
Tell you what...
I'll give you some feedback... but it will cost you $2.95 and I'll send it to you on a CD.
How do you like them apples?
Idiots!
I love EVERYBODY except HP and Trojan Workfarce Solutions! Oh, and Optus... and Woolworths. AND not forgetting BCF of course... and....
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