HP customer service Review

I purchased a high end HP d4995t Pavillion Desktop earlier this year.  I pretty much maxed out all the options on their highest end model.  When I got to "Wireless Networking" I opted for a pre-installed wireless USB adapter for $30 extra, it was that or nothing for wireless. 

I wanted to know what brand it was before I finalized my purchase so I called HP's sales number and asked.  They looked it up and said "Well its a wireless, you know, USB ... you just plug it into a USB port."   What brand?  "Umh ... A major one I'm sure."  I went ahead and purchased it anyway instead of going through the hassle of shopping for a new one after the PC arrived.

So I got the PC, and it was mostly pretty good (pretty good shouldn't be good enough when you shell out $2000+ for a PC!).  I went to set up the wireless and I found there was 3 a foot cord with an antenna on the end, it screwed onto a thing on the back.  It didn't look like any USB anything I ever saw.

I opened up the PC to try to get a look at what brand the card (apparently not USB) was.  Good thing I opened it too, because all my RAM chips were floating around loose inside.  After I did HP a favor by plugging my RAM in, I looked at the wireless card. 

There was no brand.  It's a very small card that's somehow bolted to the back of the case.  Bolted, permanently.  Well I figured I'd give it a shot and see how it worked.  After setting up everything else I went to set up my wireless.  My router is about 10 feet away and I only got 1 bar of reception.  I called HP, they said it was normal, and I figured as long it works, what the heck!

For the next several months my wonderful, high quality, non-brand, HP non-USB wireless adapter maintained a strong 1 bar of reception, despite being a whole 10 feet from the router, and disconnected regularly.  HP, BTW, still maintains that this is USB, it has something to do with wires, the mother boards, and other exciting gibberish.  Also, this problem is striclty with this garbage HP wireless card.  There are 2 other comps in the house and they maintain excellent signal strength from anywhere in the house.

Finally, 2 weeks ago, about 6 months from purchase, the wireless adapter quit.  I mean it worked for a couple minutes when it felt like it.  The wireless on the other comps in the house were still working fine.

So I jogged up to Radio Shack and purchased a great real-USB wireless adapter.  I never new the internet could be like this.  No disconnects, full strength anywhere in the house.  I guess I'm stuck with the HP garbage card bolted inside my PC forever.  I really want to rip it out and crush it and burn it.

Now, I've had A LOT of problems with HP customer service and tech support, with this and MANY other issues.  But overall HP products are pretty good.  HP would be GREAT if they didn't mess around with garbage like this wireless card and, more importantly, dumped their inept outsourced tech support.  I can't tell you how many times they've said "We don't support this tech problem with our PC." or "We just can't do that".  Usually I pester them by e-mail, chat, and phone (whenever I have some free time), until I get escalated to 1st or 2nd level supervisors.  Sometimes I get to speak to someone in the US!  Only then do I find out that whatever my problem is, IS supported, and they CAN do whatever I was asking for.

I'm going to be in the market for a new high end laptop in the next few months, I mean all out.  So I decided to test HP customer support in general by trying to get them to refund the $30 I paid for their fake wireless card.  Or at least give me a credit toward printer cartridges or something.  The $30 doesn't mean a whole lot to me, but stil its $30, maybe I could buy a couple gallons of gas with it.  I figure if HP refunds my $30, I'll buy a new laptop from them when I'm ready.  Otherwise I'll probably get a Dell (Dude, your gettin' a Dell!).