Why?
Seems that back in March 2010, HP emailed me a note with an offer to extend my extended warranty. For the price of $45 (or thereabouts) I took them up on the offer. After all, I bought the printer in February 2007, and felt an extension of the extended warranty would be a smart move.
So when my Photosmart C3180 stopped scanning, I called HP with the extended warranty in hard...only to be told it was invalid. And after speaking with no less than 20 people over five hours over two days (most of whom just either hung up on me, or put me on eternal hold until THAT disconnected) I was told that a third party had emailed me AND A NUMBER OF HP CUSTOMERS with this particular offer IN MARCH 2010, and that I shouldn't have received this offer at all. Me and hundreds of my nearest and dearest HP friends.
IN MARCH 2010.
So April passes. No emails or letters from HP explaining the situation
May rolls by. No emails of letters from HP explaining the situation.
And Spring 2010 morphs into Summer 2010 and the month of June, with no emails or letters from HP explaining this situation.
Which means that my money, and the money of a number of other HP customers sat in an account somewhere, no doubt earning more interest than I'll see in a lifetime.
My scanner stopped scanning on July 1, and I called HP. And started through Telephone Queue Hell. A number of HP employees, to be fair, actually admitted the error, and sided with me, personally. But the corporate line, delivered to me by some bitch named Ann (no e) was that I had an "option" for a refund. Funny, but an "option" is usually a choice between two things, not a "forced" choice of one singular option. What was my other option? That I was going without a warranty and HP could just keep the money?
So.
FUCK YOU, HP! And FUCK ALL YOUR PRODUCTS.
When the life runs out of my printers and scanners, and it will, soon, you can bet I'm going to look hard and fast at the Epson line of large format printers (13" x 19") and large format transparency and flatbed scanners.
And when the failing HP computers in this house finally die? They will be replaced with iMacs.
So FUCK YOU HP!
And let's hope lots of people with "problems" with HP read this, and take heed before they spend their hard-earned money.
Because you aren't the only game in town.