Gadget Luv

I have an HP Pavillion tx1115nr notebook and purchased a three year HP Care and Protection Plan with Accident Protection the day of my notebook purchase.  This was over a year ago — the plan should be still in place.

I had two support chats today with HP because I noticed that the wireless adapter stopped working.  It was not detected by Device Manager, even after “Search for New Hardware”.  There is no yellow ! icon next to Network Devices.  I don’t remember when it stopped working because I usually connect via wired networking.

I’ve reinstalled old drivers, installed updated drivers for the wireless adapter and still nothing.  I even set System Restore back two months, thinking it may have been a Windows Update that could have caused this.  Nothing worked.

This morning I contacted HP Support Chat and the HP Rep wanted me to restore it back to factory default.  In Vista.  I went through a great deal of trouble to install XP onto this laptop and HP does not have a complete XP driver set.  I was not willing to do this.  However, I did not delete the Vista partition on the hard drive when I dual booted for about a year.  I ended my conversation with the HP Rep, who told me that they will send the laptop for repair if the  Vista restore does not work.  So, I restored the Vista bootloader and the wireless adapter is not recognized in Vista as well.

I contacted a second HP Rep named “Kas****a” via chat and I had to go through the whole what I did tale over again, who gave me hard time about dual booting my notebook and refused to repair the laptop.  Even after I told “Kas****a” that the wireless adapter has worked for a year for both Vista and XP until now.

I asked: “I paid for three years of HP Protection and Care including accident protection. Doesn’t this cover hardware replacement of the wireless adapter?”

[Note: I paid for a two year protection plan, upon checking.  I usually buy a three year plan.]

“Kas****a” response: “Unfortunately no.”

“Kas****a” said I could send the laptop in for repair but REFUSED to do it even though the prior technician said to come back and tell them nothing worked.

For a two year protection plan, I paid $270.93.  For a technician that REFUSED to help me repair this notebook.

HP Protection Plan is a RIP OFF. The technicians do not really want to help you — they are there to frustrate the customer with endless hoops to go through so HP do not ever have to fix your computer.

I am not buying an HP product again.  They lost a good customer because I have bought many HP products over the years.  And I make the decisions for all office machines and computers for my office.

Good riddance.