Disposable America: courtesy of Hewlett Packard

Whereby you have stumbled across an ANGRY BLOG. If you'd like to see perky, happy me, you may want to head over to Burrowers, Books and Balderdash where I am talking about my FOMS, but if you are up for a little RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION, I am the MAN... or rather the woman dressed as a man dressed as a woman, but there was man in there somewhere, so we will go with it.


So I Threatened Hewlett Packard this week. They refused to be Blackmailed, and so I am forced to follow through. HA! Take THAT, Corporate Bad Guy!

excuse my lack of graphic software

The Story

We have had a desk top computer (the same one) for about four years now. It is a lemon. It has ALWAYS been a lemon... susceptible to viri (can I do that? If more than one octopus is octopi, seems more than one virus should be viri). For starters, it came equipt with Works (I know, right?) instead of USEFUL software that is USED anywhere... but never mind. That is on Bill Gates Head, which I will save for the last section.

Anyway... I had to reload the hard drive on this puppy several times before the discs would no longer do the trick. Then, it had to be wiped and redone by the fabulous boys at A2 Computers a little over a year ago... Then FINALLY two weeks ago... NOTHING... all the programs were just... GONE.

I took it into my boys who've never failed me (we have two laptops we take to them too, so have been there several times)... I get the estimate... the time... then on the day, a CALL... Hewlett Packard doesn't provide support for computers over three years old. There is a drive I can't get. What?

Let me put this in plain English: It is Hewlett Packard's policy that if your computer is more than three years old YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN SUCKER! That Puppy is no more than an unwieldy PAPERWEIGHT.

Well that pissed me off, as you might imagine (I am poor, I hate waste, and I DETEST being told 'can't'), so I went to their website and filed a complaint with their CEO. I said he had 3 choices: 1) CALL my A2 Computer guys and fix 'em up with the driver, 2) send me a brand NEW computer tower, or 3) FACE MY PUBLIC SKEWERING.

I got an email about 3 days later: "we're looking into it, please provide your serial number, product number and a daytime phone"... I did.Immediately.

And a very friendly man named Dennis called me yesterday morning... He got some info and said he put it in the speedy pile... I thought something might happen... squeaky wheel had worked. YAY!

Grouchy man (I think he said Dave) called me back that afternoon and said... THE EXACT SAME BS MY A2 COMPUTER GUYS HAD GOTTEN FROM THEM.

NOTE TO HEWLETT PACKARD: YOU JUST MADE DENNIS LOOK LIKE A HORSES ASS AND I AM CALLING HIM TO LET HIM KNOW BECAUSE I HAVE HIS NUMBER!

NOTHER NOTE TO HEWLETT PACKARD: IF YOU WANT TO DIFUSE ANGER, NEVER GET SOMEONES HOPES UP THEN CRASH THEM AGAIN!--this only makes it WORSE.

NOTE THE THIRD TO HEWLETT PACKARD: DAMN YOU FOR BLASPHEMING THE INITIALS OF HARRY POTTER!

So here I am, following through on my threat, since they are EVIL GREEDY CORPORATE POOPYPANTS who don't GIVE A DAMN about PEOPLE.

Do you know what Mr. Crabbypants who might be Dave gave as his REASON? “We're not the only company with this policy.” ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS? EVERYBODY IS RAPING THE PUBLIC SO YOU MIGHT AS WELL, TOO?

I DON'T WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH UNCARING LEMMINGS!



And so... the Skewering...

The Evil Conspiracy Insinuation Portion of this Blog

The facts presented in the blog were actually told to me. I cannot verify the accuracy of them, as the guy who told me.... well, let me introduce you...


In College I knew this guy... HE wasn't in college, he just lived there... he was a former special forces soldier of a certain unnamed (got a lot of good press this week) sector of the United States Military... He served under Ronald Reagan. In Central America. Specifically, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

He was dishonorably discharged from the military for refusal to follow orders. (the story thus far, I believe completely, the rest, may have some fiction—his, not mine—woven in, as I believe the experience messed him up quite a lot... erm... and he might have been trying to talk me into bed... and it might or might not have been necessary and/or worked *shifty*)

He said when they went in (don't remember which country) and killed the civilians in the village (I think for hiding someone they wanted) he would not put their heads on stakes to get others to cooperate. I swear that's what he said. Remember this is hearsay. Remember this is ALSO under beat-em-up Reagan.

When he got BACK to (college town), he was very angry with the US Government. Do you know how he (said he) displayed this? He blew up a Hewlett Packard Lab.

Now I'm not saying Hewlett Packard was responsible for baby-killing in El Salvador... exactly... But why on EARTH would that be where he'd take out his aggression against the horrors he'd been through?

After her did this, by the way... he was SHOT. He lost a leg. I saw not only the GONE leg, but I met him when it was still a bullet wound and the leg was THERE, so THIS detail is verified... The who shot him, isn't... secret service? CIA? HEWLETT PACKARD? I'll let YOU decide.

Note:  This man never did any TIME for blowing up that lab... Why would they want to keep it hushed?

You know me... conspiracy theorist through and through.

Now I have friends who work for Hewlett Packard (they're based in Boise Idaho, for pete's sake, where a third of my high school class moved)... so I'd like to believe they are CAPABLE of doing the right thing, but I'll tell you what. When I call Dennis back and tell him my opinion of their FREAKING CUSTOMER SERVICE, I hope Dave gets FIRED for refusing to talk the MORALITY of creating products intended to be disposable. (Yes, I said it was immoral and he said he wouldn't talk to me about morality... in fact he repeatedly had only TWO messages 'he understood my concerns' (I call Bullshit) and 'Everybody does it' (hello, mob violence)

The REAL Concern and (more serious) RANT

Corporations in this country, somewhere around the 70s, decided they could make a KILLING by making things that were NOT FIXABLE.

Have you ever seen pictures from Cuba? All those cars from the 50s are STILL RUNNING. But in the 70s they quit MAKING cars you could fix. They wanted us to buy NEW cars instead. (not just the US here, to be fair, though Volkswagen held out another decade or so).

Reagan (who was actually Satan) began the easing of credit that stopped consumers from ever fighting this... need a new one? Borrow some money... (after all... what a beautiful stimulus to the economy...)

By the time computers were a household thing, the thinking was solidly in place. The early ones lasted five or so years... if they didn't, who could guarantee they would catch on? But once they were securely in the mainstream... something that coincided with the internet... three years... Oh, sure, argue it has to do with technology... but honestly... if I don't NEED THE FREAKING NEW TECHNOLOGY, why are earth make it so you can't FIX my freaking computer? (the Driver was not AVAILABLE)--is there a REDDER flag for we just don't want you to be able to fix it?

Well let me tell you something, HEWLETT PACKARD: turning computers into land fill is IMMORAL! Our earth doesn't have ROOM to have a billion people worth of computers added to the land fill every three years.

And you know what ELSE? It is IMMORAL! (yes, for a second reason). There are haves and have nots in this world and ESPECIALLY in this country, and to put yet another obstacle up for the people WHO CAN'T AFFORD to replace their damn computers. It is ADDING to the problem.

You heard me. I called you EVIL.


And for good measure: BILL GATES: It is IMMORAL to create a monopoly with a product that makes all these companies think they have to CHANGE at this speed. You are perfectly capable of making things compatible with older stuff. And it is IMMORAL to inflict the new Microsoft on all of us (bring back the 2003 option, even if our software is more current, as the new stuff SUCKS)

There may or may not be future editions of this rant directed at AT&;T, car companies, and Detroit Edison.



Call to Action:

1)  Do NOT buy Hewlett Packard Products unless I tell you they've sent me a free computer.
2)  ASK when you purchase things that really should last a long time what the average life is (the warranty is a good clue) and DON'T BUY things that are impossible to fix or can only be fixed for a few years.
3)  COMPLAIN to any business who acts like disposable is okay. It's not. But they won't change until we DEMAND it.

Holy Cow, we as consumers have forgotten that it is OUR RIGHT to demand VALUE for our money and to spurn anyone who doesn't provide it!  DEMAND IT!  Businesses are only IN business because of us, but we have to work together!!!