HP Dishonors Warranty to Linux Users

[daynah]

http://www.rojo.com/story/YNTTgdy-f5Xro8RT

Check it.

"darkonc points us to a writeup on linux.com about a very Linux-unfriendly policy at HP. A woman bought a Compaq laptop and loaded Ubuntu on it. Some time later, still well inside the 1-year hardware warranty, the keyboard started acting up. An HP support rep told her, "Sorry, we do not honor our hardware warranty when you run Linux." Gateway and Dell refused to comment to the reporter on what they would do in a similar situation. (Linux.com and Slashdot are both part of OSTG.)"

[KiwiNZ]

That would not be legal here in New Zealand. They should check with the appropriate authority in their country.

I also checked with an "inside" person at HP and she said that this does not sound right .

[Ender Black]

I saw this story on slashdot as well...one commenter had a pretty salient point, it was probably not the fact that the computer was running linux that caused the problem. The problem was HP first-level support is probably following a script for troubleshooting and if you have any OS configuration change that isn't part of HP's OS distribution schema then the script won't work. If HP were to staff their hardware support folks who were knowledgeable in Windows, Ubuntu, OpenBSD, et.al. the training requirement would make hiring their technicians prohibitively expensive. So, more of an economic and training decision rather than HP hates Linux story.

Thoughts?

[spockrock]

yeah I agree with ender black, it just makes it harder for them to troubleshoot but I think in this case its clear from the symptoms that its hardware related though and should fix her laptop.... but I think its an easy troubleshoot for the tech guys to figure its the hardware thats borked.

[Biochem]

Even though I agree with ender Black Having staff knowledgeable in all OS and distro is too expensive for them. But I don't think that the argument would held up in court (in places where there are consumer protection law). Couldn't they just reinstall Windows and run the scrip. Of course that means formating the drive but data are never under warranty.

[daynah]

If I ever would have sent my laptop into Toshiba while it was under warrenty (I need to now, but alas, no warrenty), I would back up ubuntu and reinstall windows. I'm sure they'd be a bit confused as to why I had a perfectly clean windows but...

I don't trust any company not to pull this on me. I don't trust any company not to get the laptop and say "oh well" and I don't trust any company to reformat. (I also don't trust anyone with my personal information without my observation, but that's just a bit paranoid).

If her keyboard problem is a biig deal, it would be worth it to install windows to get it fixed.

[spockrock]

Even though I agree with ender Black Having staff knowledgeable in all OS and distro is too expensive for them. But I don't think that the argument would held up in court (in places where there are consumer protection law). Couldn't they just reinstall Windows and run the scrip. Of course that means formating the drive but data are never under warranty.

in this case they really do not even need to they just need to boot a windows disc, go into the recovery console for example and start pressing the keys, and then they would discover that the keys are sticking......

[lyceum]

I bought a Compaq laptop and as soon as I got it home Ubuntu was installed. I never even saw the XP start up. I was still new to Linux/Ubuntu and had no idea there was hardware that did not work. I called them to find out what kind of wifi was in the laptop, as it did not work and I wanted to get it up, but needed the right walk through. After the lady finally undrestood that Linux was an OS she just started going off on me that I voided the warranty by installing a non-Windows OS. She would not answer any of my questions as my warranty was voided. I waited on hold for an hour and a half to talk to a supervisor and never got one. I called back and the guy I spoke to told me that if I wanted to know what was inside I would need to open it up and look. I am making a very long (and now funny) story short, but you get my point. It is true, it happened to me. I will never buy HP again. They have no customer service at all.

[maniacmusician]

man, these kinds of stories make me glad I that I love system76. I think the only thing that Sys76 needs now is to be able to ship internationally. I know that a lot of people are still waiting for that.

[dbbolton]

i don't know if this is true. perhaps i've been lucky. i own a compaq presario, and i've had to send it in for repairs twice during the 1 year warranty. the company never so much as raised an eyebrow at me.