Iknoweztech
Lexington,#2UPDATE Employee
Wed, December 03, 2008
Okay, here's the skinny on the Staples Extended warranty (and any of Staples' competitors works the same way). Software is NOT covered. This is flat-out an industry standard. Any PC user can, at any time, either from abuse, virus infection, or other inadvertant misuse, corrupt an Operating System. Therefore, to fix software issues are always at the customers' expense. Now, there are a couple of other issues with your complaints. Your warranty repairs, even under Staples' Service plans, are to be conducted by HP within the first year. That means that HP will take care of all hardware repairs free of charge within the first year, and that Staples will take care of you if HP denies your hardware repair. (Staples You have stated that HP couriered to you a replacement hard drive, and that it worked out great for you. That's great for you, but it doesn't prove that your hard drive was actually faulty. Quite often (speaking from years of experience dealing with HP here), they will simply install a new--or instantly reimage an old-- hard drive as a means to expedite repair based off of the symptoms described to them over the phone. Did the hard drive actually fail a diagnostic test? If so, what test did it fail and what was wrong with it? All that we know for sure is that HP replaced your hard drive through on over-the-phone diagnosis based off of your own description of the issues you were having. Again, great for you--but doesn't mean the in-store tech is incompetent or that he wasn't offering the best advice. On a final note, HP and other manufacturers DO still offer the software to create your own backup Operating System discs. You may do this on your own using the HP Recovery Manager or you may have a Staples in-store tech do it for you for about $39 USD. Your choice. To my knowledge, only Dell and Toshiba offer manufacturer-created discs anymore. Acer, HP, Compaq, Sony, Gateway, and others come with the software to make your own Operating System discs. For you to be at all angry about getting "Starter" or "Introductory" Printer cartridges is ridiculous. HP clearly states on the box whether the model you are purchasing includes a Standard set or an introductory set of cartridges. And nearly every sales person I've ever met actually uses that fact as a sales tactic to get you to buy an extra set of ink at the time of purchase. Most of the other manufacturers offer "introductory" cartridges as well;it is not merely an HP thing. It has NOTHING to do with Staples. Retailers such as Staples make almost no money on printers, particularly if you purchased one on sale. Of course, the gamble is that perhaps you will return for Tech services, ink and toner, or paper purchases. That is the same for all printers at all retailers. The margin of profit is much higher on accessories such as ink. It is no secret. If you want to save a lot of money on ink, check out some of the latest machines on the market such as the HP OfficeJet Pro series (available at Staples). The 88XL ink cartridge gets you as much as 2500 black copies for less than 40 USD. (1700 color copies for less than 30USD for each of the 3 color cartridges). All of the manufacturers will be coming out with higher yield printers in the near future as a response to the popularity of the HP Officejet Pro Series--and as a direct response to overwhelming customer demand for a Laser-quality product using cheaper ink-jet technology.
Iknoweztech
Lexington,#3UPDATE Employee
Wed, December 03, 2008
Okay, here's the skinny on the Staples Extended warranty (and any of Staples' competitors works the same way). Software is NOT covered. This is flat-out an industry standard. Any PC user can, at any time, either from abuse, virus infection, or other inadvertant misuse, corrupt an Operating System. Therefore, to fix software issues are always at the customers' expense. Now, there are a couple of other issues with your complaints. Your warranty repairs, even under Staples' Service plans, are to be conducted by HP within the first year. That means that HP will take care of all hardware repairs free of charge within the first year, and that Staples will take care of you if HP denies your hardware repair. (Staples You have stated that HP couriered to you a replacement hard drive, and that it worked out great for you. That's great for you, but it doesn't prove that your hard drive was actually faulty. Quite often (speaking from years of experience dealing with HP here), they will simply install a new--or instantly reimage an old-- hard drive as a means to expedite repair based off of the symptoms described to them over the phone. Did the hard drive actually fail a diagnostic test? If so, what test did it fail and what was wrong with it? All that we know for sure is that HP replaced your hard drive through on over-the-phone diagnosis based off of your own description of the issues you were having. Again, great for you--but doesn't mean the in-store tech is incompetent or that he wasn't offering the best advice. On a final note, HP and other manufacturers DO still offer the software to create your own backup Operating System discs. You may do this on your own using the HP Recovery Manager or you may have a Staples in-store tech do it for you for about $39 USD. Your choice. To my knowledge, only Dell and Toshiba offer manufacturer-created discs anymore. Acer, HP, Compaq, Sony, Gateway, and others come with the software to make your own Operating System discs. For you to be at all angry about getting "Starter" or "Introductory" Printer cartridges is ridiculous. HP clearly states on the box whether the model you are purchasing includes a Standard set or an introductory set of cartridges. And nearly every sales person I've ever met actually uses that fact as a sales tactic to get you to buy an extra set of ink at the time of purchase. Most of the other manufacturers offer "introductory" cartridges as well;it is not merely an HP thing. It has NOTHING to do with Staples. Retailers such as Staples make almost no money on printers, particularly if you purchased one on sale. Of course, the gamble is that perhaps you will return for Tech services, ink and toner, or paper purchases. That is the same for all printers at all retailers. The margin of profit is much higher on accessories such as ink. It is no secret. If you want to save a lot of money on ink, check out some of the latest machines on the market such as the HP OfficeJet Pro series (available at Staples). The 88XL ink cartridge gets you as much as 2500 black copies for less than 40 USD. (1700 color copies for less than 30USD for each of the 3 color cartridges). All of the manufacturers will be coming out with higher yield printers in the near future as a response to the popularity of the HP Officejet Pro Series--and as a direct response to overwhelming customer demand for a Laser-quality product using cheaper ink-jet technology.
Iknoweztech
Lexington,#4UPDATE Employee
Wed, December 03, 2008
Okay, here's the skinny on the Staples Extended warranty (and any of Staples' competitors works the same way). Software is NOT covered. This is flat-out an industry standard. Any PC user can, at any time, either from abuse, virus infection, or other inadvertant misuse, corrupt an Operating System. Therefore, to fix software issues are always at the customers' expense. Now, there are a couple of other issues with your complaints. Your warranty repairs, even under Staples' Service plans, are to be conducted by HP within the first year. That means that HP will take care of all hardware repairs free of charge within the first year, and that Staples will take care of you if HP denies your hardware repair. (Staples You have stated that HP couriered to you a replacement hard drive, and that it worked out great for you. That's great for you, but it doesn't prove that your hard drive was actually faulty. Quite often (speaking from years of experience dealing with HP here), they will simply install a new--or instantly reimage an old-- hard drive as a means to expedite repair based off of the symptoms described to them over the phone. Did the hard drive actually fail a diagnostic test? If so, what test did it fail and what was wrong with it? All that we know for sure is that HP replaced your hard drive through on over-the-phone diagnosis based off of your own description of the issues you were having. Again, great for you--but doesn't mean the in-store tech is incompetent or that he wasn't offering the best advice. On a final note, HP and other manufacturers DO still offer the software to create your own backup Operating System discs. You may do this on your own using the HP Recovery Manager or you may have a Staples in-store tech do it for you for about $39 USD. Your choice. To my knowledge, only Dell and Toshiba offer manufacturer-created discs anymore. Acer, HP, Compaq, Sony, Gateway, and others come with the software to make your own Operating System discs. For you to be at all angry about getting "Starter" or "Introductory" Printer cartridges is ridiculous. HP clearly states on the box whether the model you are purchasing includes a Standard set or an introductory set of cartridges. And nearly every sales person I've ever met actually uses that fact as a sales tactic to get you to buy an extra set of ink at the time of purchase. Most of the other manufacturers offer "introductory" cartridges as well;it is not merely an HP thing. It has NOTHING to do with Staples. Retailers such as Staples make almost no money on printers, particularly if you purchased one on sale. Of course, the gamble is that perhaps you will return for Tech services, ink and toner, or paper purchases. That is the same for all printers at all retailers. The margin of profit is much higher on accessories such as ink. It is no secret. If you want to save a lot of money on ink, check out some of the latest machines on the market such as the HP OfficeJet Pro series (available at Staples). The 88XL ink cartridge gets you as much as 2500 black copies for less than 40 USD. (1700 color copies for less than 30USD for each of the 3 color cartridges). All of the manufacturers will be coming out with higher yield printers in the near future as a response to the popularity of the HP Officejet Pro Series--and as a direct response to overwhelming customer demand for a Laser-quality product using cheaper ink-jet technology.