ARGHHHHH! A HP driver support rant!!!

[Major Kong]

My wife was up and at Best Buy yesterday morning at 0530. Her main goal was the HP 215 camera and the 13" TV/VCR combo for $99. She was lucky and got both. Now for the rant. HP did not provide Win XP drivers for the camera. They don't even have them on their site. Ya have to pay ~$11.00 for a freakin' CD ! So I emailed their support. What follows is the errr...attempt of support. Basically there is no support, if you want our product to work properly on your PC you will cough up ~$11.00.

HP's Last Response:

Hello Larry,

Thank you for contacting HP's Customer Care e-mail support.

According to your e-mail, you need WIndows XP compatible software for HP 215 camera for download from our website.

Unfortunately, I can only reiterate what was stated in our previous e-mail that the 215 camera software for Windows XP is currently not available for download. They are only available in a CD which will be available from our Software Distribution Center.

If you need further assistance, please reply to this message. You may also find technical and troubleshooting information along with
software updates, on our HP Customer Care web site at <a href="http://www.hp.com/photosmart" target="_blank">http://www.hp.com/photosmart</a>

Best regards,
Alex
HP Customer Solutions Team


My Response:

Alex:

Though I appreciate your prompt reply to my somewhat frustrated rant, I do believe you missed what I was complaining about. So let me make myself quite lucid. I do not like the fact that HP is selling a product, but not providing the consumer with the proper software to operate the product (in this case a Photosmart 215). When every other hardware/software vender in the world, with the exception of Symantec, is providing free Windows XP driver updates your company is charging ~$11.00 for a freaking CD!!
Give me a break. I just installed an ATI Radeon 8500 Video Card (at a substantial greater cost than the camera) on my home PC. I went right to the ATI web site and downloaded a newly updated, digitally certified Windows XP driver. And guess what??? They didn't charge me a blasted cent. Now the camera is a nice little product, and the family like's it. I just think I would enjoy it better with a proper driver that should either be included or offered as a free update to the consumer.

Sincerely:
Larry Hagy

My seperate comment: Oh by the way the Radeon 8500 is AWESOME!!!

HP's first response:

Hello Larry,

Thank you for contacting HP's Customer Care e-mail support.

I understand that you require information related to the availability of Windows XP driver software on the HP website.

I would like to bring this to your kind attention that the software patches that will be made available on HP website will only be update
patches and thus you require to have the original software installed in your system to download them. To order the required software CD, I
suggest you contact our HP Software Distribution Center.

To find the Software Distribution Center closest to you, please visit our web site:

<a href="http://www.hp.com/cpso-support/guide/psd/fulfilinfo.html" target="_blank">http://www.hp.com/cpso-support/guide/psd/fulfilinfo.html</a>

You can also visit the link provided below to order the software CD:

<a href="https://warp2.external.hp.com/Driver/dr_country_select.asp?Product=C889" target="_blank">https://warp2.external.hp.com/Driver/dr_country_select.asp?Product=C889</a>
If you need further assistance, please reply to this message. You may also find technical and troubleshooting information along with
software updates, on our HP Customer Care web site at

<a href="http://www.hp.com/photosmart" target="_blank">http://www.hp.com/photosmart</a>

Best regards,
Alex
HP Customer Solutions Team

The Original email:

operating_system : Microsoft Windows XP
other_operating_system :
problem_description : Our computer is Win XP, but you didn't provide a XP driver for the camera! Then I come in here and you have a XP driver,
but it's not available for download and I have to pay $11.00 for a CD!!! Geez nice business decision! I am very disappointed. When will a XP downloadable driver be available?

[Lt. Cmdr. DaTaMan]

Typical HP procedure. But by the way, HP is not the only place that makes you pay for drivers hint hint

[JungleMan1]

[quote]Originally posted by DaTaMan:
<strong>Typical HP procedure. But by the way, HP is not the only place that makes you pay for drivers hint hint</strong><hr></blockquote>

LOL good call there.