In one of the latest posts I ranted about missing Vista drivers for some hardware I own. Among them is a HP DeskJet 3970 scanner. The topic of the post was "hey, why are those drivers late". But I certainly didn't anticipate the HP official statement. But let's get back a few minutes.
From time to time I check missing-Vista-driver-hardware companies web sites whether there is a Vista driver made available. So I went to HP's DeskJet 3970 drivers page and amongst drivers for older OS I saw both Vista and Vista x64 links. I almost couldn't believe - HP made Vista drivers before Vista's official launch. Wow. Of course I was being naive.
Here is the page that followed click on Vista drivers link:
(click on picture to see full size, here is a link to the page)
And pay special attention to this part:
...please consider upgrading to a newer HP product that is supported on Windows Vista.
How hard is to update a working Windows XP driver version to Vista? I certainly don't think it is that hard or even hard at all. HP is obviously trying to squeeze some more money from their customers. And they are doing it with a huge arrogant attitude.
So, HP left me without support for not-so-cheap scanner. And they are even suggesting me to buy one of their newer models? Do I look like an idiot. OK, I could look like one since I bought their scanner in the past. But do I look like a total idiot? Would I buy from a company that doesn't care about their customers? Would I buy a scanner "built" for Vista just to replace it with newer model when Vista SP1 comes out? And I am sure that this scanner is not the only HP device left behind. I am also sorry to see HP, once a quality company, loosing the latest bits of credibility they have.
Dear HP, yes, I might buy a newer model, but certainly not from you.