The arrogance of HP

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.

2 thoughts on “The arrogance of HP

  1. I’m all with you on this one. I had been frequenting the HP site looking for drivers months before the Vista launch. They had a statement up that said they would have drivers by the launch date and then would update add-on softward shortly after launch. Then I go to their site on launch date to find the same message you reference. I have been a long-time HP advocate and direct a large technology budget for a university. HP has lost me as a customer. BTW…I went to Canon’s site to see how they were supporting Vista. Not only do they have drivers for all their scanners past and present, they also have utility software that works in Vista.

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