The head of HP Customer service confirmed over the phone that the people at the Helpline could only help me out with troubleshooting if it was mentioned in the Laptop Help menu. They had no technical know how nor were they allowed to give more information than was given in the Windows Help section. When I told him that any child could use the help menu and nobody needed to call the helpline he was silent and said that’s just the way things at HP are.

He said if I needed more in depth assistance I would have to pay Microsoft a large sum of money and then they would help me.

Basically he said HP only makes the hardware and sells it. What happens after that is the customers’ problem.

An HP laptop in the USA costs Rs30,000 but a lower config HP laptop in India it costs Rs80,000.

This year 8 of my colleagues bought laptops in the USA and not one of them bougth an HP laptop.

If you visit the HP service centre it is packed with people with laptops and all of them don’t work at all. It takes you upto four hours to get service. The technicians don’t know too much there and you are left struggling again.