At the end of March the reader began copying me on e-mail she was exchanging with HP support concerning an HP Pavilion 6000 notebook her son had ordered in December. "My son saved his money for a year and a half to buy a computer," the reader wrote. "He waited by the door for it to arrive for two weeks. But there was something wrong with it. It flashed on and off and had green lines running across the screen. We tried and tried to fix it, were on the phone for hours trying to follow directions and do everything the folks said. Finally, after days and days of trying, they said it was defective and we needed to send it back for service. We tried to return it, but it was a few days after the so very generous 21-day return period given by HP to 'guarantee' the quality of their products."

Three months after they'd purchased it, the computer had been back and forth to HP support and was only the worse for the experience. "We have sent it for repairs and it was returned with the same problem. Not only was it not fixed, they sent it back to us without a battery or cord. To top it off, the computer was beat up while it was gone and is now scratched. Now, I am up to 25 hours on the phone with HP over the last few weeks, trying to get help to actually get the new quality computer we thought we were buying. My son is sick and distraught that he saved for so long for this scratched-up, not-usable computer. What can we do? Nobody will help."

By this time HP's "Total Care" had supposedly escalated the reader's case to the corporate level, but it didn't seem to be making much of a difference. "When we called again, we were told that they hadn't actually changed the LCD screen as their letter to us had stated, so we were going to have to send it in again. More time waiting for another special box to arrive, more time calling HP to see where it is. And again the computer was sent back worse. They couldn't have even turned on the computer without seeing the obvious problems! And again we received a letter, same as the first, claiming that all this stuff had been done. For real this time? I think not."

All the desperate reader and her son wanted now was to be rid of the computer completely and get their money back. "We just want to send this mess back and get a new one. And we don't think we should have to accept a downgraded version of the system we paid for. We have put in hours and hours of our time on this, trying, with no compensation. We just want the quality computer we thought we were buying, not a defective, rebuilt one. My son has felt so powerless, he has decided to picket HP in front of Staples instead of spending more wasted time on the phone. And he and his friends are making a very entertaining movie to be titled 'True Story: HP Total Don't Care' which will be out soon on YouTube."

Computer support horror flicks? Not a bad idea, actually, although it's a genre that might be a little too scary for some of us. Still, when you're stuck with a lemon of a computer, anything you can do to call attention to your plight and embarrass the vendor is a good thing.

Obviously, contacting the Gripe Line is one of those things you can do. My normal procedure when I get a gripe from someone in really desperate straits is to publish it as quickly as possible in the hopes will it spur the vendor into taking corrective action. HP however has always been very helpful in responding to my reader's stories, so I already knew who I could contact there to speed things up for the reader and her son. The same is true of Dell, by the way, as they also always seem willing to look into any cases brought to their attention. But not Gateway, as we saw quite recently (see "A Stray Gateway Lemon"). Some companies are harder to shame than others - just a point to keep in mind the next time you're in the hardware market.

At any rate, my HP contact quickly agreed that something had to be done in this case, and a few days later the reader received a call from an HP executive who was ready to make things rights. On May 11th, five months into their ordeal, the reader wrote me that her son had just gotten his new computer. "He even got some upgrades," she wrote. "He also sent the defective computer back today -- so nice to be rid of it! At the last minute, the monster was still 'alive' -- I snagged myself helping him return it, as the last technician who 'serviced' it had screwed a screw completely through the case/chassis before returning it in 'excellent working condition.' My son and his friends are now happily gaming instead of making movies for YouTube about HP's 'Total Don't Care' ... Thank goodness."

Gee, I love a happy ending. But let's not kid ourselves -- there are more computer horror stories out there than a dozen Ed Fosters could help rectify, even if we did nothing else. Shouldn't computer users have some other recourse when they are stuck with a machine that doesn't work and that they can't get fixed? In my next story we'll talk about that further.

How do you deal with support nightmares? Post your comments below, phone the Gripe Line voice mail at 1 888 875-7916, or write me at Foster@gripe2ed.com.