Consumer Retorts: Hewlett-Packard
Any idea where in the world this printer came from?
CONSUMER RETORTS
hewlett-packard
Any idea where this printer came from?
finding american-made electronics is hard enough without manufacturers actively thwarting your efforts. Surprisingly, the notoriously secretive Apple details right in its annual report where its iPods (Taiwan) and other products (China, Czech Republic, Ireland, Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Taiwan, and California) are assembled. Technology giant Hewlett-Packard, on the other hand, claims that some of its products are made in the US, but won't discuss which ones. This despite the fact that HP lists where each product is made right on the packaging. "It's not that HP is trying to make things difficult for consumers," a spokeswoman told me. "Our decision for non-disclosure is based on issues of competitive advantage, intellectual property and accuracy. Hope this makes sense, even if it's not the kind of detail you are looking for." It doesn't, and it isn't.
have a problem? Oh yes, you do. Go to motherjones.com/consumer-retorts to vent about annoying products and corporate policies. Selected entries will get Mojo swag.
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evil or not, most companies claim that in order to make good products more affordable to the us consumers, they need to lower parts and assembly prices.
wheter etical or not, this may explain how most students and unemployed can manage to have a HP laptop with 4giga ram, ati graphics and amd dual core cpu.
I'd like to know what unemployed people can afford those laptops with that configuration because I sure can't.
More than that tho, HP puts out POS when it comes to their printers. I don't care where they're made, they're hunks of junk now. I remember when an HP meant quality, now it means a snarling hunk of plastic that might eat your paper, take 10 minutes to warm up, spontaneously reboot (I'm still talking printers here), or some software snafu. I've been around computers since before most folks even knew what a hard drive was or the difference between ROM and RAM (my hats off to the mainframe folks, I respect your being here before the PC, but my rant is with the PC world.) HP's bottom printers for years were hailed as "really good" and they were. They were built to last and they outperformed anything out there. Now you're lucky if the expensive D or L officejet line or even some of the laser printers will last through the 1st year without some major issue and causing a user/IT person to want to run over it with a car.
C'est la vie, so they say. I suppose it's true, things get faster and technology gets quicker but quality runs out the quickest. Someone bring back quality in a printer. And for crimedy sake, make more of the darn thing here in the US.
HP Printer(s)
I have a, decidedly old, HP 882C printer that I love. I purchased it from somebody through Craig's List for $20.00 and it came with a huge cartridge refilling set up. I don't use the printer for anything all that technical and it works fine. Mostly, it's "job" around here is to b&w copy interesting articles and make CD jewel case covers of bands that I burn CD's of from Archive.org, using Maxell's "Create It" design app..
I use a 733MHz, 384 Mb RAM, P-3 Compaq Deskpro EM SFF to do all the stuff that my fancier pals have Alienware overkill machines to execute. Since I don't play games or do any huge math programs, etc., why have a computer that could run the Space Shuttle?
Actually, I am getting ready to purchase a new(er) machine soon. Another used or rather, "refurbished" one in fact. This old Radio Shack point of sale terminal (that I bought in a thrift store for $50.00 five years ago and hot rodded) has seen better days and the drive is a bit too small.
You can call me a Luddite if you wish. The truth is: I'm just a recyclin' fool. You can be too.
p.s.- My last car was a 1948 Dodge Custom Deluxe Sedan. Yes, "really".
-Doc
