UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Ireland are all seeing their wait times for support greatly increased in a drive to make people use online support. Which is probably chatbots and horrible and inaccurate forums.
And they're planning on expanding the list of countries so affected.
Yet another reason to never buy an HP product. I recently set up a Brother color laser/scanner/fax machine for a friend, though she's not using the fax side. Wonderfully simple to connect to her WiFi and do a Bios update. Heavy beast, listed as a two-man lift. About $400, $500 for the duplex-printing version. I think those prices are reasonable for a color printer. I believe the model was an MLP-3720.
The enshitiffication will continue until, well, it will just continue.
https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/20/hp_deliberately_adds_15_minutes/
https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/02/20/1827203/hp-deliberately-adds-15-minutes-waiting-time-for-telephone-support-calls
And they're planning on expanding the list of countries so affected.
Yet another reason to never buy an HP product. I recently set up a Brother color laser/scanner/fax machine for a friend, though she's not using the fax side. Wonderfully simple to connect to her WiFi and do a Bios update. Heavy beast, listed as a two-man lift. About $400, $500 for the duplex-printing version. I think those prices are reasonable for a color printer. I believe the model was an MLP-3720.
The enshitiffication will continue until, well, it will just continue.
https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/20/hp_deliberately_adds_15_minutes/
https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/02/20/1827203/hp-deliberately-adds-15-minutes-waiting-time-for-telephone-support-calls
no subject
Date: 2025-02-22 01:53 am (UTC)They are known for pretty good phone support when needed.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-22 01:59 am (UTC)Also, to pick your brain, what would be the difference between Windows 11 Home and Pro? Is it worth the extra money?
no subject
Date: 2025-02-22 02:20 am (UTC)AMD. For most users, absolutely nothing. Likewise the difference between 11 Home and Pro. Pro is a little more secure, but only if you know what you're doing with it and use the features: it's more of a corporate/managed network OS. Home is more than adequate.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-22 02:22 am (UTC)Only bad thing with Dell, is they only have a couple of laptops that are 17 inches or bigger and they are EXPENSIVE. :o
no subject
Date: 2025-02-22 03:22 am (UTC)Any 17" laptop isn't going to be cheap! Now, there are some options. You could get a factory refurbished one, or look for one that's a couple of years old. Another option would be to get a 15" and buy a 24" external monitor for use on your table, perhaps with an external keyboard and mouse. Make sure you get 16 gig of ram and a 500 gig hard or SSD drive, nothing smaller. If you can get two 500 gig drives, you can set up automatic backups from one to the other!
no subject
Date: 2025-02-23 12:26 am (UTC)Thanks for the more information. :)
no subject
Date: 2025-02-23 04:29 am (UTC)A laptop is useful for travel, and you can get a wireless Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. So at home, plug in power and the HDMI cable for the monitor, and you're off and running. You could save a lot of money with a desktop, but then you don't have anything for travel. Several decision points. :-)
no subject
Date: 2025-02-25 03:42 am (UTC)EEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Date: 2025-02-25 03:50 am (UTC)ROFLMAO!
no subject
Date: 2025-02-25 05:11 am (UTC)