HP TouchSmart 300-1020

Pros: Absolutely none!

Cons: You are lucky if you get a years use out of this computer. Hard drives and motherboards are requiring replacement within the first year. Continued problem. Dealing with HP customer service is a horrible experience.

Summary: 10 months after I bought my HP Touchsmart 300 it began to freeze up and black out, after a few weeks it became completely non-functional. I called HP tech. support (outsourced to India - way to go HP!) to request repair. After several hours on the phone day after day, I was made to open the back panels on the computer and take out the memory cards and hard-drive before HP would agree to take my computer for repair. You should not have to fight to get a defective product repaired! I was told that HP would have my computer for weeks unless I agreed to pay a $50 fee to expedite the repait - I refused!! I got my computer back within a week of shipping it out and the hard drive had been replaced. The replacement was only warrantied for 90 days - that shows you how much faith HP has in their own products! A few weeks before the repair warranty was about to expire the computer started to freeze up again, it was experiencing all of the same problems as before the "repair". I called HP and request repair again before my warranty ran out. I was refused repair at this time and made to go through all of the trouble-shooting again. I told the tech that I felt that HP was just trying to push me to my warranty end with trouble-shooting that never fixed the problem it just gave me a short period of relief until the problems started again. I was told not to worry about the warranty, because I had called with the same issues before the warranty was up I would remain covered, when I called back the computer would be picked up for repair. I was left with the computer running a several hour diagnostic test (the diagnostics always come back ok even with the computer isn't working properly) and told to call back when the computer was completely non-functional. I continued to trouble-shoot at home with short periods of relief until the computer completly died again. I called back to HP to request pick up of the computer for repair. I was told "there is nothing we can do for you because you are now out of warranty". I explained what I was told about the warranty and my continued problems with the computer. I was again told "sorry, nothing we can do". After fighting to get my call escalated to a manager I was told the same thing over and over. I was finally offered $150 off of the repair and then today 50% off of the repair that they say will cost $300-$400. I don't even think that HP knows what the problem is with these computers. I have read through several complaints just like mine on the HP forums and other forums on the internet. They all start out with a hard drive replacement, then the mother board. Problems like mine begin as early as 2 months into the use of the computer, most happen just after the year mark when the warranty ends so the consumer is responsible for paying for all of the repairs. My computer is defective, I only got 10 months use out of it. HP needs to stop selling these until they figure out how to make them last more than a year. HP also needs to work on their customer service, dealing with them was a horrible experience. Do not waste your money on this computer unless you only plan to use it for a year.