Wil's Rant

I bought the M437 last November as a Christmas gift for my daughter. She didn't open it until Christmas morning. I helped her set it up and immediately noticed that it was quite difficult to get the battery cover to close properly. I put it down to newness and thought it would get easier as the camera was used. I was wrong. One month later she showed it to me with a small piece missing from the battery cover. The missing piece was the part that had the locking grooves for the cover. The camera was now useless. I went back to Circuit City where I bought it and they informed me that I had to deal directly with Hewlett Packard. Fine! I went on the computer and got a service number and called. Things went swimmingly until we got to the part where he asked for the address to send the camera too. OOOppps! The number I had called was the American service number so he informed me that I must talk to the Canadian office. No problem... He would transfer the file and my call over and it should all take a few more minutes. The Canadian office person took an entirely different approach. He said that the damage was accidental in nature and therefore was not covered under warranty. I replied that he was mistaken and that I could quite easily prove it. Firstly: My daughter's best friend got the same camera for Christmas and hers did the exact same thing in the exact same place. Second: An externally applied force and an internal stress fracture leave a significantly different pattern on the plastic and this can be viewed under a microscope. They could confirm my conclusions quite easily enough. Alas, all was to no avail. The guy wouldn't budge.

I am left with several options. A lawsuit would be easily winnable but is it worth it for such a small item? I have since bought another camera and will absolutely never buy another HP product in my life so the only thing that I would gain would be justice and satisfaction by starting a lawsuit. By the way, when asked they refused to provide me with an address of service, the place to send the court notice! More expense would be needed to find out where in Canada to send the thing.

All this over an eighty dollar camera. So, buy at your own risk. Or if you require a beautiful, brand new boxed camera to use as a book holder. I have one just like that!