I have met many HP computers, and have never met one that I liked.  Now I have a financial reason to recommend against them.

Many of you have probably noticed that HP is no longer a computer vendor in the set of vendors available in the Custom Computer Orders section of the MSU Computer Store and I think it is probably for good reason.

From over 30 years of experience being responsible for maintaining computers I have gained the opinion that I don't like Hewlitt-Packard computers, which is disappointing because I have the opposite experience with HP Laserjet printers and network switches.

I have been recommending against HP computers for many years because I don't like all the junkware software that is installed on HP computers and I don't like their tendency to configure hardware with poor components like 5400RPM hard drives and then heavily promote the computers as better than the competition.

The financial reason:  On hp.com, instead of providing a means to order tax exempt, they reimburse the credit card weeks after it is billed.  On behalf of a researcher I ordered a computer through hp.com, and like Lenovo, the initial bill is with tax.  However, the really atrocious money grubbing thing they did was bill for the computer a week before it is due to be shipped, and the bill includes tax even though I went through the process for the order to be tax exempt.  I called customer service to get the order corrected and their response was that they would reimburse the pcard for the $30 tax weeks after it was billed.

I'm betting the purchasing department is offended by that practice, so now I have a reason to tell researchers not to order HP computers with more strong language.

-Stefan