It was a long day made longer by some lingering rainstorms. I spent a half-hour under the awnings myself, only to hear another cold spell is on the way. I was almost tempted to put on a jacket. Maybe it is time to move to San Diego, I hear property there is getting pretty cheap, ha, ha. Have you heard to one about the dream job as the weather reporter in San Diego? All you have to say every day is, “Sunny, 73 degrees, light westerly wind.”
A callout found me shaking my head in disgust at Hewlett-Packard. They have a “series” of printers called 7700. This proves they’ve got enough deadweight on staff to sit around cooking up such nonsense instead of focusing on making their junk work right. This printer does not even have a decent user interface to control the scanner. Instead, HP places some 2,000 files on your computer, alters your registry and installs a useless piece of crap called “Photosmart Essentials” that immediately begins to take inventory of all photos on your hard drives. Without even being asked.
The 7700 is billed as a wireless all-in-one, meaning it transmits an 802.11 signal and has a fax link along with being a printer, scanner and copier (although I lump the last three as being the same thing). You don’t have to hook this contraption to a computer, but I say if you do, that computer should at least have easy to use and consistent operating menus. HP does not subscribe to that, yet it sells this model as suitable for a home office.
Office, my eye. Just try to get that thing to work as anything but a local printer. The wireless device emits an unknown IP address, is blocked by most brand-name commercial routers and your anti-virus software besides. It requires a technician to install. Only HP would call something like that a business machine. Also, buried deep in the operating manual is the fact that the scanner will not write pdf files to your computer. That is correct; you cannot scan a document and save it as a pdf file. The box ought to carry a huge warning sticker. HP is going down fast.
Oddly, the scanner does write pdfs to “other devices”. As luck would have it, I was wearing my camera and was able to scan the pages onto my Sandisk card. But how are mere office workers to figure out such a procedure? Then I walked the card over to the computer that needed the pdf. It worked, but is that why the customer spent good money on a $700 printer? WTF, HP?
My more astute readers will have already spotted the good news, that this was another callout. Why do you suppose this is happening? Business has not picked up across the board and all the calls have been from existing clients. What’s more is I have another two lined up already for this week, for a total of four. Usually it takes six months for that to happen (most customers bring the equipment into the shop, I only do callouts when that isn’t practical).
