HP should offer a free hardware upgrade

[Joe Horn]

Warning: This is a rant, written in anger. If unbiased pleasantries are what you came here for, press Back now.

I haven't been this ticked off since 1979. Then it was at Radio Shack. Now it's at HP.

Unless I misunderstand the US Federal Trade Commission, every purchaser of any product which "fails of its essential purpose" is entitled to a complete refund or replacement with a working product, even after the warranty expires. The wording is important; it does not refer to products that STOP working, but only those that NEVER do what they were SOLD to do. Since every Prime with rev A hardware (HP part number NW...) is totally unable to do what it was sold to do (wireless communication), the FTC says that you have the right to demand either a full refund of your money, or replacement of your Prime with a rev B machine... even after the 1-year warranty expires.

In simple terms, if a company sells you a lemon, then you never really received what you paid for, so they have no right to receive (or keep) your money. That's why this is often referred to as a "lemon law".

Example: In 1979 I bought a TRS-80 Model II with an external "Disk Expansion Unit" containing three 8-inch floppy drives. The expansion unit never worked correctly, so I took it in for repair. After a long time I got it back... and it still didn't work correctly, so I brought it back again for repair. After 4 iterations of this annoying and lengthy procedure, I finally gave up and asked for my money back. They said, "No, it's out of warranty. Sorry." I asked for the manager, and told him that the expansion unit failed of its essential purpose. He recognized the phrase immediately, and refunded my money without hesitation.

So either HP should publicly announce a free rev A / rev B swap (as they did for the HP-35 back in the day), or warn HP Legal that a class action lawsuit is brewing. I do not know HP's legal obligations to customers outside the USA, but I know what their moral obligation is.

Edit: The current FTC Uniform Commercial Code, Section 2-608 and following, uses the phrase "substantially impaired" to refer to lemons.