HP35 Red Dot Recall letter

[vk6ti]

Hi Folks,
recently acquired a HP35 red dot calculator from a friend in California.
Interestingly enough it included the original recall letter from HP, pointing out problem and offering recall.
I have attached a scan of this letter, as I thought it may have some passing curiosity with some readers.
I hope it displays OK

Regards
Ray
   

[toml_12953]

(01-09-2015 12:15 PM)vk6ti Wrote:  Hi Folks,
recently acquired a HP35 red dot calculator from a friend in California.
Interestingly enough it included the original recall letter from HP, pointing out problem and offering recall.
Regards
Ray

Now those were the days of customer service!

Tom L

[jebem]

Normal life cycle of the success companies around the world:

0. Visionaries see a business opportunity;

1. Start a small company offering small services/manufacturing skills => small product offering, small customer base, good service for everybody, as they need to grow their business;

2. Grow up to become a successful large company offering big services/manufacturing skills => large innovative product offering, big customer base, starting relaxed service for all, except for the critical business operations where a small number of customers still get tier 1 service attention;

3. Aggressive competition and uninspired products dictates the time to shrink the offering for services/manufacturing skills => somewhat quite large product offering sub-contracted to China manufacturing plants and Indian/Brazilian help desk services, still large but also shrinking customer base, even more relaxed service for all with no exceptions;

4. Final death => start selling services/manufacturing business to other companies, shutdown services/manufacturing skills that no body wants, preparing for final closure and at last have a good rest;

5. Goto 0 => Start all over once again.

[Don Shepherd]

(01-09-2015 12:15 PM)vk6ti Wrote:  Hi Folks,
recently acquired a HP35 red dot calculator from a friend in California.
Interestingly enough it included the original recall letter from HP, pointing out problem and offering recall.
I have attached a scan of this letter, as I thought it may have some passing curiosity with some readers.
I hope it displays OK

Regards
Ray

Thanks for that letter, I've read about it but never seen it before.

Ah, that was the HP of old, I'm afraid. The HP of now bears absolutely no resemblance to the HP of old, unfortunately. There are companies that still stand behind their products, but their numbers are dwindling.

[Jeff O.]

(01-09-2015 12:15 PM)vk6ti Wrote:  I have attached a scan of this letter, as I thought it may have some passing curiosity with some readers.

I have at least a passing curiosity. Somewhere along the line I obtained pictures of the top half and bottom half of that letter, I don't know where I got them. I tried to splice them together, but the result was less than satisfying.

(01-09-2015 12:15 PM)vk6ti Wrote:  I hope it displays OK

Displays fine, but If it is not too much trouble, could you provide a higher resolution scan?

[Paul Berger (Canada)]

A few years ago I purchased a 35 as part of a package with a 97. I really did not want the 35, but the seller was unwilling to separate them so I purchased them both. The seller was the original owner of the 35 and among the items included was this card that seems to have been part of a multi-part form that was sent back with your calculator in response to the recall letter.

   

It would appear that the calculator was exchanged as the one I received has a different serial number than appears on the card, which is too bad because the original may have been a red dot. The one that I got is an early 2nd version that still has the bump on the 5 key. The following letter seems to have been sent along with the calculator when it was returned.

   

[Thomas Radtke]

Your documents should find a home on the museum DVD/CDs/flash drive, if they're not already there (still need to order) :-).

[vk6ti]

Hi Jeff,
you have private mail,
I was limited to only 200KB upload, I have the Higher resolution available.

here is the relevant errata card that comes with letter
Regards
Ray
   
   

[Dave Frederickson]

(01-10-2015 12:36 AM)vk6ti Wrote:  I was limited to only 200KB upload, I have the Higher resolution available.

Can you post the link?

[vk6ti]

Dave,
I only have the image scanned on my computer,
If you are interested I can send you scanned image file in higher resolution
via email
also have 80 or so program cards for the 35, ( but I would guess these would be already out there)

Ray

[Paul Berger (Canada)]

Likewise for the documents I have I initially scanned them at higher resolution but had to reduce them to fit, I can email them to anyone who is interested however I have no place to post them.

[Dave Frederickson]

I was faced with the same situation when I started to post files and pics. Google offers 15 GB of online storage for free. I'm sure other services have similar benefits.

Dave

[EdS2]

Likewise dropbox.com give you 2GB of free space and make it easy to upload and share files.

[Paul Berger (Canada)]

Ok I have posted the original scans on Google webspace
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZMBH1...sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZMBH1...sp=sharing

[BobVA]

I remember getting a similar letter and errata card for my HP-25 when I was in college. (They politely demurred on my question about trading it towards an HP-25C in lieu of a repair!)

[MarkHaysHarris777]

I wonder when I'll receive HP's errata letter for my HP35s ? ... and an offer to repair it at their expense /

Whoa... those were the days.