"Limited Warranty" is useless - buyer beware!

Question

After one somewhat helpful email exchange with HP desktop tech support (which did not solve the issue) and two thoroughly frustrating phone calls to HP, I'd like to give a caveat emptor for HP peripheral products, especially flash drives.
I purchased an HP c320w 1GB flash drive in July 2008. A couple of weeks ago, I tried to open an Excel spreadsheet that I had saved to the drive, and got an error that the file was corrupt and unreadable. I then copied all of the files from the flash drive to my laptop hard drive, and tried to open every file I copied, to find about a dozen that had been corrupted, scattered across multiple folders, combination of MS Office, Adobe PDF, text files, etc. were damaged.
So I entered a support request on the HP website. HP Desktop Support responded & told me to try formatting the flash drive (they sent me instructions that looked much like a Google search hit, not an official HP document). I tried the instructions and got a Format Failed error. When I emailed the error message to HP support, they told me they could not help me any further, that I needed to call HP peripheral support.
I kept the original receipt and packaging for the flash drive. The packaging states:
"Two year limited hardware warranty from date of purchase. For additional warranty/product information and optimal performance, check the HP website and apply the latest software and/or firmware upgrades: visit www.hp.com/support"
Believing that, like OCZ, Corsair, and others, HP would simply RMA the drive under warranty and send me a replacement, I called 800-474-6836, and spoke with Kumar, who politely took my contact information, and made me aware of HP's privacy policy. I explained my problem with the drive, and he asked for the model # and serial # of the flash drive. I have the model # (it's on the packaging) but there is no serial # on either the drive or the packaging; there's only a bar code # which is apparently not the serial #. Kumar told me that he had to have a serial # to fill out the support ticket. I explained to him once more that there was no serial #, and offered to scan an image of the original package and email it to him to verify. He made no reply to my offer.
After 5 minutes on hold, Kumar told me that free email support is my only option. I told him I had already tried free email support, and they were the ones who told me to call. I reminded him of the 2-year warranty statement printed on the packaging. He put me on hold to speak to his supervisor. 10 minutes later, Kumar told me that his supervisor says the same thing, that free email support is my only option. I asked to speak to his supervisor.
That started a 52-minute on-hold process, punctuated a couple of times by Kumar apologizing for the long wait, and asking if I wished to continue to hold. At about the 50-minute mark, Kumar asked again, and in less than 2 minutes on hold HP hung up on me.
After a 10-minute break from the action, I called the 800-474-6838 number again. This time I spoke with ?Anna? (I'll call her Anna). I told her I didn't have a support ticket # but gave her my phone #. She confirmed my email address, and I explained the problem to her, told her the last support call hung up on me. Told her the model #, explained it had no serial #. After a few minutes on hold, Anna asked me for the purchase date of the drive, and whether I had purchased an Extended Warranty. I said no, the packaging says 2 year limited warranty from date of purchase, so I'm well within the 2 years, since it's February 2010. She asked again for the serial #, I explained again that it had no serial #, and gave her the barcode #.
After 13 minutes on hold, Anna asked me if I was interested in purchasing a new flash drive? I told her that if I don't get a warranty replacement for this failed drive, then I would have to buy a replacement. She said let me check prices and I'll get back to you and put me on hold.
3 minutes later, Anna asked me what size drive I would be interested in purchasing, 8GB, 16GB, etc.? I said wait a minute, I don't understand, I have a flash drive with a 2 year warranty, I expect that I would receive an RMA replacement, and you're telling me the only option I have is to purchase a replacement? She said yes, the flash drive is not supported, only free chat support is available. I said "What possible interest would I have in purchasing another flash drive from HP if HP will not honor the warranty on the drive I've already purchased?" She said it's only a 1 year warranty, and only has chat support. I asked to speak with her supervisor.
After another 11 minutes on hold, I gave up.
So. I have wasted nearly 2 hours on the phone with HP. I have an unusable flash drive. And a chapped, red a**.
By contrast, I recently had an OCZ flash drive do something similar. After a single email exchange with OCZ's support, who sent me a useful utility to field-test their drive, which indicated an over-the-threshold number of bad memory cells on the drive, immediately gave me an RMA # and an address to send the failed drive, for an exchange.
I would love to hear feedback, especially from anyone who was actually able to get HP to honor their printed warranty.
Dave Singleton
[email removed for privacy]

Answer 1

I can totally agree. I purchased a Pavilion Notebook last August. Was told by salesman that BestBuy would repair it onsite if something should happen... NOT!!! I had issues and took it to them, where they said they could send it out to HP for me. I tried the authorized service centers that HP gave me but 1 # was disconnected, and another told me they don't work on HP anymore as they didn't get reimbursed. The other was BestBuy where I bought it. They said they would send it to HP for me. I then took it to CompUSA where they found it to be a bad hard drive. They fixed it and it cost me a total of $216.18 which HP told me I was out of luck in trying to get reimbursed. Lesson Learned. Never again will I buy an HP Product. I do not feel they have a consumer friendly warranty, as I for one can't go without my computer for 2 weeks as they tell you it will take.
So, BUYER BEWARE!!!!! Don't let a salesman BS you about the warranty....