HP faces faulty floppy furore

[froggyboy604]

Lawyers rub hands

By Andrew Thomas: Wednesday, 10 October 2007, 10:41 AM

A CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT dating back to 2003 looks set to make HP a lot poorer and a lot of lawyers a lot richer. An Oklahoma couple may also get a new floppy disk drive into the bargain.

Stephen and Beverly Grider bought a Compaq PC in June 2003 only to discover that the floppy drive didn't work. The company failed to honour the warranty, claims the couple and HP now faces a class-action suit citing 1.7 million people across the US who bought similar computers.

The Supreme Court ruled this week that the suit should proceed alleging that Compaq, now part of HP, sold defective computers, backing a 2005 ruling by an Oklahoma state court. HPQ's original defence was that a similar case in 2000 was thrown out under Texas law which stipulates that class action suits do not apply to people living outside the state in which the case is brought.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and HP must be wondering why the hell it didn't send the Griders a replacement fifty cent floppy drive in the first place rather than clocking up millions in legal fees and damages.

L'Inq
PC World

S: http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/ ... ppy-furore