Common problem?

The funniest thing just happened to me. I was just sitting in the back of the cab, with some PC peripherals for Christmas presents (not from PC World obviously) and the driver asked if I knew anything about computers.

"A little" I replied.

"Well perhaps you can help me then" the driver said to me, "you see we have three laptops at home and my little girl's one keeps dropping its wireless connection. The others are all alright, and their connections are never affected, just this one. I wouldn't mind but I only bought it a few months ago."

I was intrigued. "What make is it?" I asked, suspecting that I knew the answer

"An HP" said the driver

"Where did you buy it?"

"PC World, I'm going to get onto their helpdesk people, The Tech Guys I think they're called"

"Good luck" I said, as I got out of the cab, when what I was really thinking was "you poor sod, you are about to endure a whole lot of misery"

Could it be that there is a problem with HPs, that PC World are managing to inadvertently cover up and at the same time alienate their own customer base? It would make their own goal style of customer service even more self-destructive if it was a problem which really should be addressed by the manufacturer.