HP’s “Help Me Decide” Custom Laptop

In January 2013, a federal judge decided that a class-action lawsuit filed against Hewlett-Packard in October 2012 could proceed.  The lawsuit alleges that lead plaintiff Mr. Karim purchased a custom HP Pavilion laptop and tried adding various options, such as dual-band wireless Internet.  When he received the laptop, he discovered that it was not able to be configured to work with a dual-band card, even though HP claimed it could.  HP tried getting the lawsuit thrown out by arguing that Karim didn’t show that he had seen or relied on an HP statement that the laptop could run dual-ban wireless.  The court disagreed.  (Karim v. Hewlett-Packard Co., Case No. 12-cv-5240).