Hewlett Packard MONEY MAKING ****!!.

MyG61 laptop bought 4 years ago HDD finally crashed. I installed a new hard drive and reloaded windows 7 home premium. Tried to activate it with Microsoft and was told by the Microsoft representative that my activation key was incorrect and should get hold of HP to help me. I then went onto the HP site to try and find a contact no. for technical support. I finally found their Head office no and spoke to their receptionist who gave me a contact no.***) for laptop support. Finally spoke to a lady who gave me yet another no.***) to contact with my problem. Spoke to the receptionist and she would not put me through to anyone in technical and that I should send them an E-Mail. It then came out in the conversation that I would have to purchase a recovery CD from them at a cost of R450 to be able to register my legitimate copy of windows that I bought from HP loaded on my laptop. SO DO NOT TRY AND CONTACT HP IF YOUR MACHINE IS OUT OF WARRANTY OR IF YOU DID NOT MAKE/LOST YOUR RECOVERY CD. HP themselves will not help you but put you in contact with an affiliate company who charges for their service. Thank you HP, you have lost a loyal customer who will deprecate you.