After the issues my sister had yesterday, I thought I was clever. I gave my sister the web form to email HP. They did respond right away, but

[....] according to the information provided by you, I have check in our database that you have purchased your notebook from Chile.

Your email has reached the technical support division for North Americas, where we can provide technical assistance to the customers worldwide. However, we will not be able to carry out shipment or replacements outside the United States. If the unit requires a service, shipment, replacement or an escalation, you will have to contact your local Technical Phone Support. We regret your inconvenience. We hope that you understand.

Your notebook is in warranty and you will be getting the hard drive free of cost. However for that you need to contact HP support in Chile.
[....]

Wait, so the comptuer has a -US suffix and was sold in the US, but it was puchased from CHILE?

The hard drive totally failed and they are asking my sister to make an international call to get it fixed.

The computer itself has all English instructions/support documents. Even IF it was made in Chile, so many other comptuers are made OUTSIDE of the US, but the manufacture SUPPORTS those computers since they were made for the US audience.

My sister replied very politely asking for a local number to call as she can't make an international call like that. Since she CC'd me, I also replied to HP:

Thank you for your prompt response, but Angeline purchased this computer via AMAZON.com. It has the prefix of US and all of the documentation that came with the computer is in English. There is nothing on the computer that warns us that any support issues must go through a foreign country so that is can be resolved.

I don't know if this will help. It's beyond frustrating.