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Do yourself a favor and return it. HP has a lousy quality record and even worse service.
Never had a good ending with HP and I never do business with them any more.
@katstermonster: The chargeback would be handled by the credit card, so the full amount would be charged back if I understand, correct?
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60 days after Black Friday 2008 when they had the 40% cashback offer I withdrew the cashback balance. When my Live/Bing cashback status showed that nearly $400 had been transferred from my cashback to checking account, but the money never arrived, I thought I was screwed. HP wouldn't even speak to me, just kept telling me to \"contact\" Microsoft, and Microsoft kept saying that cashback customer support is e-mail only.
So I e-mailed advocate@Microsoft.com to file a complaint. The following morning I received an e-mail notifying me the my cashback funds transfer had begun and was being expedited. Money was in my checking 24 hours later.
Cashback ends at 10:20AM? Between their notebook performance and crap like this, I will never buy HP computers for our company. And that's what I do.
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@DanKelley98: @xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter:
I'm sorry you guys have had such bad luck with HP. They have been a huge improvement for the school district I perform IT work for.
Our previous supplier for PCs was MPC (formally Omnitech). Their machines were terrible, and the bundled applications caused problems. After they foolishly bought Gateway's Business division, they folded. It was then that we switched to HP.
We have probably ordered more than 500 HP desktop and notebooks since summer of '08. They [the computers and HP] have been much better to work with than MPC/Gateway. Their support channels are easy to work with, especially their online Business Support. Just click a few buttons and drop-down boxes, quickly type the issue, and as you say \"BAM!\", part's on the way. Their phone support is just as easy to work with as well.
Oh, and of our four schools and district office, we predominately purchase HP printers. Each one is a workhorse; our oldest are at least 10 years old and still going strong.
As far as Lenovo goes, this is one of the few times I've heard praise for them. They are usually known for apathetic support and lousy products. As far as Dell, we didn't go with them because it would have been more expensive, and supposedly they are notorious for having different parts in their systems, even when the systems are supposed to be identical, and ordered together.
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@DanKelley98: I saw the unflattering traffic here earlier and expected astro-turfing by now. It's just a tiny bit sad nobody is even making an effort.
Sorry Bill & Dave.
Actually, HP does still make a few good enterprise products, but I'm terrified to recommend them for fear their quality and support will suffer the fate of countless HP disasters from the last decade.
Say, that's what we need! Call it Halloween's fault, but a zombie-infestation map showing HP products vs. support groups over time would be golden. Any HP insiders want to help out?
@DanKelley98: yup. I work for a company that small business IT consulting, and we order dozens of computers a year for customers, I have been there for almost 2 years and have NEVER recommended an HP for this reason. My laptops are Lenovo, my desktops are Dell, and I have not had a problem with either in the years I have worked with.
Most recently, one of the clients had an HP, they demanded a credit card in order to send me a warranty replacement on a part, they made me run through dozens of diagnostics that i had done already before that, made me reformat the computer and reinstall windows, etc. Never Again.
With dell, I hop on chat, paste in my own diagnostic notes, and bam, I get a part. Lenovo, I call, tell them what I did, bam I get a part.
Try contacting Bing and HP on twitter. twitter.com/bing and [twitter.com]
I would make the tweet something like this:
@bing @HPSupport participated in your $100 cashback promotion, for some reason cash was canceled. Who will help me?
Then just leave an is.gd url to this page and there's a good chance someone might help.
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HP is a crappy company that makes crappy stuff and their support is right in line with the rest of the company.
Return the PC and chargeback the entire transaction. What laptop costs $30 to ship anyway?
This is non ethical or legal. Returning the product will show HP exactly what this type of behavior will do for them.
Corporate America hides behind their large size and depends on people to not follow through in situations like this.
Don't be a pushover!
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@bkdlays: Return the laptop and speak with your wallet. Make sure you state the reason for returning it in full detail. Don't buy from companies like Dell and HP, their product sucks and so does their customer service.
@bkdlays:
I agree - return the laptop and buy a decent machine instead. I have a Dell Mini9 that I've had no problems with (although they aren't available anymore).
@wrjohnston91283: I agree as well, and I would complaint to the credit card company for the additional shipping back. Yes there may be terms and conditions but you can @wvFrugan: I like the way your thinking! Intentionally giving a customer a hassle like this deserves some hassle in return...
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Do what corporate_guy said and file a chargeback for the $100.
Bing said you should get it and HP had to fix it and then HP said Bing screwed up and Bing had to fix it.
This is an easy and very very justified chargeback.
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From other stories posted here on Consumerist, this sounds like an open and shut case for small claims court. Just figure out how to serve HP with the claim and you should get your money back and then some.
@sleze69: Small claims court is definitely the right way to go. I fought with HP for months over their C5280 printer. Their marketing claimed that this printer would produce \"lab-quality photo prints,\" which was just a lie. They made me go through two replacement printers, replacement ink cartridges and replacement photo paper, none of which helped. Finally, when they said there was nothing more they could do, I notified them that I would be suing them not only for all of my out-of-pocket expenses for the printer, but also for triple damages because of false advertising. They ignored my notification, so I went ahead and sued them in small claims court, and that's what it took to finally get a satisfactory resolution -- they took back the three printers (the original one I bought as well as the two replacements), replacement cartridges and replacement photo paper, refunded me for all of my out-of-pocket expenses, and gave me something over and above that to compensate me for all the time I'd wasted.
I replaced the C5280 with a Canon PIXMA MP830, which is a *great* printer and really *does* produce lab-quality photo prints.
The OP should investigate whether his state allows consumers to sue for double or triple damages for deceptive advertising. That'll get HP's attention.
HP has really gone to hell. They were a great company once, but no more.
@sleze69:
Does going to your state's Secretary of State website and looking up a company's registered agent always work? That's what I've assumed, but have never tried it myself.
@josquin021: Yes, that works. And I know in my state, the SotS will accept service for foreign corporations even if they aren't registered here.
Plus small claims (all courts, really) are extremely helpful when non-lawyers call with questions. If the OP decides to go the small claims route, they should be able to find out exactly what to do by calling or going to see the clerk.
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Not sure that it is still a valid number, but 281-927-1103 should be a direct line to Sandra Ganann, a senior HP case manager. She works out of a different office than most HP case managers and I believe she specializes in power issues, but it's worth a shot.
@CompyPaq: Some further digging through my old HP files found 281-927-2760 as the direct number for Harry Jeffery who works out of the same office as Sandra Ganann.
@CompyPaq:
Two more numbers:
1) 1-877-917-4380 x93 - HP's main Laptop Case Manager line - Just tested it and it works
2) 1 800 756-0608 x6 pass code 190 - Gets you to the other case managers that work with Harry Jeffery and Sandra Ganann - Also still works
While it's not directly related, HP did me wrong last year and I will never buy another product from them again. I was using a very popular photoprinter of theirs, the Photosmart 1115 - it printed excellent pictures and as far as ink-eaters go, it wasn;t too bad. Anyway, I had to upgrade to Vista and long story short, they refused to support vista drivers on this \"old\" model printer. Now I can understand wanting people to buy newer, cheaper and more ink-hungry printers but MANY people used the 1115 - to cut them off like that and without any recourse other than \"use a different printer's driver set\" was a very poor business decision on their part IMO. OH and the other printer drivers only allowed me to print to regular paper - not photo paper which was the intention of the printer in the first place.
I'm now a Canon owner and I haven't missed HP at all - in fact the printer has updated its drivers on its own already.
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@Goatweed: It wasn't just HP that hosed a lot of users on the matter of Vista support. It was an industry-wide phenomenon. Microsoft put a new driver architecture into place and a lot of vendors flat-out refused to revamp old drivers for Vista. Upcoming products, yeah, they developed Vista drivers for those ... but for existing ones? Nope, they wouldn't shove a crowbar into their collective wallets to pry them open and pay for a little extra driver development.
Microsoft's Vista decisions — and the industry's staunch refusal to deal with them — managed to bite some Microsoft executives in the rear.
Yep, the Vista debacle was a stunning indictment of the entire computer industry. It wasn't just Microsoft's fault ... although they had a majority share of the blame. Third party vendors compounded the problems. They definitely made things much harder than they needed to be.
@PsiCop: I've heard that many times but maybe I just got lucky because I had no issues with any of the other hardware drivers when I moved to Vista. Some say it's because I upgraded to Vista 64 which is apparently MUCH better than it's 32 bit cousin, but I had no problems getting my cards up & running - only the printer was a problem.
I'm no fan of MS, but HP's reply of literally \"hey, buy a new printer already\" really irked me.
Refuse delivery & do a chargeback, no return shipping costs, no nothing! Or, better yet, do a chargeback and keep the POS! They deserve to get screwed back for wasting your time.
@Jfielder23: While not the purpose, it would be a just turnabout if they got caught in the same corporate BS flytrap that they are attempting to play on him.
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I used to work for a big company that does business through Cashback. Trying to diagnose issues with it was pretty much impossible.
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I'd rather see HP sued. Don't sue a lot. Just keep it in small claims court. Then they might not show up and you get a default judgment.
If the laptop has not been delivered yet, refuse delivery. If it delivered and unopened, you should still be able to refuse delivery (I think). If none of these apply, I would try for a resolution via the credit card issuer.
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I think small claims court would work best here. The big companies aren't going to send a lawyer that gets over $100/hr to deal with the case of the missing $100. IIRC, you can deliver the summons to pretty much anything associated with HP. Of course, you shouldn't base a legal case on the recommendations of one guy on the internet, no matter how cool his avatar.
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We had a very similar problem. It took us over a week, though, to even get an answer from Bing that it was HP's denial. Eventually we found out from HP that an \"instant\" rebate was mistakenly put into the system as a coupon, and that was the cause for denial.
Unfortunately, I don't have further advice. It was the resolutions line at HP that was able to fix the problem for us. They were very prompt about fixing it as soon as it was brought to their attention.
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It's better to be out $29 for shipping than reward HP for ripping you off.
Chalk it up as a lesson learned and then never deal with HP as you have seen 1st hand they will rip you off and make sure you tell everyone your experience.
In the end, that $100 will cost HP more in lost sales...
Best Buy is my HP and I know for a fact I have cost them at least 20+ people and well over $25,000 in sales over the past five years... Each time I have been asked about Best Buy this or that, I was able to steer them to a cheaper and often better version of whatever was being sold at Best Buy.
@Trick:
And each time you mention Best Buy there is somebody who hears your comment as being a postive recommendation and the person buys 3x as much as you diverate away.
@Trick: Based on?!? HP is competing as a price leader, meaning people don't buy their computers for the features or service but because they are cheap. Nothing can kill HP except someone intercepting a shipment of their chinese made computers and replacing the innards with doritos and rotting fish.
Sue both HP and Microsoft (who owns Bing) in small claims court for $100 + a 'reasonable' hourly rate for your time sorting everything out. ;)
I have wondered about this entire Bing cash back scam. Now it is confirmed.
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@StanTheManDean: I've used it successfully. I was buying high end car speakers on ebay, and was getting 30% cashback on them. It took a while to show up, but it was there.
They probably \"meant\" to have a minimum for the offer but never got around to it. They should still honor it however, but I don't think they'll budge. See...they have more lawyers than you and they use them often. ;)
Still...for 300 bucks you could've gotten an acer netbook and dodged the shipping and headaches from the transaction and when it goes nuts 3 months down the line.
Don't listen to these people who say \"sue in small claims court\" that's a waste...what you should do is send 10 tons of cow poop (get it...\"bull-crap\"...not really but good enough) to HP headquarters and have them dump it in the executive parking lot. It would cost a LOT more than the netbook but principle and revenge are priceless in this world.
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Why oh why would ANYONE in their right mind have even passing dealings with an organization that only had e-mail support? Wow. Companies just keep finding ways to rip-off consumers.
To get executive customer service call: 1-800-756-0608
When it asks for 'the number you were given' hit 7. I called this last week, so I know it works. Do not return the laptop and absorb the shipping charge. If you can't resolve it there:
1. File a complaint with the FTC: [www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov]
2. Write a letter to your attorney general and CC it to their address:
Hewlett-Packard Company
3000 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA 94304-1185 USA
3. File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau: [sanjose.bbb.org] (They have an A rating, which means they resolve a great majority of issues reasonably.)
4. Contact them through their twitter as mentioned above.
Both the attorney general and the BBB will contact them (the FTC doesn't respond to individual complaints, but they will take action if they receive numerous complaints about the same company). #2, #3, and #4 will all end up with different people and you'll almost certainly get help fast.
If none of that works, you have an open and shut civil case. I would still contact a lawyer if you get to the point of suing them. The lawyer will be able to recover legal fees and punitive damages allowed under the laws of your state, which may be much more than the $100 actual damages.
@darkforcesjedi: You don't need a lawyer to sue in small claims court, nor do you need a lawyer to sue for punitive damages if your state allow such damages for deceptive advertising. How to do all of this yourself is well-documented on the Internet and is easy. Paying a lawyer to do it would be stupid.
Not to mention the fact that HP will cave as soon as you file the small claims suit and fax a copy of it to your HP case manager.
I like the phase \"maze of incompetence\"...
That is all.
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HP? Great job! You saved $100 and as a bonus, have just turned thousands of people away from ever buying your laptops. Good job!
I just experienced the exact same issue as is described in this email. HP denied my bing cashback several days after receiving the computer from them.
After speaking to many many representatives from Bing and HP I have found that bing cashback will be denied if you are shopping on the employee purchase program. However, the HP representative said this was a judgment call made by her supervisor and there is NO documentation that stated I would lose my bing cashback by using the EPP program.
Also, I one month ago I made the exact same laptop purchase, using the EPP program, and Bing cashback and was awarded my $120 cashback.
HP returned $45 to my credit card, but I was owed $118. I will be disputing the rest with AMEX.
I had a similar issue dealing with Ebay and Bing cashback, best advice is to deal only with Microsoft and worth through their people. It may take a couple months but at least for me they eventually came through.
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Simply. Fraud.
Report them to the Consumer Protection division AG offices of the states where both corporations reside, and your own, where the fraud took place.
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You should have a nice paper trail now. Talk to your credit card company. Maybe they can do a 100 dollar chargeback.
@Corporate_guy: Just refuse delivery of the thing and dispute the charge. Why put that much time and effort into this thing.
@Corporate_guy:
I was thinking the same thing, then rather then have them be up 100$, they're out 350$, and its almost like they gave the laptop away.