*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

This would make much more sense to me, I already had an EPP account set up years ago, but didn't see any discounts being applied because of it. Oh well, I really liked the light weight and the battery life, but apparently might have other issues like the stability of the battery and heat. :/

 

Ouch. Looks like a lot of people are getting the AXE on the 25% discount.

If I were you I would be really quickly explaining your situation to any Technology media site out there. Or better yet a nice detailed letter to Engadget. It's just a thought but it seems like to me you guys are royally getting the shaft, all the ways from DUAL HDD, E2E, Shipping and now the 25% discount code.

It's hard to figure out what is real and what isn't with this product launch. I would have to think this has to be one of the worst Custom order Product launches I have ever seen. I hope you guys really don't let all this slide.

Could you imagine if this was a dell product. This would be all over the media by now. Sorry if this offends anyone, but I am sure most of you would agree.

 

Hi Peppe1,

Actually, there seems to be no way to talk with somebody in bing. I got my information from HP. They told me they could not credit my purchase to bing even I use bing's link to make my purchase without any discount. As long as HP does not make the credit to bing, bing will not give us cashback.

Donv

 

Donv, Whenever I call HP number and say connect it says there was an error and disconnects me. What path did you take to talk to a rep?

I understand BING is going to point the finger to HP and HP is going to play dumb.

Anyone know if there are grounds to dispute the credit card charge? I hate to bring another large corporation into the mix, but there seems to some violation here.

I imagine if you buy something at whatever amount with a 25% rebate, then the store cancels the 25% rebate even though you meet all the terms of the deal there is some ground to dispute all or a portion of the credit card charge.

 

I went and had a look at it in the store and I loved it I'm starting up my very own Envy right now

 

Not a single Best Buy in the area I live carries these.

 

Since it seems no one has a recent experience with the RadTech BT600, I simply ordered it myself. I'll report back when I get the Envy and the mouse (sometime next week).

 

Congratulations are in place

Where did you make your purchase?
What about the configuration... 15-1099eo? Screen resolution, memory, ODD, battery slice?

 

Congrats and enjoy.

 

The thing with your Bing cashback seems weird. You guys make sure there were no extra coupon or promotional codes attached to your order? Even ones that are automatically applied need to be manually removed, otherwise it voids the Cashback. I ordered 2 Envy 15's at around 8pm EST on the 18th. because I thought the Bing Cashback didn't go through for the 1st order. The Bing cashback showed up on my account for both in about an hour. I cancelled one of the orders and now the other one has shipped. I still have the Bing cashback for both orders on my account, only going to be able to claim the cashback for the order that got processed, but both are still valid and active. There are 2-3 things in the fine print of Bing Cashback that can automatically invalidate your order, recheck those. Just saying I made absolutely sure there were no special offers/coupons attached to my order.

 

I would think HP has legal consultants to protect their ground in these bing cashback cancellations. Bascially, they are prepared in case some of us are going to sue them. Their agreement with bing should already has some hidden terms to protect them from any charge. I am not saying there is no way to defend, but it will be very costly to do so. It may be just more costless to cancel the order.

BTW, you could call this number: 888-999-4747.

 

I got the 15-1099eo at Computer City in Sweden
Windows® 7 Home Premium
Intel® Core™-processor i7-720QM 1,60 GHz
4096 MB RAM
320 GB HD
Screen 1366 x 768
LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD±RW m

No slice :-( but I will get one as soon as they get them in at HP

 

Certain HP discounts and free shipping deals are still ok to get Bing cashback. Read number #3 (from the Bing FAQ):

1. The cashback percentage offered will apply to your entire order, before taxes and shipping costs.
2. Entering a coupon code at the payment page will void your cashback. Also, beginning 10/2009, the Friends & Family program, HP Academy program, and the Employee Purchase Program can no longer be combined with cashback.
3. Instant rebates and automatic free shipping on the HP Home & Office site will not void your cashback.
4. Partial returns of an order will be recalculated and the cashback will apply to the new total purchase amount before taxes and shipping charges.

 

Fantastic news. Thanks a lot for the quick review man. I've been logging on periodically to see people's initial experiences with this machine, but most of the posts are people trying to get the Bing CB worked out lol. No offense to any of you guys, but we dont have Bing CB in Canada... so its completely irrelavent to me. Hope you all get your ridiculously good discounts though .

I think i'm back to leaning towards getting this thing once i get a chance to take a look at a working model myself. Its a toss up between this and the up comming Lenovo Y550P core i7 coming out in a few weeks. Only problem with that machine is that its not a 1080p resolution screen (but it is a Matt finish so no shine!). I does however have an optical drive built in (not a huge plus... but one none the less), have something called the Lenovo: Microsoft User Experience (something Lenovo worked out with Microsoft to optimize its new machines for Win7), its cheapers than the Envy 15 and it has the backing of a strong Laptop maker for its Branding. Its rocking the 1 gb NVidia 240M... any thoughts on that? I have no idea what the specs are on that thing.

Anyone else looking into the Lenovo have comparisons with the Envy. So far i think their strengths offset one and other. The heat dissipation due to build design was going to be the determining factor for me.

 

I would be talking to an attorney or state Attorneys General office if I were in the position of you guys. To me, it's bait-and-switch for HP to be denying the Bing credit. Was the EPP discount applied when your credit card was charged? No? Then it wasn't a purchase under their EPP program. Just because they have an EPP database with your name and address in it is irrelevant. If you weren't given an EPP discount up front, and if you didn't even order the laptop using their "EPP" site, how can it be an EPP purchase? I bet none of your order e-mails reference EPP. They need to explain to you (or to a court, or to an AG) how it was an EPP purchase.

 

I avoided combining the discount with EPP. There is no way I can see to remove EPP from my account, but I can access the full retail store that removed the EPP pricing.

My order was:
Unit price: 1,874.99 which is the 1800 base unit + the $75 DVD drive.
Tax: 54.37

Added that to the cart checked out. Yes I left the free shipping, but the BING faq explicitly states free shipping promos are ok.


Did anyone with NON EPP accounts get canceled yet?

 

Carac, as I indicated in my previous post, HP already pointed out the reason my bing cash back is voided is because my name is in their EPP record. They told me once you are with EPP, you are always with EPP regardless whether you use bing's link. Again, this is totally under HP's discretion. If the bing cashback is only 5%, the whole story will be different.

 

I'm willing to go out on a limb and say if one was in the EPP and ordered through their regular site, HP wouldn't go out of their way to give the customer a better deal.

they have alot of nerve.

 

Okay I have an update on the bing cancellation....I believe I was one of the first to get the axe for the BCB so I gave HP a call immedietly. I spoke to a representative and asked if my order was cancelled. They took a look and said no, it's actually been shipped and has been tagged with a tracking number.

Ok. I then explain to them that I purchased the laptop on the 18th with the BCB and I just recieved an email from Bing that my ordered was cancelled. She says no it hasn't and that it's being shipped. She knows i'm pretty disgruntled and straight up offers me 10% off, I didn't even ask for anything yet!!! I think HP is well aware of what is going on and just trying to diffuse the situation. The lady then tells me you have to contact bing and see what is going on because we don't talk to them directly, and I really don't know what is going on. I tell her that i'll contact Bing and see what's going on. Before I hang up the phone she asks me again, So do you want the 10%, it's 177 dollars of your purchase? I say no thank you and hang up the phone.

I then go online searching for a Bing contact number and guess what? they don't have a freakin number... the only way to get in touch is through email, twitter, or facebook. I don't think that is too professional, but whatever. I give it a shot and send them an email. I really don't feel like going through the hassle of all this for the laptop, but I want to know what is going on because one of these big companies gave me the shaft, HP or Bing. And now I find out i'm not the only one.

Here is the AUTOMATED email they sent me:
Thank you for contacting Bing cashback Customer Support. We have received your service request.
We want to assure you that your issue is very important to us. You should receive a response to your service request within 48 hours. We respond to all service requests in the order in which they are received. Please note that submitting another ticket on the same issue will not expedite service.
In the meantime, please review our FAQ's at this link: http://www.bing.com/shopping/pages/faq.aspx?FORM=R5FD3
Thank you for your patience.
Bing cashback Customer Support
* Please note this is an unmonitored mailbox

I look at this email and i'm like damn, I wonder how long is going to take for them to respond this (I read some pretty bad reviews about customer service through bing, on their own site!!!).

To my suprise, three hours later I get this:
Thank you for contacting us at Bing cashback Customer Support. My name is Carmi. I will be assisting you with Service Request 1115690890 regarding your cancelled purchase.

We are sorry to hear your cashback has been cancelled. I am passing this along to a member of our team who is an expert in resolving this kind of issue. From this point forward they will be your primary contact for thi incident. I apologize for any disappointment and inconvenience this may cause you.
Thank you for contacting Bing cashback Customer Support.

Warmest regards,
Carmi
Customer Service Representative
Bing cashback Customer Support-- http://bing.com/cashback.

Not much progress yet. Then they throw me to another bing rep and I get this email earlier today:
Thank you for contacting Bing cashback Customer Support! My name is Ziggy. I will be assisting you with Service Request 1115690890.

I understand that you're expecting your cashback from the purchase you've made at HP Home and Home Office Store, but it is showing cancelled in your account. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Let me help you with your concern.

We just wanted to update you to let you know that we are still working with HP Home and Home Office Store to validate your purchase. This process is taking longer than we had originally anticipated and we deeply apologize for the delay and inconvenience. As soon as we receive any updates regarding your purchase, we will contact you immediately. Once again, we apologize for the delay.
Thank you for your continual patience and understanding as we work with HP to resolve this issue.
Should you have any further questions feel free to send us an e-mail.

Thank you for contacting Bing Cashback Customer Support!


Warmest Regard,

Ziggy
Customer Service Representative
Bing cashback Customer Support-- http://bing.com/cashback


I know this is a lot of crap to post but I wanted to give everyone that got the shaft all the info I can.

That's all for now. When they send me another email i'll update as soon as I can.

edit:
And yes I have the academic disount thing through HP, which I made sure I did not use.
I also used two day shipping.

 

Folks, HP already did some cashback cancellation in last year's Black Friday. There is a guy complaining in Microsoft's community forum about his 40% cashback cancellation. Here is the link: http://getsatisfaction.com/microsoft/topics/cashback_is_a_scam_read_what_happened_unbelievable

 

When you say your name is in their EPP record, do you mean the email address by which they can identify you? Or is it the name along with billing/shipping address they use to identify a person?

 

Does HP have a BING cashback FAQ or Policy on their site? I don't recall reading anything that said simple having EPP on your account disqualifies you from the offer.

The only terms I saw were to use the Link from BING to HP shopping (confirmed by a popup on the site when you start shopping) and complete an order without using discounts from the banned list.

I think it said to complete an order within 24 hours, but I completed within minutes and in the same window/browser session etc.

Order completed. Bing notified a few minutes later. Everything looked good.

 

Time to call up Bill and start telling him to fork over the cash.

 

I'm considering the Lenovo too, but I haven't found enough info about it to make much of a comparison (the starting price is much lower than ENVY, but it is unclear what you get for that price). I also anticipate that it will be even more difficult to see in person at a store than the ENVY. But the general stuff I've seen about it keeps me interested in waiting out the market for more i7 options. Right now you really can't beat the Dell Studio XPS 16 in terms of value (I just can't bring myself to accept the ugly design...I need one that can pass as a professional looking laptop).

 

yay, thank you for your post. But unfortunately, I don't think bing is going to resolve the issue for us unless HP is willing to give credit to bing. The fact is that HP is only happy with no more than $200 discount with our HP 15 purchase. When I talked with the rep with HP, she seems already know exactly what happens after she talked with her supervisor.

 

You guys need to get this out to Media. HP or BING won't like that at all, and you may get some satisfaction. If you guys try and get to the bottom of it you will just be passed around, and eventually become so frustrated you will just give up.

Seriously let engadget and other tech site know what is going. YOu might be surprised to see the response from HP and BING.

 

what a mess.

i never understood this whole bing cashback deal.

when i first heard of the system i just thought 'why does microsoft have any reason to give people large amounts of money for purchasing other companies products just because they used the bing search engine to navigate to the checkout?'

but also about the computer.. some people have them in their hands now.. so what is the final deal with the e2e screen? the hard drive bays? and the gpu ram type?

i am pretty much completely giving up on considering this machine in light of all this mess of a launch barring some sort of miraculous reviews.

on another note, comcast has raised the price of my internet service from 58 to 78 dollars.. for no reason. so i too have been dealing with customer service nonsense for much too long today. i wish there was a way to bill these corporations for our time.

 

Thank you, newfiejudd. I agree we need to get this to media. I just want to save some time to deal with HP, especially after experiencing so much false advertisement information from HP. Time cost is very expensive for me, and I just do not want to deal with them at the near term.

 

Looks like you can only run two 1.8" drives, which is stupid since there aren't any high capacity 1.8" drives out.

 

Yes chances are low that I will get my credit, I don't mind. My goal right now is not to get my 450 because I plan on returning the laptop, it is to simply find out why all of us were denied the cashback offer when I know that all of us, except one, followed the guidelines. I just want to find out if BCB is a sham and whether I can purchase from them in the future with a little security. Just doing a little future proofing for all of us, thats all. To trust or not to trust?

 

yay, although I was intially mad about bing, later I realized actually it is not their fault because they just have to base on HP's information to determine whether to honor the cashback. Actually, it is in Microsoft's favor to give us the cashback since they will get commission for every bing purchase from HP.

 

<sarcasm> Hey, if you get a friend to buy my widget, I'll give you a $200 dollar commission. I recommend that you offer your friend a $500 rebate as an incentive. Deal?</s>

So we don't really know how much commission HP is giving Bing (someone is speculating $200), but there is no way margins are large enough to offer them a 25% commission...so Bing is offering a bigger rebate than the commission they receive (at least that's my guess). In that case, I'm not sure Bing wants these deals to actually go through any more than HP does. All that said, Bing is in the clear so long as HP is the one canceling and not confirming Bing deals.

 

You know what donv? I thought the same thing until I saw this: http://www.bing.com/community/forums/12266.aspx

I think you should check it out.
Somebody, HP or Bing, both huge companies, are giving us the short end of the stick.

 

Called HP and got through with the number Donv posted. I hate foreign support...

This rep said everything looked good and I should contact Bing. She believed it wasn't anything on HP's end. Super, Bing is going to say HP canceled the rebate and I'll be right back on the line. I opened a ticket with Bing last night, so will hopefully get their official stance. Relay that to their partner in crime and hopefully get the next HP rep to go down a different script.

 

Hey guys. I just wanted to say, what I don't understand with the canceled orders is that if HP or BCB didn't want people to get the money back, wouldn't they cancel more orders? Like for instance, my order and BCB is still pending and has not been canceled, atleast not as of yet. I just think there has to be something that happened to cause the cancellations. I truly believe HP and/or BCB want to give you guys the money. During the 40% for instance, I got it with no problems whatsoever. I've never had a problem (as of yet) with BCB and getting my money.

 

hey peppe1, I saw your post on bing . I'm gonna steer clear of their forums. It seems as if the reps pick and choose who they want to help.

 

I would hope it was a mistake, where they canceled all orders made from accounts that have EPP/Academic enabled. That they just didn't go the extra step to check if the account used the discount or paid full retail to get the 25% discount.

 

yay, thank you for your link. I guess when Microsoft setup the cashback business it already takes into account that they will find some "legitimate" way to dishonor some cashbacks that actually follow their procedure posted online but not their exact agreement. By this way, MS could realize more short term profit. Nowadays, not many big companies overweigh short term profit over long term reputation.

However, in our case, I would think at least HP does not want us to earn the 25% cashback because I asked the supervsior from Hp to give my purchase credit to Bing but she refused my request and offered me the $200 at most offer. She later refused to offer more even I said I had to cancel my order. So, I would figure the commission HP pays to bing should be at least greater than $200 in this case.

 

Are you talking about HP cancelling orders? they cannot do that without customer authorization.
With your BCB i would proceed with caution. Some people on the Bing forums BCB were active until the last day and then got cancelled( there is a 60 day peroid). Now what would you do if your 21 day return policy expired and the very next day Bing sent you an email stating the exact same thing all of us got? No return means your stuck with the lappy and who gets to pocket your money?

edit:
I am almost beginning to think that HP screwed themselves with this BCB 25%. What if they offered this discount thinking people were gonna go for low end or mid range laptops; or they did this thinking they were gonna clear out their old inventory. Instead i'm sure word got around and everybody swooped up all the new laptops- now their profit margins dropped considerably and they are now doing damage control, having a type of lottery for the 25% back.They are probably sitting there going you get it, this guy doesn't, he does. he has an envy, no way, you can your laptop is cheap, not you.........I think you guys get my point

 

http://translate.googleusercontent....le.com&usg=ALkJrhjC3szawnPG3swbKSt6RgyqNgeozQ

Anyone seen this yet?

 

I made a typo, I meant cancelled BCB, not cancelled orders.

Could be, but I don't know, so far it seems like only one person has said they had EPP/APP with the BCB.

 

At that point I think all you can do is dispute it with your credit card company (if you used a credit card). You have 60 days from when it first shows up on a statement to dispute it.

I've never disputed a charge, usaully you dispute a double bill or someone billing you without authorization. I don't know how they would handle the sale of an item with a rebate, and the rebate being wrongly canceled.

 

Any idea Donv? Because if we know how they match, we can always change the information on the account not in use.

 

Actually, I think in this case, it's more of gray area than a standard rebate. Technically BCB is not a rebate at all, and also is not directly from HP, per se. I think you'd have a hard time arguing with your credit card company over the charge. It gets so convoluted that I don't know if it's as simple as just disputing it.

 

One thing I learn from the HP BCB cancellation Episode. Next time, I will not take BCB into account to pull my trigger to buy anything. So, even later the BCB is cancelled for whatever reason, I will not be mad.

On this case, unfortunately, without the 25% cashback, I would not buy Envy 15.

 

rexian, the HP rep told me is because of the billing address, but I don't think so since your roomate may make the same purchase too. I would think it is couple of information combined.

 

Thanks. In that case I'll update my EPP account's address with my work address and create another account with my home address. I think that'll be the work-around for those of us with EPP accounts. May be we should use 2 different credit cards too.

 

Hey was just wondering if anybody else has had their laptop leave Anchorage too (although I haven't seen anyone say that there's has left China yet)? It got there around midnight. After a 10 hour layover it looks like mine is on it's way to continental United States. Wonder if I'll be able to get it tomorrow?!? Does Fedex deliver on Sat?

 

News from Bing. Bing sent me an email after I disbuted the cancellation of my BCB. They did not answer my question why they cancel my cashback. Rather, they give a new cashback based on 3% of my purchase price of Envy on October 18. What a mess!

What my understanding from this is that making me cancel my envy order will hurt bing and hp, but give me 25% CB will hurt them more.

 

I forwarded the info in this forum to Engadget and I also forwarded it to any news agency that would listen. I strongly feel you guys are getting played here. And I hope this type of Action from BING and HP gets noticed on a more elevated level.

I am willing to bet buttons to beach rocks that if this was APPLE or DELL it would be all over the net by now, and every technology site would be screaming. I just hope you guys get this resolved.

And to think I was about to get my Wife one For christmas, sorry HP I will SPEND my money somewhere else.