HP Support - Be Persistent!

OK, I'll try to make this as brief as I can, but it requires somewhat of detail.

I purchase a customized dv6500t late Sunday evening, May 13th. The next day I receive an email from HP telling me that my order was declined and that I should call customer support fix the problem. I immediately do so and of course reach a call center in India. The rep I was speaking with informs me there has been an issue with the HP website lately that only allows orders with the same billing and shipping address to be accepted. This seemed strange to me but I didn't question him. Although it was an inconvenience, I went ahead and just made both addresses the same. He informs me that he will be placing the exact same order and doesn't ask me what options I would like nor does he confirm the same price. I am under the assumption I am purchasing the same computer for the same price.

Well, I look at my order confirmation the next day and notice my charge is now $180+ more than it originally was. The rep never added in the 15% coupon. This kind of ticked me off, but I figured a quick phone call to HP support would remedy the problem. That's where I was wrong. I get connected with a gal, again from India. She is of absolutely no help to me. She sounds like one of those online support reps that use automated responses in the chat programs. She keeps insisting that I use the 15% coupon on another purchase, like a printer or an extended warranty on my laptop. I do not wish to purchase a printer and I'm not interested in an extended warranty. She repeated this probably there times. I asked her if there was anybody else I could talk to that could handle this matter better and she basically continues with her resolution, which has me being hosed. This is essentially the same as calling in for a price protection credit (except of course I just want my original price). She appears to making it a technicallity that is becoming ridiculous. I even made the analogy. I get annoyed with her and I ask her to forward me over to the survey since I was still all heated about this. At the end of the survey I'm told I would contacted within a day by an HP customer support rep to fix this problem.

I never got a call that day and I ended up calling again the next morning. This was an entirely different experience. I explained my problom almost no different than I had with the previous rep, but this guy must have listend when I asked if there was someone more qualified that I could speak with and he went to his supervisor. He came back and immediately I was told the $180 would be credited back to my card. This is all I wanted and it was reletively painless through this new rep.

I tell ya, I was probably 99% ready to ditch HP all together and never shop from them again. This is how I learned yet again that an individual really can make a difference. I hope HP listens to my responses in that survey because I'm pretty certain there will be plenty of people that wouldn't even want to bother with a 2nd call. And I know this isn't a matter unique only to me. And I was especially annoyed since I was already having to return my current laptop, a dv6000t, because of the "eeeeeee" noise. This was also my 2nd chance for HP since I had to send in a desktop for repair a few years ago because of overheating. They sent it back to me without fixing a dang thing. They were hanging by a thread once this issue surfaced.

 

One thing to add to that.

hpshopping has a 30 day price guarantee, it says so on the receipt you look at online. I let 28 says lapse after I purchased my laptop and got some money back. The lady I spoke to went to the APP, did the configuration, and my money just posted to my credit card. I got $50.00 back on my new printer too because of another price drop.

 

Hopefully this is a temporary glitch and not some new procedure.

 

right, and i even used that analogy with her. i told her that HP has a 30 day price protection policy where i could call up 29 days later if the price dropped lower than what i paid for the computer and i would get credited the difference. they're essentially doing the same thing. it's just technicallity is all. that's what she made it out to be anyway. the second rep i spoke to immediately went to his supervisor and came back with right answer: my card will be credited. except i'm not asking for a lower price. i'm just asking for the ORIGINAL price i was billed for.

i can tell you my experiences and opinions of HP could have been alterred greatly if i had been connected with the second rep from the beginning. apparantly, an individual can have that big of an impact.

 

Yea I hate it when the worker themselves do not understand what customers ask. I mean I used to work at a job with customers who sometimes did not like my service but it was usually the customer who did not know what to ask not me, the worker. If the customer knows what they ask then I would understand.
However when a person works for something like a computer company or something I think they would get better training. I think the worker did not care for the customer or maybe she was a new worker so she had little understanding of what was asked. For a purchase of a computer is much different than what I sold as a worker. My job had to deal with fast food essentially. What I'm saying is a couple of cents is different from a couple of hundred dollars.

 

btw, HP Support did call me back the next day. the rep's name is Jeremy and he's clearly American (or at least he's got a great American accent anyway). i'm American so it helps a lot when i'm dealing with an American company. he was very curtious and this call actually helped even things up again with me and HP. it reassures me that there are individuals that can really make that kind of a difference. i'm referring to the gal that was a complete waste of time and no help at all. he kind of sounded concerned about which rep made the mistake (technically, there were two) and reassured me it's something they would try to work on. i'm sure part of it is usual BS that comes with the job, but he was cool and we chatted for a while so HP might have moved up a notch in my book.....for now

 

wow, that really shows how much of an impression a person can make for their company!

Where on the HP site is the 30 day price protection guarantee?

 

another update.....HP sent me an email with a $50 coupon towards any single purchase through the HP Store. that ain't bad

and i'm not sure where you would find anything about the HP's price protection policy on their website. i just know it exists. probably through word of mouth. but it pretty much goes without saying that all companies with some sort of a no hassle return policy (30 days is common) by default have a price protection policy as well since you could just return your computer and buy a new one at the lower price. same thing with Verizon i've noticed. they don't make it public knowledge but it's basically there.

 

ooh I found it,

thanks weiser