HP wants to charge me $400+ for a replacement dv5

I am still within the 21 day return period and the backlight bleed on my dv5t is the worst I have seen on a notebook, so I thought I would exchange it as the HP rep suggested...

After spending an hour and half on the phone I finally got someone to process the exchange, but they told me they would have to charge me another $400 to ship a new notebook to me with the same specs.

Are you kidding me?

So, to get a REPLACEMENT notebook with the exact same specs, I would have to pay another $400, even thought I am within the 21 day return period.

Their excuse was that the promos offered at the time I ordered my notebook are no longer being offered.

SO WHAT? That shouldn't be an issue, Dell despite all of its faults would have simply ordered me a new replacement at no additional cost and exchanged it for the defective notebook.

Why is this so hard for HP?

 

I'm considering doing an exchange for mine to see if the whining will go away with the new one

 

If you're within the return period, might you just want to return it then order a new one? If not, just keep trying tech support, you'll get through to someone!

 

That's horrible, unheard of. There's a defect so they must give you a replacement at your purchase price, they can't just redo your bill with the current price. Don't they have a guarantee, a warranty, etc, especially it should be no questions during the return period. How can they do that if you say it's defective and you want a replacement, not a return and repurchase at full price. That's one sick rule if they have some policy to not exchange laptops if they were on sale without doing that.

I'd be bashing the phone into my head at the point. Almost like when a CC employee at a store kept using my 10% coupon on a $2000 tv as 1% and looked at me like I was trying to trick her.

Also, I had a similar, but good, experience 3 or so years ago with Dell. I bought their Ultrasharp fw2005 something 21 inch LCD screen. But it had bad bleeding. No questions they sent me a new one, and to ship back the original with the prepaid box. The 2nd one was worse. They sent me a third one before I even sent one back. At one point I had all 3 20inch screens side by side, still all bad.

I sent the worst back but called one more time and they told me the new batch had this issue fixed. I was like cool, but skeptical, so I say yes, send me one of those new fixed models.

Well, at that point I was past the return period so normally a replacement would be a refurb instead of new. I only said okay since we were talking about the new one with a fix, a refurb would be pointless. That 4th screen turned out to be a refurb, months older than the last one.

Only thing during this process was that if I didn't return the defective unit I'd get charged the full price for the extra monitor, $800, instead of the sale price, $500 that I paid on the first one.

Though, while they did their best except that refurb mistake, I was pissed at the product and didn't want to call again after getting, so put the worst away for a few weeks. Glad I did, because the one I kept using went blank out of the blue. The power was on, the backlight still working, but just blank, even the monitor's own menus wouldn't work. I pulled out the extra one and then just forgot about the dead one. Left it in a closet for a year and never got charged. Then I got sick of the space it took up and before figuring out what to do I tested it one more time, voila, it was working for some reason. Never charged for it.

 

If he returns it I'd think he'd have the same problem, they'd charge the current price and not the deal he got the first time, so that would be $400 extra again.

 

An exchange CANNOT be more expensive. Tell them it is bait-n-switch if they want to charge $400, and you'll be contacting the state attorney general if that is how they play it.

 

Good point Greg...if worse comes to worst...small claims court like the other guy on this forum...

 

Can't, I got a free upgrade to 4gb of ram and a 320GB HD.

Which is why they want to charge me more now that the promo is over.

 

After 2 that is TWO hours of talking with customer support, they said they will credit me the difference of the new laptop vs my old laptop one the replacement ships, so essentially in the end I won't have to pay anymore money.

Only problem is, it is going to take a little over a month before I get the replacement in my hands.

So I guess I am just going to live with what I got, because after checking other dv5ts in the store, their backlight bleeding is just as bad. Worst case I can always have tech support repair mine later if it bugs me that much.

 

Uhh are u being totally honest here?

Exchanges with HP are hassle but from my experience what they say is that if you use a coupon or w/e they have to charge you the FULL amount of what the laptop would have been without w/e coupons or promos you used at the time.

HOWEVER once your laptop is shipped HP will credit you the extra amount you paid.

So for example if you used 30% on your laptop and wanted an exchange you'll pay the 30% and then get it credited back in a few business days.

But maybe your case is special or something. I'll admit that HP Customer Sales reps can be hell on earth but I've never seen anything like the situation you're describing...

 

I am being totally honest, I had to talk with several reps before one of them even mentioned I would be credited the difference back.

 

Get it in writing, otherwise you will get screwed.

HP, nor any company, ever charges money for a replacement in my experience.

 

It's so easy to for them to say they will refund you, but with any company, if something goes wrong, what took them 2 seconds to take from you will take months to give back, if ever.

 

Hmm...I thought Dell was bad..this is ridiculous...a replacement has nothing to do with price, you are entitled to a product you paid for, if the price changed thats too bad on HP, they should have sent you a proper machine right away. This is insane and worrisome to hear..

I seriously considered Apple just for the Cust Care, but the prices brought me right back to PCs .

 

I had issue with Dell and getting a exchange they wanted to send someone out to fix a brand new laptop only a few days old and barely any use. Most was doing the updates it required. The exchange took me beyond the 21 days which was not my fault I was told 10 to 15 business days not two months. They violate set up by the Fed Trade Commission. I got their attention by contacting the better business and then after 6 months I finally was able to send to send back the defective units and not pay a restocking fee. Why charge a restock on a defective unit, to resell it to someone else so they can have the same issues. BBB when in doubt.

 

tell them you want to speak to a case manager. they should be able to help you. they were incompetent with my case, but, it was resolved to a lesser degree of satisfaction. GET A CASE MANAGER AND ASK FOR EVERY UPGRADE YOU CAN THINK OF. i hate hp.

 

the situation normally happen when you used coupon to buy the laptop which you want to return.

the theory of "exchange" in Hp is no depends on "species" of laptop, but the price you paid at that moment.

so, unless you can find a similar coupon, or you will have to paid the different.
yep, that does not sounds right, but it always happens.