My credit card was charged upon order for the laptop which makes it even more ridiculous that I haven't received it yet (many retailers don't charge the card until it ships).
I ordered my Envy 17 3D (upgrade to 8GB ram, + extra battery) on 11/1/2010 and like some of you, I got the delay notification after the initial build-by date. Original date was 11/12 and I got the delay message on 11/15 that it would be delayed until around 11/29.
I started chat-help/phone help around the 12th periodically bugging them for status and I kept getting told stuff like "check back in 24 hours, check back next business day, etc" and once I was even told that it had already shipped but that fedex just hadn't updated me yet because it was a saturday. Anyways, the overall feeling was that the folks at the indian call-center (which if I can believe the guy i talked to, are actually all HP employees and not some contract company) really dropped the ball on the customer support side.
After finding out about the delay I started trying to get the 10% discount that some of you were getting as a courtesy for the delay. They initially pretended not to know about it then admitted that I wasn't offered it because I had gotten the $400 off on the coupon code. I told them that was unacceptable because they were basically telling me that I deserved less courtesy than someone who paid full price. They conferred with manager and offered me a $50 credit which I took while I appealed the decision. After some further bungling on their part and talking to the call center agent's manager directly, I got shot down for the 10% but I got the email address they sent the request to so I could pursue it upwards myself. I got a short reply saying they had approved the 10% coupon and they were sorry about the problems I had with my order.
I spelled out all the faults that occurred (delayed info updates, product delay, phone agents lying/being useless and poorly trained) but I got the impression that they just approved the 10% to shut me up and don't plan on trying to improve the customer support or reprimand the various people who dropped the ball along the way.
If anyone wants that email address I used, I can send it to you if you send me a message. (I think this forum supports that). I guess for myself I'm satisfied with how HP handled it but I kinda fear for the rest of you and anyone that didn't even think to complain at all and just bent over and took it. I tend to argue with customer support often when I buy things and they mess up somehow and it's often more for the principle of the thing versus the actual monetary value i could get. In that sense, I don't think I won today because though I got the money, I don't think they plan on fixing it so they don't treat other people that way and force them to deal with a horribly inefficient support process.
edit: To clarify, I used the $400 coupon code AND got the 10% off coupon for the delay. (total savings around $540) The $50 I got offered in interim was removed in favor of the 10% off. I still somehow got that 15% off on future purchase thing which was bull because I had initially refused it but whatever. I will update when I get a shipping confirmation.
edit2: Ok wow, I missed a second reply from that HP person:
"Yes I will definitely bring up your concerns in our next customer service review. We appreciate your feedback so we can make improvements when they are needed."
That makes me a bit more hopeful that the next time I need their support, it won't suck so bad.
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