Buying a laptop *rant*
Disclaimer: This is another rant, VERY LONG RANT. Read at your own risk.
After talking to my manager, I was told that a getting a laptop was a slim possibility. And since I needed a good laptop when I go back Singapore in March, I decided to invest in a good one. After searching quite abit, I settle of HP's dv6000t.
I made the purchase on 17th Jan(Wed) night. Everything seems right and the laptop cost around US$1210. For a higher end laptop, this seems like a good deal. I happily went to sleep that night.
Thursday afternoon, checking my email, I realised my order has been declined. DECLINE?!?! What the hell... Furthermore, reason not stated. Need to call them up to check. So with that, I called up the helpdesk. After listening to some stupid music for 20mins, someone finally answered my call. They said, my credit card has rejected the transaction, so they will need to clarify some information with me. After checking my name, address, phone and email, they said "There seems to be no problem". So after so much trouble, they rejected it for no reason. They will carry on with the purchase and will contact me soon.
Friday morning, I recieved a weird call. Someone from HP called, saying that they needed to verify my identity. They asked lots of weird questions like
Seems like I passed the test. They said they will be processing the order soon.
Friday night, my bank called me and told me there was suspicious activity on my credit card. 2 transaction in particular.
Monday morning, this is when it got really frustating.
My call was suddenly dropped. Frustated to have something done, I called back and asked to be transferred back to the supervisor... which they couldn't do. They transferred the call from 1 person to another.
*Then finally some good news*
I was transferred to a sales guy named Derek. (Yup, same name). Been so frustrated, I said "I really doubt you can do anything for me, I have been talking to a supervisor for the past hour". (Ya, it was quite rude of me). However, he was patient, and I said, "This was my previous order, number H......., it was rejected." That was all I told him. He put me back on hold, for 4-5 mins. *I was thinking, "Damn, more waiting".
When he finally got back on the phone, he told me, I talked to my supervisor, and this is what I can do for you. We can give you the same price of $1200, but it has to be in term of a credit. Which meant that I'll be charge $1500 (full price) first, and when its accepted by the credit card, the extra $300 will be credited back to the card. I was like "REALLY?!?!" This is the best news I heard this morning.
So in the end, I got the laptop for $1200 (Approved this afternoon) without the $40 cashback from fatwallent(I will take whatever victory I can get). I'm happy yet angry with the service I got from HP.
Will I buy from HP again? I don't know. Am I cheapstake? Maybe, but at the end of the day, it was the pricipal of the whole matter. If HP fail to honor the deal, I would have bought from a more expensive dealer.
After talking to my manager, I was told that a getting a laptop was a slim possibility. And since I needed a good laptop when I go back Singapore in March, I decided to invest in a good one. After searching quite abit, I settle of HP's dv6000t.
I made the purchase on 17th Jan(Wed) night. Everything seems right and the laptop cost around US$1210. For a higher end laptop, this seems like a good deal. I happily went to sleep that night.
Thursday afternoon, checking my email, I realised my order has been declined. DECLINE?!?! What the hell... Furthermore, reason not stated. Need to call them up to check. So with that, I called up the helpdesk. After listening to some stupid music for 20mins, someone finally answered my call. They said, my credit card has rejected the transaction, so they will need to clarify some information with me. After checking my name, address, phone and email, they said "There seems to be no problem". So after so much trouble, they rejected it for no reason. They will carry on with the purchase and will contact me soon.
Friday morning, I recieved a weird call. Someone from HP called, saying that they needed to verify my identity. They asked lots of weird questions like
- What's the last 4 digits of my Social Security Number?
- What's my current address?
- 3 Multiple choose question where they said a address, and asked me which County it belong to.
- E.g "1 Ave West"
- A) King
- B) ...
- E) I have never been associated with this address
- "Marketplace Drive
- A) King
- ...
Seems like I passed the test. They said they will be processing the order soon.
Friday night, my bank called me and told me there was suspicious activity on my credit card. 2 transaction in particular.
- Wednesday : Charge of $1200+ on credit card (Approved by bank)
- Friday afternoon: Charge of $700+ on credit card (Rejected by bank)
Monday morning, this is when it got really frustating.
- After talking for 40-50 mins and talking to a supervisorm I finally found out that the reason that the card was rejected. Seems like someone else used my credit card number to buy something from HP. That was why there was a charge of $700.
- Not really my problem, is it?
- This charge was on friday, my order was decline on Thursday. (I'm more incline to believe their system screwed up and they gave an excuse)
- They refused to honor the offer that I got on 17th Jan (Wed)
- Free upgrade to 80gb harddisk will cost me another $50.
- Free upgrade with a TV tuner card will cost me another $130.
- This is WITHOUT tax, so that's US$200 lost.
- They cannot give me the cashback from www.fatwallet.com (Another $40).
- The reason was, they cannot offer me the same offer was because that has already expired.
- They cannot just accept the previous offer, they had to re-order everything.
- It was my fault that the card was rejected
- It was my fault that I didn't try to call back as soon as possible
- It was HP that keep asking me to call back
- It was HP that said on Thursday that they will process my order, which they DIDN"T.
- It was HP that asked me to call back on monday.
- I had to PAY extra for THEIR problem.
My call was suddenly dropped. Frustated to have something done, I called back and asked to be transferred back to the supervisor... which they couldn't do. They transferred the call from 1 person to another.
*Then finally some good news*
I was transferred to a sales guy named Derek. (Yup, same name). Been so frustrated, I said "I really doubt you can do anything for me, I have been talking to a supervisor for the past hour". (Ya, it was quite rude of me). However, he was patient, and I said, "This was my previous order, number H......., it was rejected." That was all I told him. He put me back on hold, for 4-5 mins. *I was thinking, "Damn, more waiting".
When he finally got back on the phone, he told me, I talked to my supervisor, and this is what I can do for you. We can give you the same price of $1200, but it has to be in term of a credit. Which meant that I'll be charge $1500 (full price) first, and when its accepted by the credit card, the extra $300 will be credited back to the card. I was like "REALLY?!?!" This is the best news I heard this morning.
So in the end, I got the laptop for $1200 (Approved this afternoon) without the $40 cashback from fatwallent(I will take whatever victory I can get). I'm happy yet angry with the service I got from HP.
Will I buy from HP again? I don't know. Am I cheapstake? Maybe, but at the end of the day, it was the pricipal of the whole matter. If HP fail to honor the deal, I would have bought from a more expensive dealer.
posted by Rex @ 6:08 PM
2 Comments:
At 9:59 PM ,
GreyPolarBear said...
Hey my friend had a similar experience with HP(SG) too. Seems that they have this thing for rejecting credit cards after accepting the order.
My friend ordered a PDA online. And everything was approved until the next day he received an email saying his card was rejected (familiar?) but there was a charge of SGD$30 for some admin charge or something... so he tried to call the helpdesk but apparently no one pick up and there's only 1 contact number to dial to. Emailed complaints but there were no replies either.
That was last week. He finally got an email yesterday and it states something like this:
"Your order has been approved... Either self collect the item and pay cash, or send a cheque or do an electronic transfer... etc.. "
And the thing is.. no collection centre address, nothing said abt who to make payment to for the cheque and electronic tranfer using what? to pay the amount to whom?!
Haha, sounded like some spam mail.. but a rather dumb one.
Anyway the PDA purchase was also done in the same week as you... hmm...
At 2:30 PM ,
Rex said...
When I was in Singapore, I never made any purchase online. Just didn't seem like a good idea in Singapore.
But over here in the US, the country is so big that it's so much easier to shop online then it is to go to the shops. It's also much cheaper.
So far, I have bought from a few online shops. Everyone has provided me good service, except HP.
For your friend's case, I think its even worst then my own experience. Charging a admin charge, stupid email, no helpdesk, etc.
Hope your friend gets his PDA soon.
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