Offer a rebate then stack the deck against letting customers collect. What a fucking racket. (NO MJ) [View All]

[Stinky The Clown]

This is an MJ and SP free post. KEEP IT THAT WAY

I bought a new HP printer online ... direct from HP. Remarkably, they were the cheapest game in town. Even after shipping, they were cheaper than any of the big boxes. They were, insome cases, $200 cheaper than other web sites.

They also offered a trade-in program, and my old clunker was worth $100, even in non working condition (it needs a new fuser - at $400, worth more than the damned printer).

So I buy the printer. It shows up in two days. I am told to download a document to learn about how to do the trade in. It turns out that HP has outsourced this to some other company.I am told to download the "form". The "form", it turns out is 14 (count 'em) pages of fine print and hard to follow prose. In the end, there is one link in there that one needs to follow.

Except the link is broken.

I call HP sales. I tell them to help me. The eager young man in Costa Rica (not India, remarkably - I always ask) gets to the same page, but on a different web site. We fill out the form together - such fun.

Next day, the trade in company contacts me by e-mail. My proof of purchase is insufficient to them. After filling the air with blue language, I call the same HP number and tell this person to fix it. In the course of discussion, I ask her if she's also in Costa Rica (Spanish accent). No, she's in the Philippines. She shows me where my elusive "Online Order Receipt" is located. I open it and print it to PDF, and she sends me a copy. Nice young lady.

Next I get an e-mail from the trade in company. They will only pay $75 because I bought the printer after July 1. Except I bought it on June 29th. As shown of THE FUCKING INVOICE THEY REQUESTED.

Back to HP's sales number. After clicks and buzzes and various levels of pressing 1 and 4 and 2 and 7, I get another youg woman. Spanish accent. Where? Belize.

She sends me a form that documents the date of purchase. I am to send this to the trade in company.

I just sent it.

I am not hopeful.

They wear you down.

At what point is $100 - or $75 - no longer worth the pain of dealing with this shit?

By the way, all of this gets me no money. It gets me a SHIPPING LABEL. To send the old printer off to them. Then ... maybe ...... I get my trade in.




What a fucking racket.