I have read so much about people dealing with hp and there infamous customer service I thought I would add my story to the mix.
Now on to the story...
Liking the looks of the ZD8000 (along with its mid level gaming possibilities and cheap price for what you get!
) and not finding anything on Dells site that really excited me I decided to give HP a try and configured one and placed it on order on 02/17/05. Now before the order took place we opened an HPShopping card so we could take advantage of the 0% interest for a year. This was a $1800.00 laptop I was buying so I figured why not spread it out if I can get no interest (this really made me laugh when I realized computer guys don?t get paid as much as people think we do). Well HPShopping only takes one address on your card and will not add an alt shipping address to the notes section (unlike any other credit card I've ever dealt with).
So I thought of ways to get around this problem and decided to call household (hps lender) and change the address on the card to my work address so that I could get the laptop sent to me at work. Well they make you wait 15 days after opening an account before address changes can be made. I thought to my self man they are making this a pain. I know dell will ship to me at work so I should just can this idea and order from them. Well the evil side of me took over and I proceeded to order from HP anyway (along with a free printer (after rebate) that I figured I would just eBay). I figured I would just call FedEx and have them hold the laptop at the terminal and then just go pick it up. So I ordered away (and on a side note ...holy crap there lead times are long!!!!!).
Fast forward to 02/26/05. I get an email that my laptop has shipped. I was like well this is going good so far. HP said they wouldn?t ship until 03/09/2005 so maybe there lead times aren?t as long as I thought! I fired up FedEx?s tracking and the laptop was sitting in china (got a bad feeling when I saw that for some reason lol). Knowing that I would not have a true delivery time until the laptop cleared customs I waited a day or two.
I called FedEx on Tuesday when the laptop hit the states. I was then informed that HP has a standing order with them to not reroute or allow pickup of any of there packages. They must be delivered to the door of the customer. The lady at FedEx did say that once a delivery attempt is made I could call back and they would hold it then. Well yesterday an attempt was made so I called FedEx. FedEx stated that they still could not hold the package without a call from HP authorizing them to do so.
So back on the phone with HP again (a little irate at the whole situation by this point) I finally got to a supervisor that said she would take care of it and call FedEx for me. I was like great...someone finally understands that people work and can not be home all day long. Or not....I get a call back on my cell. It?s the same HP manager in my ear saying that one of her supervisors has denied the request and they will not have the package held for me. They stated that I would need to be home to pick it up.
Well knowing that FedEx will send the package back if three attempts are made at delivery (Friday in the middle of the work day would be the 3rd) I told HP to get ready to cancel the order because it was probably coming back to them then.
What came next blew my mind. The manager said no problem. She would process the request as soon as the laptop came back in. I said you guys would be willing to lose a sale of $1,800.00 with product sitting here in town all because you wont budge on your very constricting shipping policies? She said yes and there was nothing she could do about it. So I asked how I should return the printer (it came out well in advance of the laptop and came on a holiday so I was home to sign for it.). She advised me that I could keep it and she would credit the account the amount of the rebate (well at least they did something).
I think to my self wow... I really can't believe they would choose to lose a sale with the laptop coming from china on there dime and sitting one hour away from me at FedEx with me willing to drive and go get it. Amazing...
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This leads me to my next question. I'm looking for a notebook that has decent gaming possibilities (I play EQ2 when I can find the time.) for the same or less I was going to pay for my zd8000. Would prefer someone big that offers decent support (When I say support I mean they won't hassle me about getting broken things fixed. I'm perfectly capable of putting parts in my self so not really looking for someone to hold my hand but on the flip side I'm not looking for them to rough me up if I have to call either.) and 0% financing would be nice. Also, I'm not very found of the 17" screen. I like 15.4 better as the 17 is just huge. I only ordered the zd8000 because I liked all the other features. I'm interested in performance above all else so battery life is less important (although getting through one movie on a plane would be nice...not even sure the zd8000 would make it lol.).
Now on to the story...
Liking the looks of the ZD8000 (along with its mid level gaming possibilities and cheap price for what you get!
) and not finding anything on Dells site that really excited me I decided to give HP a try and configured one and placed it on order on 02/17/05. Now before the order took place we opened an HPShopping card so we could take advantage of the 0% interest for a year. This was a $1800.00 laptop I was buying so I figured why not spread it out if I can get no interest (this really made me laugh when I realized computer guys don?t get paid as much as people think we do). Well HPShopping only takes one address on your card and will not add an alt shipping address to the notes section (unlike any other credit card I've ever dealt with). So I thought of ways to get around this problem and decided to call household (hps lender) and change the address on the card to my work address so that I could get the laptop sent to me at work. Well they make you wait 15 days after opening an account before address changes can be made. I thought to my self man they are making this a pain. I know dell will ship to me at work so I should just can this idea and order from them. Well the evil side of me took over and I proceeded to order from HP anyway (along with a free printer (after rebate) that I figured I would just eBay). I figured I would just call FedEx and have them hold the laptop at the terminal and then just go pick it up. So I ordered away (and on a side note ...holy crap there lead times are long!!!!!).
Fast forward to 02/26/05. I get an email that my laptop has shipped. I was like well this is going good so far. HP said they wouldn?t ship until 03/09/2005 so maybe there lead times aren?t as long as I thought! I fired up FedEx?s tracking and the laptop was sitting in china (got a bad feeling when I saw that for some reason lol). Knowing that I would not have a true delivery time until the laptop cleared customs I waited a day or two.
I called FedEx on Tuesday when the laptop hit the states. I was then informed that HP has a standing order with them to not reroute or allow pickup of any of there packages. They must be delivered to the door of the customer. The lady at FedEx did say that once a delivery attempt is made I could call back and they would hold it then. Well yesterday an attempt was made so I called FedEx. FedEx stated that they still could not hold the package without a call from HP authorizing them to do so.
So back on the phone with HP again (a little irate at the whole situation by this point) I finally got to a supervisor that said she would take care of it and call FedEx for me. I was like great...someone finally understands that people work and can not be home all day long. Or not....I get a call back on my cell. It?s the same HP manager in my ear saying that one of her supervisors has denied the request and they will not have the package held for me. They stated that I would need to be home to pick it up.
Well knowing that FedEx will send the package back if three attempts are made at delivery (Friday in the middle of the work day would be the 3rd) I told HP to get ready to cancel the order because it was probably coming back to them then.
What came next blew my mind. The manager said no problem. She would process the request as soon as the laptop came back in. I said you guys would be willing to lose a sale of $1,800.00 with product sitting here in town all because you wont budge on your very constricting shipping policies? She said yes and there was nothing she could do about it. So I asked how I should return the printer (it came out well in advance of the laptop and came on a holiday so I was home to sign for it.). She advised me that I could keep it and she would credit the account the amount of the rebate (well at least they did something).
I think to my self wow... I really can't believe they would choose to lose a sale with the laptop coming from china on there dime and sitting one hour away from me at FedEx with me willing to drive and go get it. Amazing...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This leads me to my next question. I'm looking for a notebook that has decent gaming possibilities (I play EQ2 when I can find the time.) for the same or less I was going to pay for my zd8000. Would prefer someone big that offers decent support (When I say support I mean they won't hassle me about getting broken things fixed. I'm perfectly capable of putting parts in my self so not really looking for someone to hold my hand but on the flip side I'm not looking for them to rough me up if I have to call either.) and 0% financing would be nice. Also, I'm not very found of the 17" screen. I like 15.4 better as the 17 is just huge. I only ordered the zd8000 because I liked all the other features. I'm interested in performance above all else so battery life is less important (although getting through one movie on a plane would be nice...not even sure the zd8000 would make it lol.).
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