"I ordered a laptop and printer from the HP website on Tuesday 8/7. The order was declined. I checked my bank - no problems with my credit card (I pay it off every month). I called HP - the service rep couldn't tell me why the order was declined and said I should call back the next day. I called the next morning and this rep said he "couldn't pull up the order in the system he needed". He was apologetic and said I should call back later. I called again the next day and a female rep refused to give me any info. I asked to speak to a supervisor & was placed on hold, then dropped. If this is how HP treats prospective customers trying to order their products, I can only imagine how bad their technical service must be. I strongly recommend going elsewhere for computer purchases."

"Bought HP Laserjet 1018 printer on a 50% rebate directly from HP Shopping. Great printer, speedy delivery.
HP rebate processing and support was absolutely horrible. HP's logistical infrastructure is atrocious. Spent over 2 hrs. attempting to complete the rebate submission process. Details?
- called rebate center. Could not look up invoice number. Reason? Not connected online. Spoke to supervisor because first person wore a headset with a terrible connection and could not speak english very well. Supervisor was better but not much better. Suggested I call HP support center but it was a bad referral call since HP tech. support only addresses tech issues and not rebate logistical issues. Asked me 3 times what specifically he could do to help me. Then I lost my cool. He said he did his job and suggested I call HP shopping. Gave me a toll-free phone #, which was incorrect (or I could not make out his pronunciation). Asked him where he was from. He said India. At this point, 2 hrs. have gone by. Looked up an HP sales office in the business unit. He actually spoke english and said he sympathized but couldn't help since his was a different business unit within HP. I then called HP sales in Canada, and spoke to someone who was very good but indicated that their sales promotions were different in Canada than in the US.
Bottom line? If you value your time, then don't think that the $65 rebate is going to net you anything but lost time and aggravation.

Great printer and horrible logistical follow through re: rebates"

"I ordered a high end CTO HP Pavillion notebook from hpshopping.com or hp.com (same thing) There was a critical video card issue that prevented it from running certain applications. I was informed by a HP tech (one of many many conversations) that it was something that is not fixable, I then requested a RMA because the laptop did not perform to spec. More than one individual including the one who infomed me that it was not fixable, that I could not get my money back, that return had to be issued withing 20 days of purchase. This drove me up a wall because half of that time the laptop was being assembled, how on earth does that count as time I owned it? I called the number listed for HP on the BBB website, it was extremley hard to find on the HP site. First person I talked to informed me of the same thing, I asked to speak to a supervisor, she was very short with me put me on hold, then 12 minutes later I am hung up on. I called back, slightly more aggrivated this time but still politley explained the situation again (about the 8th time that day) My call again got sent up to some sort of higher up. I asked this woman before she had a chance to say anything what here name and department were, what here employee id was and a direct extension she could be reached at, after inquiring why I asked for all this info, I explained my situation again. She sent me over to the Return department after a substantial time on hold (gee I wonder why) Again I explained my situation and got a RMA, in the end i did get my money back, but the exten I had to go to I can see why people would get discouraged. On a side note during the conversation with the woman who hung up on me she insisted she knew a plethora of people who had a HP DV8000T CTO notebook and not a one had a problem with it, after I said "do any of them require industry standard applications (PS Maya and others) to run on their laptop? and did your sales department ensure them that these applications would run?" she got very short with me, I'm sure they are used to novice to intermediate users, but talking down to an advanced user seems to bring out their ignorance even more. I will never ever ever ever ever ever ever buy another hp product. I am a graphic designer in the wide format printing area. I will never recomend any HP product even including cables that connect components to anyone, infact I will tell them my story and recomend other manufacturers. "

"I have a DV8000 computer that was 3 months old, I purchased HP's best warrantee with a 3 day turn around time. It has been two weeks since they received my laptop, I have called 13 times now and every time I have to sit on hold 30 - 45 minutes with a recording saying they have unexpected call volume. Well that's BS! after 13 times on hold it is not unexpected!
Now after calling and complaining all these times I finally got a case manager Alex at my request and he promised me a better DV8380 laptop by next Friday a full three weeks after they received my laptop on a 3 day warrantee. We will see if they actually get it to me by then, I can tell you their customer service is the worst I have ever seen and the calls always go to India so you can never understand the people. I would never recommend any HP product to anyone based on their service. I will never buy HP again, please spend your money on some other brand with better service."

"Purchased a 'build to order' Compaq (an HP brand) V3000T laptop on Oct 9 with an estimated build date of Oct 19. It shipped from China on the 16th and arrived at my house on Oct 18 again using the free 'ground shipping' option (that's 7 calendar days built to order from China and free shipping!!).

Arrived as ordered & fully functional (too new to know if there are going to be any problems yet but don't order a machine with only 256M RAM unless you plan to upgrade the RAM as I do).

Had to call ordering line to ask for some clairification (which I later found on the web site but didn't find while I was configuring). under 1 minute wait time for a knowledgable (answered all my questions) sales rep who spoke clear North American English. Tech support wait is usually about 1-3 minutes wait and is probably not in North America (based on the accent). I don't know how good they are at tech support because I just had some technical questions to ask, not a problem to solve. It took them longer to find answers to my questions than the sales line took.

The photos of the current HP & Comapq form factor Laptops don't do them justice. The 'imprint' finish and design are beautiful.

Purchased a 'build to order' HP ZD8000 laptop on Jan 10 2006 and am still happy with it (no problems yet). The 180W power brick blows fuses in my cig lighter and/or power inverter. Arrived from China in about 10 calendar days (about 5 days ahead of schedule) using HP's free 'ground' shipping option."

"Ordered a customized Pavilion a1130e Desktop and it arrived 6 days early. Then had to return it and they accepted a return 7 days after their policy allows. Next order for the same desktop also arrived early. Love HP and the ability to build custom pcs is tremendous."

"I could order exactly what I wanted. They delivered it faster than they promised and faster than I expected. The experience was first class every step of the way."

"great price on HP 02 type printer ink cartidge set for HP 8250 printer and free overnite shipping. came as promised and factory sealed. great job.

spoke with customer service before the transaction about choosing paper types and inks. very helpfull and curteous but couldn't answer questions regarding discrepency in ink volumes between cartriges that come with the printer and those you buy separately.

they said the volume of ink in all cartiges is the same from the factory whether they are the ones included with the printer or the ones you buy separately. but the volume in all the cartriges with the printer is 4.5ml and the volume in the cartriges you buy separately varies from 3.5ml to 6ml depending on the color. if all cartriges are made the same and you use some for initial startup of the printer why do some colors you buy separately contain less ink than that of the ones you get with the printer? no one had a good answer for this even though they talked to supposed supervisors about the issue. this might be a minor point but they shouldn't give you answers that don't make sense just to brush you off.

anyway, good product and great free shipping."

"I ordered a HP computer, LCD monitor, and printer. Had a problem with the printer and contacted "tech service"....could not speak Sarsi (Indian Dialect) so...contacted HP Sales and got the problem resolved with no hassle. Everything has been absolutely fine. I love the PC and the printer. However, if I had known before the purchase that their service was based in Bombay or Calcutta I would have shopped elsewhere!"

"ordered LCD monitor, Got canceled without any reason"

"A positive note for a change:
I ordered a refurbished a810n Pavilion on the HP website as they offered an instant rebate of 50 USD, making the all in price 482 USD. Anyways, shipping was 5 to 7 businessday but I had it in home after 2. What a nice surprise.
The item was well packaged and I love the HP extras that come with it.
Kudos, HP"

"I've had my HP Pavilion ZD8000 over a month now and it is one fantastic laptop. It arrived on time and configured as per my specifications. A couple of calls to tech support with minor questions were answered immediately."

"I am a student, and I was looking to buy a new laptop for school to replace my current dying laptop. I called them to find out if they offered any kind of student discount (and they do). After getting my finances in order (My bank has a spending cap I needed to have raised in order to purchase) I called to place my purchase for a Customized ZD8000. After a 5 day delay for verification, they cancel my original order and I have to resubmit. OK, thats alright, its a security measure. However, this also pushes back my original order ship date by a week. Thats 1 delay as I see it. OK, I can live with that. The estimated ship date comes and goes, and on Feb 23 I call them and find out my order has been delayed until the 28th. (Thats 2 delays now) Buy this time I am starting to doubt my purcahse. On March 1, I call again to find out what the status of my order. Yep, delayed again (thats 3 now) Now I am really doubting my purchase. I do a little more research and find a suitable replacement. I decide to cancel my order and take my purcahse elsewhere. On the plus side, they cancelled my order with little friction, however it took them nearly a week to credit my account back. HP cannot foresee supply shortages (ALL the options which were part of my configured laptop stayed available for a week past my purchase) nor can they do anything other than put an order on hold until supplies come back in, no substitutions allowed. I also know from a couple of "User fan site/forums" that my situation is not unique. Any company that can fumble this many times before I am even truly a "customer" does NOT deserve to have me as a customer. "

"I've ordered several times from HP Shopping's site. I've always gotten very good results from them. Most recently I ordered a remanufactured HP Color Laser 2500L. They gave me free 3 day FedEx shipping and a price which was 10% lower than the equivalent current model. The shipment arrived on time and the printer worked perfectly. I think HP has not only a great shopping site but also makes excellent hardware with great documentation. I've never had to call HP tech support."

"I ordered a customized Compaq Presario r3000z notebook. Spec'd out, it was a great deal, made better by a $100 mail in rebate. After placing the order I came an online coupon that was an additional 10% off. I called, and HP has a 30 day price guarantee they honored. But, except for the guy who took my order, 100% of consumer reps had to "check with a supervisor" to do anything.

The problem: I ordered the computer in late September. I was told that it would take up to 2 weeks to build it. No problem, computers take time to build. I needed it by mid October, so I paid extra for two day Fed-Ex delivery... HP sent me an official "shipping notice" on October 6th with a FedEx tracking number. Built way faster than they said it would be. Bonus, but no computer within 2 day delivery time I paid $58 for. I called HP and they say, "The 2-Day shipping doesn't take effect until the shipment is in the US." I started to smell BS. Then, unbelievably, they told me, "just ignore what it says on the Fed-ex tracking website". I'm knee deep in BS by now. I called FedEx & they just about had a coronary that HP told me to ignore the FedEx tracking system! They don't issue tracking numbers and have a multi million dollar real time world-wide tracking network so that HP can tell FedEx customers to ignore it! They told me that the 2 days starts from when the package leaves the origin... in this case IN China. So I had to call HP twice, speak to two different customer reps, give them my order number 4 times, and hold so they could "talk to a supervisor" 3 times in order to get them to refund the shipping charge. So i had to fight tooth and nail to get them to refund the shipping fee because of their bogus "2 days from US soil" rule; and the irony is that I STILL didn't get the computer for 3 days AFTER it was in the US and 5 days total after it was shipped.

My gut feeling: HP is running a shipping scam... they tell you it will be a 14 day build and then upsell the 2 day and overnight shipping... then they build your machine in 7 days, send it to you 5-7 day delivery method and pocket the difference between the express you paid for and normal freight they actually sent it under. Most customers get the computer before they thought they would have (because of the bogus build time claim) so they never complain. But the fact is: If you pay for 2 day shipping, the shipping itself should take 2 days and how fast they build the machine makes no difference whatsoever. They must have told me, "You're still going to get your computer before our estimated delivery date" half a dozen times. But shipping took 5 days. Just call them on it and you won't have to pay shipping at all.

I specifically asked the final customer service rep about the $100 rebate. I told them that HP had now created a credibility problem with me over the shipping and I wanted assurance that they would honor the $100 rebate. He promised that they would and also promised the actual rebate would come in the box. A $30 rebate came in the box, not $100. I had to get it off the website. Credibility issues indeed with customer service.

The computer: Great. Built like I wanted, no problems whatsoever with hardware. I'm annoyed by all the excess garbage software pre-loaded... MS office trial edition, AOL of course, trial games, etc... but I guess thats business as usual with a new PC. But the very first program I installed was AdAware, which immediately found spyware installed... probably from one of the pre-installed games.

Hardware: 10/10

Software: 8/10

Shipping: 3/10 (I did get it after all)

Customer Service: 2/10 (got em on the phone easily and quickly, but they can't actually make decisions or take any action without talking to supervisors, and then either make up stuff (2 day from us soil rule) or have no idea what they're talking about ($100 rebate promise.))"