"I made the mistake of waiting too long to order my notebook before going on a trip. Generally, I like to have a notebook for at least a month before leaving.
Well I didn't have that luxury this time. I only had two weeks. So I ordered a Compag Notebook. And I thought I could get away with ignoring what other resellerratings customers had to say -- after all, every notebook manufacturer has a pretty poor score up here. Anyway, I knew I'd be cutting it close with the build time, so I selected 2-day shipping. The trouble began when I hit the "confirm" button. Sure enough, on the "order confirmed" page, I was down for 5-7 days. Did I make a mistake? Alt-back arrow shows that indeed, _their post-order confirmation page had an order different from the one I submitted_. I even grabbed some screenshots.

I emailed customer service immediately, and the next morning Jon wrote me that the shipping method would be changed to 2 days (without it showing on the invoice) and they would expedite build if possible.

Now, a day after the anticipated build date, they send me the inevitable "build delayed" message, and I'm in a (predictable) bind. So I call up CS to see if we can sort this out, and after an hour of listening to the worst music imaginable, I get Dawn on the line. All I find out from her is that shipping is 5-7 days, and she cuts the line; she doesn't even let me get to the reason why I called and waiting an hour on the phone.

edit: I wrote that last message while waiting on the phone a second time (only 45 minutes to speak to someone, then another 15 minutes on hold while she waiting for her supervisor).
I had more success emailing their support people, and eventually we were able to reroute the package to my first destination. It was still a considerable amount of hassle.
The "whitebook" notion is attractive to the consumer, but there are many points of failure: in this case, I'm in the US, the factory is in or near Shanghai, email support is in Germany, I have no idea where their phone folks are, and their supplies come from all over the world. It's a fascinating model,but the system isn't robust enough (yet, if ever) to handle more than one problem at a time.

My advice: use email as your primary means of contact with the company, and don't try to do anything fancy.

The computer itself works fine. No complaints there."

"Most of the comments here are due to inept purchasers it seems. I especially liked the story from the "experienced internet shopper" who signed up for financing through HP and "surprise!" had purchased the item in question. YOU FILLED OUT A CREDIT APPLICATION, WHAT DID YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN???

I myself purchased a ZD7000. Entire transaction was flawless. Oh, and when you customize an item, they do have to build it. And yours is not the only one to be built. It can take some time. My delivery was still almost a week earlier than quoted when I purchased. "

"Ordered the HP injet ink combo pack, they had the best price I could find anyplace on it, and free shipping on top of that, received it in 3 days, will definitely order from them again."

"I'm very happy with my purchase. The website was easy to use and everything worked as expected."

"I ordered a Laptop (zv5000z series) and an h5555 iPAQ Pocket PC.

The first thing I'd have to say is since I finance through HP, they contacted me less than 30 min after placing my order on line. Verified my information, while repetitive, it made me feel pretty good that they went this far.

The iPAQ shipped the next day, and I received it in 2 days, even though I didn't request any type of 2day shipping.

The Laptop shipped 3 days earlier than what I was told, and it also arived in 2 days. Pretty good considering the laptop shipped out from China and arrived in KTown, TN. There were some problems with FedEx tracking, but nothing HP could be blamed for.

The customization for the laptop was a bit confusing. The processor listed are actually Mobile processors, even though the mobile tag isn't provided.
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ = 2.0Ghz / 512K L2 Cache
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Mobile = 1.8Ghz 1M L2 Cache

I did have to contact HP support about an issue related to flashing the BIOS of the notebook. First used the "Instant Support" which was a waste of time, then used the phone support... again, a waste of time.

Support for HP is defiantly outsourced, and those I spoke to were hard to understand. While they tried to be helpful, the language barrier made thing difficult."

"HP shopping is not what you might think. Their product is of extremely low quaility and the staff at cutomer service knows very little but will just say whatever sounds good to get you off the phone without you asking too many questions. When speaking to the managers, they will just outright lie or tell you that what a previous manager told you was a mistake.. "and it is very rare" that a mistake is made there.

I am actually holding back from what I really want to say, but cursing might make my review unusable at this website."

"I attempted to purchase a refurbished laptop through HPshopping. It ended up being my worst shopping experience ever. As I proceeded to checkout, I was told that my order was canceled due to a credit card info
conflict and that I should check my info and try again. I checked with my credit card company and confirmed that I was correct and tried again 4 times with the same results. I then found out that each time a hold for $824 was
placed on my card, maxing it out. Their customer service told me I would have to wait for 5 days for it to clear. I finally talked to a supervisor who I pleaded with for half an hour before he finally called my card company under duress to straighten it out. After confirming my card, he still wouldn't process the order and told me to shop somewhere else! "

"Very disappointing experience: I ordered a Pavillion laptop from HPShopping.com and thus initiated one of the more frustrating online transactions of my rather extensive experience. THe first problem was mine: the phone number I provided HP with did not match my Credit Card phone number. The order was immediately cancelled, and the email I was sent did not specify the reason. I contacted HP, and they would not tell me, although they suggested that I should double-check with the bank and ensure that the phone number/address matched. HP assured me that, as soon as I provided the appropriate correction, a re-order would be placed immediately.

I contacted the bank the next day and discovered that I did, in fact, have another number listed for that account (although why this should matter I can't imagine: I've succesfully placed dozens of on-line orders and have used the incorrect phone number on every one). I contacted HP the same morning, provided the information, and was told that I would be called back that afternoon by a support rep, and that the re-order would proceed. Note that the fellow that I'd spoken to the day before said nothing at all about any of this. Furthermore, fhe day before, HP had placed a $2000 hold on my credit card and, although they had quickly cancelled the order, the hold was still in place. I mentioned this to the cs rep: I was concerned that it was possible that the order would cancel again, for some other flaky reason, and that I would then have a $4000 hold on the account and still not have a laptop on order. THe cs rep assured me that HP would release the hold that day, and that there would be no chance of double-stacking holds or charges.

In mid-afternoon I decided that the promised return phone-call was not going to occur. I called HP back, and was informed that it was very possible that I would not be called until Monday next. As Monday was a US-specific holdiay and I suspected that the center was somewhere in Canada I verified that they would, in fact, be open. They assured me that they would be, and were thus informed that Monday was a day-off for many US citizens, and certainly bankers.

Late Monday afternoon I once again gave up on a return-call. At this point I decided to cancel my order. I determined that the hold was still in place, and called HP. They claimed that my bank was closed on Friday (it probably was by the time they tried to contact them, if they did at all) and that, surprise, Monday was a US holiday, and they could not contact the bank to release the hold. Therefore, since they could not release the hold, the re-order could not commence, and they were magically released from their obligation to contact me to both follow through on their commitment and to provide me with an update.

This really is a shame: I've looked at all of the 17" desktop-replacement laptops, and the ZD7000 is, without question, my first choice. HP really had a slam dunk: it's sad to see a company that should have it all on the ball screw up so royally. Many of those that post here will likely relate to my next statement: through numerous experiences I've developed a sixth-sense when it comes to online vendors and, usually, I can tell rather quickly if a vendor's process is somehow 'broken'. I have to say that I had that sense immediately upon receiving the very non-descript and circumspect email sent me after my order was cancelled. Doesn't HP understand that, for the vast majority of indivuals, ordering a $2000 laptop is a very serious affair, and commensurate concern should be provided to thsoe willing to part with their hard-earned greenbacks? How is it that a relatively small company like Newegg can so drastically out-perform a monster like HP? Time to see what Newegg has in the way of laptops..."

"I bought a replacement keyboard from the for an old omnibook notebook. Surprisigly it came on time with no probs. Customer support is so-so but I'm happy with the overall service."

"Recently purchased an HP iPaq 4155 and microkeyboard. Sales agents were very knowledgeable and helpful. I purchased both items and they were delivered on time.
After 3 1/2 weeks I noticed a dead pixel on the screen. I contacted Hpshopping.com and was immediately issued a credit, was provided return shipment of defective product, and received replacement next day! Now that's service!

Pros: Great website, easy to navigate, awesome order tracking via email and online order status. Sales and Customer service reps are impeccable! I am always able to get a hold of a real person. My shopping experience has been very satisfying.

Cons: They could make price matching a bit easier to receive. I had to first receive the item, then call for credit (but was told I had to fax it in the request). During that time, some of the online etailers prices went up. But they were still willing to work with me.
"

"My nightmare with HP began while trying to price a notebook - in order to figure out if I could get zero % rate on it, I had to fill out an online app. The online help said I after clicking "submit" for the application, I would get an approval or not and statement of the rate, terms etc. then be able to confirm.

I clicked submit and bingo, I suddenly had a complete order without warning. I called HP immediately to complain and alert them of the glitch. As an experienced internet buyer and computer professional including building e-commerce sites, it was clear to me a glitch had occurred.

However, customer service (two reps and the highest supervisor) could not fix the problem, could not cancel the order and could not offer any help whatsoever, despite the fact the notebook is not scheduled to ship for two weeks. All they could come up with was "refuse the package". And I get stuck with return shipping.

After an hour on the phone, I finally got the name of the finance company, called them and closed the account. According to HP, this will cause the order to fail.

All this because I wanted a quote on a UXGA notebook under $2000 and wanted to compare rates against Dell's zero percent offer.

Toshiba and Dell's site suffer from no such glitches. Ironic that HP is going to build (and possibly ship) this computer and take a loss. Combine this was a completely inept customer service system and order process, and it's no wonder they cannot catch Dell."

"These Guys have great service, I ordered a laptop and a external floppy drive, they shipped the same day via free FedEx ground, while FedEx isn't my favorite service, this time around it was pretty good. They also make great products."

"Ordered the Klipsch Pro media 2.1 speakers. Site has online tracking. Received delivery in 3 days with the super saver shipping option."

"I purchesed a Pavilion ze5500, from Hpshopping, on 31 Oct recived it 5 November. Upon close inspection, I noticed that it did NOT have the ATI Radeon 7000 graphics chip set that I orderd, it was delivered with the Radeon IGP 345M chip set.

Step 1. I contacted hp technical support, the individual I spoke with was, from what I could desern, South Asian (Indian), and very poor English. It was impossible for me to note his name, I gave up on this point. After wasting 20 minutes trying to explain this problem, I thanked him and discontinued the call.

Step 2. I called hp technical support again, this time getting a native English speaker “Jeff”. Jeff was professional, and understood the problem. He put me on hold for a very short time, and come back on the line telling me that I had indeed received an incorrectly configured Notebook. He told me I’d have to talk with the folks at Hpshopping to correct this. He gave me the number, incase we were disconnected, his name and site number. I was transferred to Hpshopping

Step 3. “Tera” with Hpshopping answered my call. I think that Tera was either having a bad day, or annoyed that she had to do her job. The volume on her headset was too low to hear, I informed her twice that I could not hear her. After that problem was corrected I had to repeat my name address and phone number 5 times to her. She was not having a good day at all. After some time she decided that she could not help me because I was not the originator of the purchase, just the ship too receiver. I understood her process block, and asked to speak with her supervisor. At this point the called turned way-south. She became defensive, and agued with me, telling me her supervisor would tell me nothing different. I had to insist, 3 times to speak with her supervisor. She put me on hold for approximately 10 minutes. At one point during this hold time, she came on the line and told me that it would be “another few minutes, did I really want to wait”. I told her, yes I would wait. She came back on the line after some time and informed me that her supervisor had told her the same thing that she had told me, and that was all Hpshopping could do. I asked she was denying me the opportunity to discuss this with her supervisor, and she told me that it would not change the situation. I told her that was not the point, and that I’d waited patently for over 10 minutes to speak with her supervisor. I then asked her what her supervisors name was, and she balked and told me she did not know the supervisors name, she told me she had too many supervisors. I insisted again to speak with her supervisor, and she again refused to allow me to speak with a supervisor. At that point I informed her I was applaud at the service that I’d received from HP, and that I would pursue this problem using alternate means.

Step 4. Today, I attempted to have HP find a local service outlet that would simply replace the Video chip set with the correct one (it’s a mini PCI card). And have been told that is not possible, and I’ll have to 1) return the lap top 2) Wait another 7 days for a correctly configured notebook. If I get this fixed, I’ll update this note.
"

"I ordered a custom zt3000 laptop on 10/3/03.

When customizing a laptop, it clearly states your approximate shipping date, as the laptop needs to be built to order (or you would be ordering a 'READY TO SHIP' laptop, wouldn't you?).

I had an approximate shipping date of 19 October. Here's the fedex info:
http://www.fedex.com/cgi-bin/tracking?tracknumbers=640182873294&action=track&language=english&cntry_code=us

As you can see, it shipped from overseas, AND arrived early (as the date to ship was 19Oct, but it actually shipped 15Oct).

The laptop has everything I ordered, and performs as well as I had hoped when I ordered it.

I've already installed my own memory, which was very very simple (unscrew a panel on bottom, click in ram, screw in panel, done).

I am very pleased with the HPshopping ordering process, delivery process, and the quality of the product recieved.

I've read a few bad reviews here, and the zt3000 is supposed to be the 'same', but a slightly better version of the compaq x1000 (since HP and Compaq are 1 company). Not sure why this is, but my experience went very well."