hpshopping.com - attempt to puchased 751n computer - unhappy with loan finace experience

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on June 25, 2002:

From: The Beumers [Email User]

RE: hpshopping.com - attempt to puchased 751n computer - unhappy with loan finace experience

On 6/16/02 I logged onto the Hewlett-Packard shopping web site hpshopping.com to buy a computer. They had a model 751n that was just what I wanted. It was advertised all over the site that you could buy any computer and get no payments for 6-months and free shipping.

What a great deal or so I thought but when I tried to apply for the financing I found out you couldn't get this if you had a P.O. Box for a mailing address. I was rejected even though I have excellent credit simply because I live in a rural area.

I called HP on the phone Monday 6/17/02 and I figured I could simply give the info over the phone and clear this up, boy was I all wrong. First when I ask for help from the first guy I talked to I get an immediate attitude, when I point out that this is discriminatory he replies "says who". At that point I ask for his supervisor and I get another guy Josh Sanders I explain the problem and oh well that's to bad but that's the way it is. OK so now I ask for his supervisor but oh no that's as far as it goes you want any more help you get to write to some anonymous person on e-mail.

So I e-mail this person explaining the situation and what I just went through and that I wouldn't be purchasing any HP products in the future She writes back and what do you get in reply "were very sorry, we apologize for the inconvenience but we can't give you credit because you have a P.O. Box and live in a rural area" she wasn't even concerned that I wouldn't be buying any HP products, she could care less.

Not satisfied with this I manage with great effort to contact on the phone a HP supervisor directly, she was understanding and said she had gotten complaints about this before and the reason HP won't give credit to anyone with a P.O. Box is statistically many fraud schemes use P.O. Boxes to set up accounts. So another words everyone that chooses to live in a rural area and has to have a P.O. Box for mail delivery is a crook. How many millions of people is that? You don't call that discrimination?

What if you had a Harlem or Bronx address? You know there's lot's of crime in those places better not give them credit either, it's ridiculous. But I got no where with this person either although they did offer to send me some printer cartridges to make up for discriminating against me, here let me give you what you don't want instead of what you want, I feel so much better now.

It's obvious that the "customer satisfaction" management system at HP is set up in escalating layers of difficulty, making it harder to speak to someone and get any kind of satisfaction until you hit a dead end and then you just go away after that. So there is really no customer service or satisfaction to speak of.

The funny thing is I went to the Best Buy site they had the same finance deal through the same finance company Household Finance. I applied on line presto I was approved right away even with a P.O. Box mailing address, ordered a computer (not an HP you can bet) it's on it's way. The computer and printer I own now are both made buy HP but I'll never buy anything from HP again with their lousy customer service and discriminatory loan practices they can cram their products!