Most badly executed promotion ever- Part II

The half-hearted HP compromise

(Last Updated 13th Feb 2007)

DO NOT COPY OR QUOTE ME ON THIS. IF YOU ARE AFFECTED, PLEASE USE YOUR OWN WORDS AND WRITE YOUR OWN COMPLAIN EMAIL !

It has become necessary to break this topic up. The longest ever complain blog entry has came to round II. On 8th Feb, I received a reply from HP that is as followed :

Dear Foong Jia Khang

Thank you for your email of 5 February 2007.

There was an inadvertent mistake to the advertisement as we have
earlier clarified. (I didn't receive any clarification until I complain)There was no available HP Centrino notebook with the same specifications as the one provided under this promotion. (This is an outright lie. HP/Compaq laptops are individually customisable. You can order a laptop with your own specifications here. The truth is that they customised the laptops to use the Broadcom wireless chipset instead as you can see that under Networking, they offer only 1 option : Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG, and removed the bluetooth module. Why? Cost cutting obviously.)

As a goodwill gesture, we are pleased to offer you a nine-month
warranty extension for your notebook. This carry-in warranty is worth
$99.00, and covers all parts of the notebook excluding batteries and
accessories.

This goodwill offer is valid for a period of 10 days from the date of
this email. Please indicate your acceptance of this goodwill offer by
signing below and returning us this email by fax at 6725 1603 or by
post to 2D Ayer Rajah Crescent AOS Building Singapore 139938,
StarHub-Customer Affairs by 18 February 2007. Otherwise, this
goodwill offer shall lapse without further notice and be no longer
capable of acceptance. (Take notice the 10 days limitation for later)

You will receive an acknowledgement letter from HP for the warranty
extension after you have accepted this goodwill offer. Please note
that the warranty extension will take effect about two weeks after we
have received your reply. (Take notice the 2 weeks needed for updating)

We thank you for your patience and support.

Best regards

Vianny Tjen
Customer Affairs

____________________________

I, , NRIC No. _______________________, accept this
goodwill offer for the notebook as a full and final settlement of
this matter.

(Here is the essense of the email. They wanted this to be "a full and final settlement of the matter". They wanted this to indemnify them from further actions from me)

__________________
Name:
Date:

Best regards

Vianny Tjen
Customer Affairs

",1] ); D(["mb","

____________________________

I, , NRIC No. _______________________, accept this
goodwill offer for the notebook as a full and final settlement of
this matter.



__________________
Name:
Date:

",1] ); D(["mb","

Incoming E-Mail from Foong Jia Khang

",1] ); D(["mb","

Subject: Re: Feedback on MaxOnline Promotion - Customer No. 71556710
To: customerservice@starhub.com <customerservice@starhub.com>

",1] ); D(["mb","

From: Foong Jia Khang <jiakhang@gmail.com>
CC:

",1] ); D(["mb","

Received on: 05/02/2007 11:40:32 AM

",1] ); Sounds friendly at the first sight? I didn't fax this back immediately because I wanted to observe the situation. Not too long afterwards, I received a letter by snail mail with the following content on Monday, 12th Feb :

Dear Jia Khang,

9-Months Warranty Extension

Thank you for your support.

We confirm that the warranty for the Compaq Presario notebook, redeemed from StarHub's MaxOnline Year-End Promotion, has been extended by a further (9) months carry-in service. The original warranty will take effect from the date of your notebook collection. The extended warranty will take effect from the end of the original warranty period.

If you have questions regarding your HP equipment, please call our HP Customer Care hotline at (+65) 6272 5300 (select option 4 followed by 1). Our highly trained service technicians will be glad to assist you. Alternatively,, you can visit our support website at www.hp.com/support

Thank you, once again for choosing us and we welcome you to the world community of Hewlett-Packard. For more information, you can visit our website at www.hp.com.sg

Yours sincerely

Hewlett-Packard

Note: This is a computer-generated letter, no signature is required.
Please retain this acknowledgment letter and bring it together with your redemption letter for servicing.

Please allow 21 working days for your warranty extension to be updated in our systems.

Sounds good ? No ! Instead of waiting for my fax or snail mail to confirm the settlement, they are forcing it down my throat now. They didn't want to wait for the indemnity fax/letter, they simply assume that me to take it as it is. Not that I mind, but if you read the wordings carefully, this is a badly worded letter. Why so? Here is the nit-picking part.

"The extended warranty will take effect from the end of the original warranty period."

The problem lies in the definition of "original warranty period". The original warranty period can be interpreted in several ways :

1. 3 months + 9 months = 1 year
   Valid for those who opt for the V3131TU Core Duo notebook, assuming "original warranty" is as stated by Starhub advertisement, barring any more "inadvertent mistake".
2. 1 year + 9 months = 1 year 9 months
   Valid for those who opt for the V3135TU Core Duo and V3136TU Core 2 Duo notebooks, assuming "original warranty" is as stated by Starhub advertisement, barring any more "inadvertent mistake".
3. 1 year + 2 years + 9 months = 3 years and 9 months
   Valid for those who bought any of the laptops, bought the extended warranty (HP carepack) and the 9 months extension warranty can extend beyond the 3 years carepack.
4. 1 year + 2 years + 9 months = 3 years
   Valid for those who bought any of the laptops, bought the extended warranty (HP carepack) and the 9 months extension warranty CANNOT extend beyond the 3 years carepack.

Scenario 4 is the one I am most afraid of. Especially in the light that the fine print at the end of the letter reads :

"Please retain this acknowledgment letter and bring it together with your redemption letter for servicing."

Bare in mind that a HP carepack can only extend a warranty period to a maximum of 3 years when purchased within 3 months of the system purchase, this can mean that the warranty extension may not be official or not enforceable. The warranty period they will recongise worldwide is as stated in HP warranty check. If this is not reflected in the warranty check, it's a worthless promise. They can simply claim that their system does not show the extended warranty period, and hence, they are not going to give you anything!

In short, for those who bought the 3 years carepack, the 9 months free warranty out of "goodwill" may not be getting anything at all. In the telephone conversation with Jess Yong from HP, I have stated clearly my concern regarding the warranty period. She confirmed the fact that it will be 3 years and 9 months. Wow, that will certainly break tradition and rules. Meanwhile, I will be checking my warranty to see if it's going to be 3 years and 9 months for the next 3 weeks.

Update 12/1/2006 : The warranty will be based on a letter sent to us. Crappy.