As one of the first recipients of the brand new Verizon HP Netbook, I was greeted with a coupon to ‘Save Right out of the Box’ with 15% off any HP Accessories. I was quite thrilled, as I desperately needed the expanded battery, being used to Macbooks in terms of battery time. Going back to a PC system has shell shock per say.
After browsing on the HP website for a good 2 hours, I had picked out the expanded USB drive (which I then learned didn’t work with the Verizon Netbook) a backpack, slip sleeve, and expanded battery. My purchase came to around $250.
Upon checkout, on the last page, after entering possibly every last bit of information but the coupon, I was finally given a chance to enter my coupon code. We’re sorry, the coupon you’ve entered is invalid or expired.
Really? HP is shipping ‘brand new’ fleets of Netbooks to Verizon, who then ships to customers with expired coupons? Secondly, the coupon code route wasn’t the best, a branded URL such as hp.com/vz-netbook would’ve done just fine in greeting Verizon customers, with some recommended accessories, and a real coupon.
Instead I had to scour around the site to find ‘Mini 1100 Series’ accessories for the Netbook, some of which weren’t compatible with the 1151NR Notebook. Someone screwed up. HP wasn’t ready for Verizon customers who sought accessories, and it showed… painfully. No notebook skins even (cheap and high markup)
As Consumerist recommends I sent emails to the executives of HP, after getting a canned reply about why my coupon might have been expired. The next day, I had 2 HP executive offices calling me, each promising to apply the proper 15% code, and they would refund my order once placed. Talk about an immediate response!
Proper customer service is alive and well at HP. In addition, today I received a phone call, after receiving my order in 3 days (to Hawaii!) following up. I was asked my address. I thought I had pressed a wrong button, and explained merely from a PR standpoint, HP probably lost many customers in the checkout conversion rate, losing them at the coupon entrance. And think of how many thousands of these were shipped already.
Instead, I was greeted by Pat Schwalbe, one of the nicest people I’ve talked to in terms of a company. Empathy must be her specialty, because she was quite distraught over the 2 hours lost before not being able to complete my order, due to being 20 dollars short, more so than myself. After a quick explaination, Pat let me know that HP would be sending me a $100 dollar giftcard for altering their executive offices so quickly regarding the situation.
If anything, I hope I saved a few more thousand Netbooks from going out with incorrect coupons. Pat took down my address and let me know a gift card was on the way. I was floored. Kudos to HP on working out this marketing faux pas.
As an addition, I contacted Verizon regarding such, and they also offered to refund me 15% of my purchase with proof of reciept off of my Verizon bill. Lisa Bennett from Verizon Wireless’ executive offices replied to my email the same day, and asked for a scan of the offending coupon (seen above) – She then had an HP executive contact me, who also thanked me for pointing this to their attention.
Overall, HP went above and beyond in fixing this problem, and in a follow up email, I asked for information on how others could get a proper coupon for their new NetBook. If you’ve recieved a coupon that’s expired like mine, contact the below number, HP has vowed to make it right:
I understand that you would like to know what to do with people who has the same concern like you on expired coupon code. I am pleased to assist you in this matter. Just in case our site does not accept your coupon, and you believe you have a valid coupon, please contact our sales associates at at 1-888-222-0029, select option 2, then option 5, between 7:00 AM – 2:00 AM EST, 7 days a week.
Thanks again to everyone at HP and Verizon for fixing this problem, I’m now happily armed with all the accessories I need. I suggest the slip-case and extended battery. You can’t go wrong!
