Telephone Sales Bait and Switch

[Used-to-be]

BEWARE OF HP TELEPHONE BAIT AND SWITCH SCAM!!!

I called in to order a laptop on 8/26/2022. The representative who took my order worked out pricing with me to include the laptop, multiport hub, and a 3-year Care Pack. The price was very good, and I was pleased. I asked the man to reconfirm the order, and specifically that the Care Pack was included. He assured me it was. He told me it would show up in the order confirmation email.

I received the email... no Care Pack was included, so I called back in. The next guy tried to sell me lots of things, including the Care Pack that was supposed to have been part of my order. He told me it wasn't part of my order but he could add it for $200. After explaining what happened multiple times, and a few attempts by him to sell me software, printers and ink refill packages, I asked him to escalate to a manager. He agreed, and dumped my call into a hold queue. 

After 40 minutes of lousy hold music, and a parallel-but-futile attempt  to work through the Chat feature, I was connected to a different frontline sales person who knew nothing of the order! This woman again tried to sell me the Care Pack I had previously  purchased, but agreed to connect me to her manager. I asked her to stay on the line while she transferred my call, she said she would... BUT she quickly dumps my call into a technical support queue and disappears.

Meanwhile, the Chat person is trying to sell me the entire order all over at a much higher price. By now, I'm curious just how horribly HP would treat me before this sad experience ended. So I hung in there on both Chat and the phone.

The Chat person finally suggests that a manager should review the call to see if the sales person did what I claim he did. I agreed with this, but then she tells me she'll get back with me in 24-48 hours! They took my money quick enough, but now it's going to take 2 days to figure out what the guy committed to selling me??? I think not.

In the meantime, my phone call is still in the technical support queue with bad music and an intermittent message informing me of "longer than usual wait times"...

After well over an hour of this hellish run-around, I finally gave up and canceled the order.

I have purchased HP computers exclusively for many years, and that loyalty would have continued. However, after the unscrupulous business practices I've experienced in this process, along with the difficulty in getting them to honor the Support Agreement on a previous computer, I doubt I will buy another product from HP. If they treat me this way at the point of sale, how can I believe they'll stand by their commitments later on? Beside, I found a superior machine for much lower cost, and that company was honest and straightforward through the entire buying experience.