Weird RMA Exchange process for a DOA laptop

[Riggedveda]

I ordered a laptop during the Thanksgiving sale and received it today, about a month later. I open the box, hook it up, power it on and... nothing happens. No lights, no screen, no fans, not even the battery warming up, nothing at all. I change my power outlet, recheck the power adapter connections, everything. Still nothing. I check the DC on the adapter and it shows 19.9V. So it's working. But the laptop itself is a brick. Zero response. Not even the power indicator LED. Weird.

So I chat with HP Support, and after 30 mins of disconnects, I just pick up the phone and call them. Another 30 mins of troubleshooting later, they agree with me that the laptop is DOA. So they transfer me to Order Support for an exchange RMA. I'm disappointed, sure, but I figure order support will do everything they can to make things right considering how bad it looks to receive a completely DOA laptop. I've already waited a month, so my reasonable expectation is an advance RMA with a deadline for me to ship my defective unit back, and the replacement is placed on priority processing so that it doesn't get back at the end of the holiday custom order processing queue, and next day air, all at no extra cost to me unless I fail to return the faulty unit.

But the reality was far, far different.

First of all, the whole exchange process with order support took 3 hours of my day to complete AFTER tech support already decided it was DOA. During that time, order support literally went into my account and tried to place a fresh order for me, instead of just re-ordering the original config. So I had to keep correcting the agent while he kept missing some of the original options in the config, and he's sitting there trying to sell me HP CARE on my replacement! This new order goes in as a regular order, so it's going at the end of the queue, meaning another 4-5 weeks of processing. But wait. It won't even START processing until they receive my defective unit and finish processing it at the return center. What?! That's another 2-3 weeks. Shipping after that is 1-5 days, for a total estimated timeline of 7-8 weeks to get a DOA laptop exchanged! That's really the worst resolution possible.

But wait. It gets worse...

Apparently, though this is a like-for-like exchange of a DOA laptop, the order total for the replacement is now $150 more than the original (it's not thanksgiving anymore), and the rep tells me that he needs to charge my card for this amount! I tell him that doesn't make any sense, but he assures me that I will be credited back this difference once the replacement laptop is delivered to me. This is the most absurd thing I've ever heard. Is someone at HP actually sitting with my tracking information and checking that my replacement is delivered so they can credit the difference back to me? Why charge me in the first place? None of this makes sense.

Can someone help me make sense of all this? If I'm waiting 2 more months for a laptop that was supposed to be in my hands today, AND I need to pay $150 extra for that privilege that I may need to spend hours on the phone trying to get a credit for again later, that just doesn't seem right to me.

[The_Fossette]

@Riggedveda

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