HP
Laptops

HP LAPTOP - and how to fight back...

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Like thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of people all over the web, I bought an HP laptop that went wrong.

It was returned, and not fixed properly. Then the staff were rude, hung up and thought it was funny to laugh at my pregnant wife getting exasperated with them. Finally ended up using the credit card company (well done Amex!) to dispute the charge as HP were in breach of contract by not honouring the guarantee. While I don't doubt that the customer service team are tasked with stalling complaints (so they fall outisde of warranty) I'm still really annoyed that they had to be so rude and ignorant.

So, how can you still fight back?

HP advertise heavily on Google and Yahoo. When you do a search for 'laptop' or 'computer' you'll generally see their adverts (Google calls them sponsored links, yahoo sponsored results). Now if you click on an HP link you'll cost them about £1 / $1.50 per click. Petty huh?

Well yes, but let's say 1000 people start to do this twice every single day, that's £730, 000 / $1, 100, 000 out of their marketing budget in a year. money that's just gone to waste. Even by myself I'll cost them about £730 a year (more than the cost of their poxy laptop).

Simply typle 'laptop' or other very generic consumer computer term into google, click on the sponsored link and browse around their site for 3 or 4 pages. (You can't simply repeat clicking, or click to their page and leave straight away - Google is a bit too smart and wont charge them for repeated clicks). Seriously that's all you need to do. Get into a routine, every time you log-in to facebook, or other regulalry visited site, don't forget to cost HP some money.

Even if you don't have the time to do this, rest assured HP, I'm doing this every single day, and grinning everytime I click through to your website.

Good luck with your own HP complaint and I hope this article helps you vent your anger slightly!

NB - As a complete aside, I bought an HP printer for a Mac about 15 years ago. It broke, I got in contact, it was replaced the SAME DAY. Wow! I told all my friends, and declared my loyalty to them. How did a company that was once so good, go to be such a shambles?